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Who we are

With research staff from more than 60 countries, and offices across the globe, IFPRI provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries.

researcher spotlight

Liangzhi You

Liangzhi You is a Senior Research Fellow and theme leader in the Foresight and Policy Modeling Unit, based in Washington, DC. His research focuses on climate resilience, spatial data and analytics, agroecosystems, and agricultural science policy. Gridded crop production data of the world (SPAM) and the agricultural technology evaluation model (DREAM) are among his research contributions. 

Where we work

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Where we work

IFPRI currently has more than 600 employees working in over 80 countries with a wide range of local, national, and international partners.

IFPRI Regional Programs

IFPRI Country Programs

Research by country and region

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partnerships

The CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH), led by IFPRI, is dedicated to improving agriculture development and nutrition among the global poor. A4NH helps realize the potential of agricultural development to deliver gender-equitable health and nutritional benefits to the poor. A4NH was created to help ensure that agricultural practices, interventions, and policies will maximize health and nutrition benefits, while also reducing health risks.

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Projects

Nudging for Good: A.I.-driven diagnostics and behavior change to improve diets and nutrition

Nudging for Good: A.I.-driven diagnostics and behavior change to improve diets and nutrition

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Operational Research for WFP’s Food assistance for Assets (FFA) Program in Sri Lanka

Operational Research for WFP’s Food assistance for Assets (FFA) Program in Sri Lanka

Background: The World Food Programme (WFP) and IFPRI have been collaborating for several years to increase the impacts of WFP’s programs on diet, nutrition and……

Applying New Evidence for Women’s Empowerment (ANEW)

Applying New Evidence for Women’s Empowerment (ANEW)

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Publications

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Working Paper

Consumer response to food safety risk information

2024Hoffmann, Vivian; Murphy, Mike; Kariuki, Sarah
Details

Consumer response to food safety risk information

Unsafe food imposes significant health and productivity burdens on developing countries. We test the impact of a simple information intervention through which low-income urban consumers in Kenya were provided information about the likelihood that maize flour from the formal and informal sector violated a food safety standard. We find a 42 percent increase in the share of households consuming the similarly priced, lower risk formal sector flour type at follow-up in the treatment group relative to the control group, from a base of 33 percent. The intervention was equally effective for households earning below and above the sample median income level. Our results demonstrate the potential for low-cost interventions to increase the salience of food safety as a product attribute in informal markets or where regulatory enforcement is weak.

Year published

2024

Authors

Hoffmann, Vivian; Murphy, Mike; Kariuki, Sarah

Citation

Hoffmann, Vivian; Murphy, Mike; and Kariuki, Sarah. 2024. Consumer response to food safety risk information. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2305. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.

Keywords

Consumers; Food Safety; Health; Households; Productivity

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

One Health

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Effectiveness of aflatoxin biocontrol: Evidence from Kenyan smallholders under varied levels of technical support

2024Kariuki, Sarah W.; Mohamed, Asha B.; Mutuku, Urbanus; Mutegi, Charity; Bandyopadhyay, Ranajit; Hoffmann, Vivian
Details

Effectiveness of aflatoxin biocontrol: Evidence from Kenyan smallholders under varied levels of technical support

Agricultural technologies shown to be highly effective in research trials often have a lower impact when utilized by smallholder farmers. Both heterogeneous returns and suboptimal application are believed to play a role in this efficacy gap. We provide experimental evidence on the impact of a biocontrol product for the control of aflatoxin, a carcinogenic fungal byproduct, as applied by smallholder farmers in Kenya. By varying the level of external support across farmers, we investigate the role of misapplication in the effectiveness gap. We find that the provision of biocontrol together with a one-time training on application reduces aflatoxin contamination in maize relative to a control group by 34 percent. Additional training to the farmers in the form of a call to remind them of the correct time of application in the crop cycle increases the reduction to 52 percent. Our findings indicate that farmers can achieve meaningful improvements in food safety using biocontrol even with minimal training on its use and that additional support at the recommended time of application can strengthen its impact.

Year published

2024

Authors

Kariuki, Sarah W.; Mohamed, Asha B.; Mutuku, Urbanus; Mutegi, Charity; Bandyopadhyay, Ranajit; Hoffmann, Vivian

Citation

Kariuki, Sarah W.; Mohamed, Asha B.; Mutuku, Urbanus; Mutegi, Charity; Bandyopadhyay, Ranajit; and Hoffmann, Vivian. 2014. Effectiveness of aflatoxin biocontrol: Evidence from Kenyan smallholders under varied levels of technical support. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2304. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.

Country/Region

Kenya

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Food Safety; Aflatoxins; Impact Assessment; Agricultural Technology; Smallholders; Training; Maize; Crops

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

One Health

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Can gender- and nutrition-sensitive agricultural programs improve resilience? Medium-term impacts of an intervention in Bangladesh

2023Hoddinott, John; Ahmed, Akhter; Quisumbing, Agnes R.; Rakshit, Deboleena
Details

Can gender- and nutrition-sensitive agricultural programs improve resilience? Medium-term impacts of an intervention in Bangladesh

There are few studies that rigorously assess how agricultural and nutrition related interventions enhance resilience and even fewer that incorporate a gendered dimension in their analysis. Mindful of this, we address three knowledge gaps: (1) Whether agricultural interventions aimed at diversifying income sources and improving nutrition have sustainable impacts (on asset bases, consumption, gender-specific outcomes and women’s empowerment, and on diets) that persist after the intervention ends; (2) whether such interventions are protective when shocks occur? and (3) whether these interventions promote gender-sensitive resilience. We answer these questions using unique data, a four-year post-endline follow up survey of households from a cluster-randomized controlled trial of a nutrition-and-gender-sensitive agricultural intervention in Bangladesh. We find that treatment arms that included both agriculture and nutrition training had sustainable effects on real per capita consumption, women’s empowerment (as measured by the pro-WEAI), and asset holdings measured four years after the original intervention ended. Treatment arms that included both agriculture and nutrition training (with or without gender sensitization) reduced the likelihood that households undertook more severe forms of coping strategies and reduced the likelihood that household per capita consumption fell, in real terms, by more than five percent between in the four years following the end of the intervention. The treatment arm that only provided training in agriculture had positive impacts at endline but these had largely faded away four years later. Our results suggest that bundling nutrition and agriculture training may contribute to resilience as well as to sustained impacts on consumption, women’s empowerment, and asset holdings in the medium term. These have implications for the design of future gender- and nutrition-sensitive agricultural programs.

Year published

2023

Authors

Hoddinott, John; Ahmed, Akhter; Quisumbing, Agnes R.; Rakshit, Deboleena

Citation

Hoddinott, John; Ahmed, Akhter; Quisumbing, Agnes R.; and Rakshit, Deboleena. 2023. Can gender- and nutrition-sensitive agricultural programs improve resilience? Medium-term impacts of an intervention in Bangladesh. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2231. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

Country/Region

Bangladesh

Keywords

Southern Asia; Resilience; Agriculture; Nutrition; Gender; Women’s Empowerment

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137085 Source record

Project

Gender Equality

Record type

Working Paper

Events

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: Reflections from a Career in Research for Development
IFPRI Policy Seminar

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November 22, 2021, 9:30 – 11:00 am

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: Reflections from a Career in Research for Development

Virtual Event: Nov 22, 2021 – 09:30 AM to 11:00 AM EST. This special event will present experiences and insights gained over four decades of research, including reflections on academia and development in Africa. 

Food systems lessons from COVID-19: From understanding fragilities to building resilience
IFPRI Policy Seminar

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March 2, 2021, 9:30 – 11:00 am

Food systems lessons from COVID-19: From understanding fragilities to building resilience

COVID-19’s impacts on our global food system have affected the food security and nutritional wellbeing of millions of people worldwide, with market closures, supply disruptions, and income and employment losses. Understanding the extent and nature of these impacts will be critical to building resilience to future shocks. At this seminar, researchers from the CGIAR COVID-19 Hub […]

Virtual Event - COVID-19’s Short-term Impacts on Economies, Food Systems and Poverty in African and Asian Countries: Economywide Estimates from Economywide Models
IFPRI Policy Seminar

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August 11, 2020, 9:30 – 10:45 am

Virtual Event – COVID-19’s Short-term Impacts on Economies, Food Systems and Poverty in African and Asian Countries: Economywide Estimates from Economywide Models

Using economywide models, presenters discuss the varied effects of different policies and economic structures on food systems and poverty during COVID-19 in Nigeria, Myanmar, and Sudan.
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Blogs

World Food Safety Day 2024: Empowering consumers and small businesses with information
IFPRI Blog
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June 06, 2024

World Food Safety Day 2024: Empowering consumers and small businesses with information

By Vivian Hoffmann

Targeting interventions to benefit public health.

Adapt, assess, progress: Integrating measures of women’s empowerment into rural development projects
IFPRI Blog
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May 13, 2024

Adapt, assess, progress: Integrating measures of women’s empowerment into rural development projects

By Carlo Azzarri, Sedi-Anne Boukaka, Jessica Heckert, Ruth Meinzen-Dick, Greg Seymour, and Sara Savastano

A new tool developed by IFPRI and IFAD.

Introducing the Women’s Empowerment Metric for National Statistical Systems (WEMNS)
IFPRI Blog
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October 13, 2023

Introducing the Women’s Empowerment Metric for National Statistical Systems (WEMNS)

By Emily Myers, Jessica Heckert, Ruth Meinzen-Dick, Hazel Malapit, Greg Seymour, and Agnes Quisumbing

A new tool to address the gender data gap in agricultural development.

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