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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

Agnes Quisumbing

Agnes Quisumbing is a Senior Research Fellow in the Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion Unit. She co-leads a research program that examines how closing the gap between men’s and women’s ownership and control of assets may lead to better development outcomes.

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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.

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The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), a membership union, is dedicated to the conservation of nature by providing public, private and non-governmental organizations with the knowledge and tools that enable human progress, economic development, and nature conservation. Made up of both government and civil society organizations, IUCN is the world’s largest and most diverse environmental network. The IUCN includes six commissions dedicated to species survival, environmental law, protected areas, social and economic policy, ecosystem management, and education and communication.

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Publications

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Report

Impacts of Africa RISING in Malawi

2024Haile, Beliyou; Azzarri, Carlo; Boukaka, Sedi-Anne; Chikowo, Regis; Vitellozzi, Sveva
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Impacts of Africa RISING in Malawi

This study evaluates the impact of Africa RISING, a large-scale sustainable intensification (SI) program that has been implemented in Central Malawi’s Dedza and Ntcheu districts beginning in 2012. Using a participatory action research framework, the program validated and promoted alternative SI options including fertilized maize, maize-legume intercropping, intercropping of two compatible legumes, cereal-legume rotation, and double-row planting of legumes. Impact is estimated on several SI indicators and domains using two rounds of panel data and difference-in-differences techniques. The unique study design allowed us to estimate impact by comparing outcomes among program beneficiaries with two different counterfactual groups—one located inside program villages (within village comparison) and another in non-program (control) villages (out-of-village comparison). We also conduct a placebo test comparing non-beneficiaries in the two counterfactual groups. The within-village comparison shows positive impact on several agricultural and economic indicators including access to agricultural information, value of harvest, on-farm diversity, labor profitability, annual net household income, per capita household consumption expenditure, household wealth, and household dietary diversity score. We do not find a statistically significant impact on human indicators such as child and maternal nutrition. Estimates based on within-village, out-of-village, and placebo comparisons suggest important insights about the challenges in assessing the impact of agricultural programs in general and, specifically, participatory multi-intervention programs in the presence of sample (self-)selection and spillovers. Our study highlights important lessons learned to inform future program design and impact assessments.

Year published

2024

Authors

Haile, Beliyou; Azzarri, Carlo; Boukaka, Sedi-Anne; Chikowo, Regis; Vitellozzi, Sveva

Citation

Haile, Beliyou; Azzarri, Carlo; Boukaka, Sedi-Anne; Chikowo, Regis; and Vitellozzi, Sveva. 2024. Impacts of Africa RISING in Malawi. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148699

Country/Region

Malawi

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Sustainability; Intensification; Agriculture; Maize; Legumes; Indicators; Income; Nutrition

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Record type

Report

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Report

Impacts of Africa RISING in Mali

2024Haile, Beliyou; Azzarri, Carlo; Boukaka, Sedi-Anne; Tzintzun, Ivan; Vitellozzi, Sveva
Details

Impacts of Africa RISING in Mali

This study evaluates the impact of Africa RISING, a sustainable intensification (SI) program, implemented in Bougouni, Yanfolila, and Koutiala cercles in southern Mali beginning in 2012. Using a participatory action research framework, the program validated and promoted alternative SI options including fertilized groundnut and sorghum, crop-legume intercropping, intercropping of two compatible legumes, access to extension services, and fertilizer microdosing, while preserving ecosystem services in the face of projected population growth and climatic changes. Impact is estimated on several SI indicators and domains using two rounds of quasi-experimental panel data (surveys conducted in 2014 and 2022) and difference-in-differences techniques. The unique study design allows us to estimate the impact of Africa RISING by comparing outcomes among program beneficiaries with two different counterfactual groups—one located inside program villages (within-village comparison) and another in non-program (control) villages (out-of-village comparison) on several indicators across five SI domains—environment, productivity, economic, human, and social. We also conduct a placebo test comparing non-beneficiaries in the two counterfactual groups. We find few statistically significant differences in the averages of the characteristics in the environmental and productivity domain among households in the within-village and out-of-village comparisons, most likely because of misreporting of program participation. Overall comparisons between households in target and non-target villages show a positive impact of AR on environmental variables such as access to extension services, and adoption of improved crops; on productivity variables such as green bean, cotton and okra yield; and on economic variables such as an increase in the non-agricultural wealth index; but no statistically significant effect on human and social indicators, namely household dietary diversity, food consumption scores, and nutritional indicators for children 0–59 months old and women 15–49 years old. Estimates based on within-village, out-of-village, and placebo comparisons suggest important insights about the challenges in assessing the impact of agricultural programs in general and, specifically, participatory multi-intervention programs in the presence of sample (self-)selection and spillovers. Our study highlights useful empirical lessons learned to inform future program design and impact assessments.

Year published

2024

Authors

Haile, Beliyou; Azzarri, Carlo; Boukaka, Sedi-Anne; Tzintzun, Ivan; Vitellozzi, Sveva

Citation

Haile, Beliyou; Azzarri, Carlo; Boukaka, Sedi-Anne; Tzintzun, Ivan; and Vitellozzi, Sveva. Impacts of Africa RISING in Mali. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148698

Country/Region

Mali

Keywords

Africa; Western Africa; Sustainability; Groundnuts; Sorghum; Legumes; Agricultural Extension; Fertilizers; Ecosystem Services; Agriculture; Agricultural Productivity; Income

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Record type

Report

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Working Paper

Agricultural mechanization policy options in Rwanda

2024Takeshima, Hiroyuki; Benimana, Gilberthe; Spielman, David J.; Warner, James
Details

Agricultural mechanization policy options in Rwanda

This paper summarizes general demand- and supply-side issues for agricultural mechanization based on recent studies that focus on experiences and evidence from both Africa and Asia. The paper pro vides typologies of agricultural mechanization in Rwanda along with policy options within the context of its current mechanization support strategies. Provincial variations in agroecology and cropping systems, irrigated/rainfed systems, farm size, and labor use intensity, among other factors, characterize the key types of mechanization use in Rwanda. Support for mechanization in Rwanda can be broadly tailored to (a) irrigated medium-scale farmers in the Eastern province and Kigali; (b) rainfed medium-scale farmers in the Eastern and Southern provinces; (c) rainfed, small-scale highland farmers in the Northern province; and (d) irrigated small-scale farmers in the Western province. Recent experiences in other countries with rugged terrain and smallholder farming systems similar to Rwanda suggest that significant growth in the use of tractors is possible in the medium term among smallholders cultivating rainfed maize and legumes, in addition to irrigated rice. However, farm wages may still be too low in Rwanda and tractor-hiring fees may still be too high to induce a shift to mechanization in the short term. Therefore, it may be advisable for policy support for mechanization to focus on improving the understanding of mechanization needs among each type of farmers identified, knowledge of suitable machines, and required skills for their operations and maintenance. Such efforts should also balance the need to develop competitive markets and supply networks for promising machines, parts, and repair services at a viable and integrated market scale.

Year published

2024

Authors

Takeshima, Hiroyuki; Benimana, Gilberthe; Spielman, David J.; Warner, James

Citation

Takeshima, Hiroyuki; Benimana, Gilberthe; Spielman, David J.; and Warner, James. 2024. Agricultural mechanization policy options in Rwanda. Rwanda SSP Working Paper 9. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/141685

Country/Region

Rwanda

Keywords

Africa; Supply Balance; Agricultural Mechanization; Irrigation; Farm Size; Smallholders; Tractors; Income

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper