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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

Emily Schmidt

Emily Schmidt is a Senior Research Fellow in the Development Strategies and Governance Unit. Her most recent research explores household livelihood strategies in Papua New Guinea, including linkages between agriculture, poverty, and nutrition outcomes among rural smallholder farmers.

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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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Natural Resources and Resilience

Wei Zhang

Senior Research Fellow

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Bio

Wei Zhang is a Senior Research Fellow and Research Lead on Ecosystem Health and Biodiversity in the Natural Resources and Resilience Unit, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). She is the co-lead of the CGIAR Research Initiative on Low-Emission Food Systems (Mitigate+) and leader of Work Package on Living Labs for People (2022-2024). Wei conducts policy-relevant research on the intersection between agriculture, development, nature/environment, and climate change. Her research interests include the economics and behavior of ecosystem service management and biodiversity conservation, natural resource governance, nature-based/nature-positive solutions, participatory action research, and behavioral experiments (games) for experiential learning, with gender and climate change as cross-cutting issues. Wei has extensive experience leading and implementing multidisciplinary research projects in Africa, South Asia, East and Southeastern Asia, and Latin America, and supporting national partners in capacity strengthening. She has also contributed to global research initiatives, such as TEEB for Agriculture and Food, and working groups, such as SESYNC and SNAPP.

Prior to joining IFPRI, Wei worked in the Environment Department, the World Bank, on payment for environmental services. Wei earned a PhD in Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics at Michigan State University with a specialization in Environmental and Resource Economics. She has an MA in Community Development and Applied Economics from the University of Vermont and a BA in International Economics from Renmin University of China.

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Publications

Resource thumbnail

Journal Article

Understanding pastoralist adaptations to drought via games and choice experiments: Field testing among Borana communities

2025Bell, Andrew Reid; Rakotonarivo, O. Sarobidy; Zhang, Wei; De Petris, Caterina; Kipchumba, Adams; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.
Details

Understanding pastoralist adaptations to drought via games and choice experiments: Field testing among Borana communities

Transhumant and nomadic pastoralism in arid and semi-arid spaces from West through Central, East, and Southern Africa is regarded as critical to regional system resilience and food security. Although pastoral systems are highly adapted and adaptive to uncertainty and change, recent decades of severe climatic events and increasing resource pressure are pushing pastoral systems to adopt novel norms and practices. Importantly, forage residue conservation and private forage enclosures are becoming important practices among herders and non-herders alike. As one part of considering the relevance of these responses in shaping the future trajectory of transhumant pastoralism, we developed a multi-part intervention for measuring and observing preferences in pastoral systems, including a novel experimental game called GreenReserve, and tested it in Borana communities in northern Kenya. We found that GreenReserve captured dimensions of human-environment dilemmas faced by pastoralists, and shifted preferences around herd size, losses, and the use of time, as measured through a repeated discrete choice experiment. We found game groups with younger players and with more female players to include more exploration of pastoral adaptations such as the use of grass reserves and the harvesting of grass, as well as to have less conflict within the game. We also observed both preferences as well as game strategy to shift along the length of the study: as the region moved further into a drought and failed short rainy season, players were more conscious of large herds, bad rainfall-year losses, and made better use of reserves in game play, though it was beyond the scope of the current study to determine causality. Future research is needed to unpack the mechanisms underlying the variations and possible shift in preferences and subsequently help identify entry points for targeted interventions (including agricultural extension services) to support pastoral communities in climate change adaptation. Further, these first fieldwork findings suggest two key dimensions for expanded work beyond this study to identify whether mixed methods approaches such as this aid experiential learning in agriculture contexts.

Year published

2025

Authors

Bell, Andrew Reid; Rakotonarivo, O. Sarobidy; Zhang, Wei; De Petris, Caterina; Kipchumba, Adams; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.

Citation

Bell, Andrew Reid; Rakotonarivo, O. Sarobidy; Zhang, Wei; De Petris, Caterina; Kipchumba, Adams; and Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S. 2025. Understanding pastoralist adaptations to drought via games and choice experiments: Field testing among Borana communities. Ecology and Society 30(1): 25. https://doi.org/10.5751/ES-15836-300125

Country/Region

Kenya

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Pastoralists; Drought; Food Security; Experiential Learning; Climate Change Adaptation; Climate Change

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.5751/es-15836-300125 Source record

Project

Low-Emission Food Systems

Record type

Journal Article

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Journal Article

Impact of farm size on the function of landscape-level payments for ecosystem services: An agent-based model study

2025Wu, Vince; Bell, Andrew Reid; Zhang, Wei
Details

Impact of farm size on the function of landscape-level payments for ecosystem services: An agent-based model study

Reducing pesticide use and restoring biodiversity are among the most pressing environmental challenges. Enhancing natural pest control ecosystem services through the integration of non-crop habitats (NCH) offers promising potential, creating a positive feedback loop by harnessing insect biodiversity to reduce pesticide reliance. Policy support is needed at the landscape level to encourage adoption of this currently underutilized approach, which depends on spatial coordination and collective behavioral change. Farm size, which critically influences farmers’ agrochemical inputs, agroecological practices, and interactions with neighboring farms, varies across agricultural landscapes. It is unclear what role farm size plays in landscape-scale agri-environmental incentive programs, which have recently seen growing attention in scientific research and policy implementation. We employ framed field games and agent-based modeling as complementary research tools, exploring how farm size impacts the function of landscape-scale NCH subsidies aimed at encouraging coordinated provision and sharing of natural pest control services to reduce pesticide use. Our model simulation shows that, in landscapes of larger average farm size or lower farm size heterogeneity, NCH subsidies are significantly more effective at reducing pesticide use and increasing NCH efficiency in providing joint production benefits. Our results imply that landscape-scale payments for natural pest control ecosystem services face fewer obstacles as incentive-based mechanisms in landscapes of larger, more homogeneous farms, supporting the implementation of landscape-scale initiatives in such areas to effectively enhance ecosystem services. Our findings contribute to the growing discussion around landscape-level financial incentive programs that depend on spatial coordination, highlighting the importance of farmers’ land holding size.

Year published

2025

Authors

Wu, Vince; Bell, Andrew Reid; Zhang, Wei

Citation

Wu, Vince; Bell, Andrew Reid; and Zhang, Wei. Impact of farm size on the function of landscape-level payments for ecosystem services: An agent-based model study. Environmental Research: Communications. Article in press. First published online March 7, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7620/adbe2a

Keywords

Agent-based Models; Ecosystems; Farm Size; Landscape

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1088/2515-7620/adbe2a Source record

Project

Nature-Positive Solutions

Record type

Journal Article

Resource thumbnail

Working Paper

Why do multistakeholder processes emerge and flourish? Identifying and operationalizing the leading hypotheses

2024Andersson, Krister; Nehring, Ryan; Zhang, Wei; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.
Details

Why do multistakeholder processes emerge and flourish? Identifying and operationalizing the leading hypotheses

The literature on Multistakeholder Processes (MSPs) includes several studies that seek to specify the conditions under which MSPs perform well and deliver tangible governance improvements that would otherwise not happen. This is important research as MSPs are gaining popularity as an alternative to more traditional governance strategies, such as centralized, government-led activities. MSPs are often proposed in institutional settings where formal governance institutions are perceived to be ineffective or inequitable. In principle, studies that explain variation in MSP outcomes have the potential to inform MSP organizers and their decisions about how to organize their future MSPs in ways that save resources and improve outcomes. However, the existing MSP research programs demonstrate at least three limitations: First, the literature is characterized by the production of long lists of potential determinants of MSP performance, which makes it challenging for researchers to offer practical advice as to which of these factors is most important for MSP organizers to address first, and under which contextual conditions. Second, there is little agreement among scholars about what the core elements of a well-functioning MSP are, which elements affect mostly the emergence vis-à-vis effectiveness, and it is rare that studies specify which conditions or factors are essential and which may be helpful but not critical ingredients of success. Third, there is a dearth of theory-driven research that uses causal inference methods to test the theoretical propositions, which means that it is difficult to assess the quality of evidence in literature’s existing, mostly descriptive analyses. To advance knowledge about the emergence and flourishing of MSPs, and move beyond the production of long lists of associative success factors, there is an urgent need for researchers to come together in a community of practice to address the noted shortcomings. The Community of Practice will also promote the development of new and innovative ways of conducting MSP work, which will enable researchers to improve outcomes in terms of both cost-effectiveness and equity. In this paper, we review and synthesize the leading hypotheses on MSP emergence and effectiveness, develop a theoretical framework that captures the leading hypotheses, and discuss the viability of employing causal inference methods to test new hypotheses related to the emergence and flourishing of MSPs. We conclude by outlining the contours of a community of practice and how it can help advance MSP scholarship.

Year published

2024

Authors

Andersson, Krister; Nehring, Ryan; Zhang, Wei; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.

Citation

Andersson, Krister; Nehring, Ryan; Zhang, Wei; and Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S. 2024. Why do multistakeholder processes emerge and flourish? Identifying and operationalizing the leading hypotheses. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2312. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/168720

Keywords

Stakeholders; Fora; Research

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Low-Emission Food Systems

Record type

Working Paper

Blogs

From space to soil: Advancing crop mapping and ecosystem insights for smallholder agriculture in Kenya
IFPRI Blog
 | 
December 31, 2024

From space to soil: Advancing crop mapping and ecosystem insights for smallholder agriculture in Kenya

By Zhe Guo, Upeksha Hettiarachchi, and Wei Zhang

Using machine learning to track land use.

Enhancing groundwater governance through experimental games in Ghana
IFPRI Blog
 | 
August 22, 2023

Enhancing groundwater governance through experimental games in Ghana

By Emmanuel Obuobie, Claudia Ringler, Hagar El Didi, and Wei Zhang

Developing the tools of resource management.

Earth Day 2023: Empowering local communities as stewards of Earth’s freshwater resources
IFPRI Blog
 | 
April 21, 2023

Earth Day 2023: Empowering local communities as stewards of Earth’s freshwater resources

By Wei Zhang and Ruth Meinzen-Dick

Advantages of Community-Based Conservation.

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Events

IFPRI @ CGIAR Science Week
IFPRI at External Event

 | 

April 7 to 12, 2025

IFPRI @ CGIAR Science Week

When humanity has faced its greatest challenges, science and innovation have provided solutions. Today, major and connected global challenges threaten the sustainability of food, land, and water systems, with the most vulnerable people and communities at greatest risk. Recognizing the urgency of these challenges, CGIAR and the Kenyan Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) are […]

Against the grain: Could farmers feed the world and heal the planet?
Series/Special Event

 | 

August 27, 2024, 9:30 – 11:00 am

Against the grain: Could farmers feed the world and heal the planet?

Humanity relies on agriculture to provide nourishment, yet there is an urgent need to reduce the agricultural sector’s environmental footprint. Meeting these two goals is crucial for both people and the planet to thrive. Please join us for a conversation featuring Roger Thurow, award-winning author and journalist, whose recently released book argues it is possible […]

32nd International Conference of Agricultural Economists
IFPRI at External Event

 | 

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 […]

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News

November 11, 2019 | In the News

Diversification promotes sustainable development of agriculture

ScienceNet (China) reported on an international research team of more than 100 experts including IFPRI researchers who confirmed the benefits of biodiversity for agricultural development. Senior Research Fellow Wei Zhang explained that different relationships between biodiversity and ecosystem services are determined by the relative importance of species & how they complement each other, the abundance […]

March 06, 2019 | In the News

Act fast to halt the declining insect numbers (SciDev)

Wei Zhang explains how and why researchers, development practitioners, and policy makers should act to stop dramatically declining insect numbers and protect natural habitats.

August 21, 2018 | In the News

Natural Enemy Insects Add Value to Green Production (China Science Daily)

China Science Daily amplified findings by IFPRI’s Research Fellow, Wei Zhang, regarding the economic benefit Ladybugs have on cotton farmers.  Zhang argued in her research paper that Ladybugs are a natural pest control, and that consistent use of pesticides undermine farmers’ profitability. 

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