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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

Carlo Azzarri

Carlo Azzarri is a Senior Research Fellow in the Innovation Policy and Scaling Unit. His work focuses on the relationships among poverty, nutrition, food security, agriculture, the environment, production, and migration—analyzed at both micro and macroeconomic levels, primarily using quantitative methods.

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Since 1975, IFPRI’s research has been informing policies and development programs to improve food security, nutrition, and livelihoods around the world.

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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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experts

Innovation Policy and Scaling

Bjorn Van Campenhout

Research Fellow

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Bio

Bjorn Van Campenhout is a Research Fellow in the Innovation Policy and Scaling Unit. He is also an Associate Research Fellow at the LICOS Centre for Institutions and Economic Performance of the KU Leuven, Belgium.  His research focuses on smallholder agriculture, especially in East Africa. He has published on food market integration and smallholder market participation. Recently, he has been investigating the potential of information and communication technologies (ICT) to make agricultural extension more inclusive and effective. He earned a PhD from KU Leuven, Belgium.

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Publications

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Working Paper

Production and consumption traits and the adoption of improved maize varieties: Evidence from seed sample packs and cooking demonstrations

2025Van Campenhout, Bjorn; Nabwire, Leocardia; Kramer, Berber; Trachtman, Carly; Abate, Gashaw T.
Details

Production and consumption traits and the adoption of improved maize varieties: Evidence from seed sample packs and cooking demonstrations

In developing countries, semi-subsistence farmers typically assume dual roles as both consumers and producers of the same crops, which shape their adoption decisions as they balance household food security with market-driven incentives. This study, conducted in eastern Uganda, employs a field experiment with two intervention arms to assess the relative importance of these factors in farmers’ decisions to adopt improved maize seed varieties. The first intervention focuses on production traits, distributing free sample packs of an improved hybrid maize variety to showcase benefits such as higher yields, pest resistance, and drought tolerance. The second intervention emphasizes consumption traits, offering cooking demonstrations and blind taste tests using flour from the same improved maize variety to highlight its taste, texture, and ease of preparation. Our findings reveal that while seed sample packs positively influenced farmers’ perceptions of both production and consumption traits, cooking demonstrations primarily affected perceptions of consumption qualities. We find some evidence that the cooking demonstrations and tasting sessions significantly boosted adoption of the improved maize seed variety promoted by the intervention. However, farmers who received seed sample packs tended to recycle the harvested grain as seed in subsequent seasons, thereby crowding out fresh seed purchases. This practice led to productivity losses, suggesting that the seed trial packs did not translate into lasting improvements in food security or increased market participation.

Year published

2025

Authors

Van Campenhout, Bjorn; Nabwire, Leocardia; Kramer, Berber; Trachtman, Carly; Abate, Gashaw T.

Citation

Van Campenhout, Bjorn; Nabwire, Leocardia; Kramer, Berber; Trachtman, Carly; and Abate, Gashaw T. 2025. Production and consumption traits and the adoption of improved maize varieties: Evidence from seed sample packs and cooking demonstrations. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2331. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/173943

Country/Region

Uganda

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Technology Adoption; Consumption; Cooking; Maize

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Seed Equal

Record type

Working Paper

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Brief

Conditional contracts in indirect local procurement of maize from smallholder farmers in Uganda: A study design to assess impacts

2025Raghunathan, Kalyani; Abate, Gashaw T.; Van Campenhout, Bjorn; Nabwire, Leocardia; Mukangabo, Emerence; Mugabo, Serge; Benin, Samuel
Details

Conditional contracts in indirect local procurement of maize from smallholder farmers in Uganda: A study design to assess impacts

Improving smallholder farmers’ access to reliable markets can have significant impacts on their wellbeing, income, poverty reduction, dietary diversity, and rural economic growth. As the choice of marketing channels may influence outcomes differently depending on the context, a key issue is understanding the effectiveness of different marketing instruments. One such modality is a conditional contract between a buyer and the traders supplying it. Such a contract requires traders to source a certain percentage of their supplies directly from smallholder farmers. This raises the question of whether conditional contracts create access to reliable markets for smallholder farmers, result in value chain transformation, and sustain market engagement between traders and smallholder farmers.

Year published

2025

Authors

Raghunathan, Kalyani; Abate, Gashaw T.; Van Campenhout, Bjorn; Nabwire, Leocardia; Mukangabo, Emerence; Mugabo, Serge; Benin, Samuel

Citation

Raghunathan, Kalyani; Abate, Gashaw T.; Van Campenhout, Bjorn; Nabwire, Leocardia; Mukangabo, Emerence; Mugabo, Serge; and Benin, Samuel. 2025. Conditional contracts in indirect local procurement of maize from smallholder farmers in Uganda: A study design to assess impacts. SFS4Youth Project Note 2. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/172818

Country/Region

Uganda

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Contracts; Maize; Smallholders; Value Chains

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Record type

Brief

Resource thumbnail

Journal Article

Miracle seeds: Biased expectations, complementary input use, and the dynamics of smallholder technology adoption

2025Miehe, Caroline; Nabwire, Leocardia; Sparrow, Robert; Spielman, David J.; Van Campenhout, Bjorn
Details

Miracle seeds: Biased expectations, complementary input use, and the dynamics of smallholder technology adoption

To fully benefit from new agricultural technologies like improved seed varieties, significant investment in complementary inputs such as fertilizers and pesticides, and practices such as systematic planting, irrigation, and weeding are also required. Farmers may fail to recognize the importance of these complements, leading to disappointing crop yields and outputs and, eventually, dis-adoption of the improved variety. Using a field experiment, we test an information intervention among smallholder maize farmers in eastern Uganda that points out these complementarities. We find that farmers adopt less after they have been sensitized about the need to use complementary inputs to unlock the adoption premium. We rationalize this finding with a simple theoretical model where farmers have mis-specified mental models of the technology production function and conclude that most farmers in our sample do indeed believe in miracle seeds.

Year published

2025

Authors

Miehe, Caroline; Nabwire, Leocardia; Sparrow, Robert; Spielman, David J.; Van Campenhout, Bjorn

Citation

Miehe, Caroline; Nabwire, Leocardia; Sparrow, Robert; Spielman, David J.; and Van Campenhout, Bjorn. Miracle seeds: Biased expectations, complementary input use, and the dynamics of smallholder technology adoption. Economic Development and Cultural Change. Article in press. First available online March 13, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1086/735822

Country/Region

Uganda

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Agricultural Technology; Fertilizers; Pesticides; Seed Systems

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.1086/735822 Source record

Project

Seed Equal

Record type

Journal Article

Blogs

Enhancing milk quality in Uganda: Challenges and innovations in the dairy value chain
IFPRI Blog
 | 
September 09, 2024

Enhancing milk quality in Uganda: Challenges and innovations in the dairy value chain

By Richard Ariong, Bjorn Van Campenhout, Sarah W. Kariuki, and Jordan Chamberlin

Improving market incentives.

Behavioral explanations for the sell-low-buy-high puzzle in smallholder market participation: Lessons from a field experiment in Malawi
IFPRI Blog
 | 
July 22, 2024

Behavioral explanations for the sell-low-buy-high puzzle in smallholder market participation: Lessons from a field experiment in Malawi

By Joachim De Weerdt, Brian Dillon, Emmanuel Hami, Bjorn Van Campenhout, and Leocardia Nabwire

Our study tested two behavioral interventions—budgeting and sales planning—to understand and mitigate this paradox.

Gender bias in bargaining: Lessons from haggling over the price of seed in rural Uganda
IFPRI Blog
 | 
January 04, 2024

Gender bias in bargaining: Lessons from haggling over the price of seed in rural Uganda

By Bjorn Van Campenhout and Leocardia Nabwire

An experiment shows women face disadvantages.

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Events

32nd International Conference of Agricultural Economists
IFPRI at External Event

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August 2 to 7, 2024

32nd International Conference of Agricultural Economists

The triennial International Conference of Agricultural Economists (ICAE-2024), centred on the theme “Transformation Towards Sustainable Agri-Food Systems” is scheduled from August 2-7, 2024, in New Delhi, India. The conference offers a distinctive platform, providing a golden opportunity for the agricultural academic institutions and researchers to convene in person, exchange knowledge, and actively contribute to the […]

31st International Conference of Agricultural Economists (ICAE)
IFPRI at External Event

 | 

August 17 to 31, 2021

31st International Conference of Agricultural Economists (ICAE)

Virtual Event: AUG 17, 2021 – 08:00 AM to AUG 31, 2021 08:00 PM EDT. IFPRI is participating in the 31st Conference of Agriculture Economists organized by the International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE). 

American Economic Association Allied Social Science Associations (ASSA) 2021 Annual Meeting
IFPRI at External Event

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January 3 to 5, 2021

American Economic Association Allied Social Science Associations (ASSA) 2021 Annual Meeting

IFPRI is participating in the American Economic Association (AEA) Allied Social Science Associations (ASSA) 2021 Annual Meeting on January 3-5, 2021.  ASSA provides opportunities to share, collaborate, and learn about the latest research emerging in the field. Name Title Date Time Bjorn Van Campenhout INVITED POSTER SESSION Community Advocacy Forums and Public Service Delivery – Impact, and the Role of […]

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