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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

Kalyani Raghunathan

Kalyani Raghunathan is Research Fellow in the Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion Unit, based in New Delhi, India. Her research lies at the intersection of agriculture, gender, social protection, and public health and nutrition, with a specific focus on South Asia and Africa. 

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IFPRI Publications: Discussion Papers

Explore Our Latest Discussion Papers

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Working Paper

Adapting to climate change: The case of saline tolerant seed varieties in coastal Bangladesh

2024Pal, Barun Deb; Kapoor, Shreya; Rashid, Shahidur
Details

Adapting to climate change: The case of saline tolerant seed varieties in coastal Bangladesh

Salt water intrusion and rising soil salnity are threatening food and livelihood security of paddy farmers in coastal Bangladesh. Visible manifestations of these challenges are degraded soils and chronic decline in tradtional farming, as it is becoming an increasingly infeasible means of livelihood. Promoting saline-tolerant paddy varieties (STRV) has been one of the major focuses of the Bangladesh Rice Research Institute (BRRI) and the attention to the problem has been intensified in recent years through a partnerhsip with a consortium of CGIAR centers. Howewer, robust empirical analysis has hitherto been limited. Using farm level data, this paper analyzes the determinants and impacts of the adopting these new varieties. We use a multi-variate logit model to identify the constraints to adoption, and Propensity Score Matching (PSM) and Endogeneous Switching Regression methods to assess the impacts on yeilds, and net income of the paddy farmers. Results show that adopting saline-tolerant rice varieties raises crop yield by an average of 1 to 2 tons per hectare, equivalent to a net income increase of about US$100 per hectare of cultivated land. Yet, adoption rates remain low due to several institutional constraints and perhaps a lack of nudging farmers in the scaling up strategies. Robustness of the results are tested, and the implications are discussed.

Year published

2024

Authors

Pal, Barun Deb; Kapoor, Shreya; Rashid, Shahidur

Citation

Pal, Barun Deb; Kapoor, Shreya; and Rashid, Shahidur. 2024. Adapting to climate change: The case of saline tolerant seed varieties in coastal Bangladesh. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2291. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.

Country/Region

Bangladesh

Keywords

Asia; Southern Asia; Climate Change Adaptation; Impact; Livelihoods; Saltwater Intrusion; Rice; Seeds; Soil; Technology Adoption

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Foresight

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Gendered drivers of varietal turnover: A qualitative assessment for improved teff and wheat varieties in Ethiopia

2024Yami, Mastewal; Cavicchioli, Martina; Abate, Gashaw T.; Kramer, Berber
Details

Gendered drivers of varietal turnover: A qualitative assessment for improved teff and wheat varieties in Ethiopia

Limited adoption of agricultural technologies such as improved crop varieties has been a challenge for increasing crop productivity in low-income countries. We study drivers of varietal turnover by conducting gender-disaggregated focus group discussions and semi-structured interviews with teff and wheat farmers, and key informant interviews with public and private seed actors, in the Amhara region of Ethiopia. We find that attributes specific not only to production and sales, but also to processing and consumption (such as color, texture, moisture, and taste) are key drivers for varietal uptake among both men and women farmers. In relative terms, processing and consumption attributes are more important to women than men farmers. Gender and social status are usually linked to access to resources (such as inputs or information about newly released varieties) that could become an important driver of uptake. Women’s and men’s prior experiences with improved varieties also influence adoption. For instance, farmers that experience crop losses when using new varieties during a drought reportedly become more risk averse in future decisions to adopt new improved varieties. Overall, the findings imply the need to adopt seed development and marketing strategies that pay close attention to the preferences of both producers and consumers, such as considering the importance of consumption attributes (e.g., not altering local recipes) and encouraging farmers to first experiment with new varieties on parts of their plots before adopting at scale or providing a risk management tool (e.g., insurance) that can protect farmers from potential risks associated with new technologies.

Year published

2024

Authors

Yami, Mastewal; Cavicchioli, Martina; Abate, Gashaw T.; Kramer, Berber

Citation

Yami, Mastewal; Cavicchioli, Martina; Abate, Gashaw T.; and Kramer, Berber. 2024. Gendered drivers of varietal turnover: A qualitative assessment for improved teff and wheat varieties in Ethiopia. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2292. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Northern Africa; Gender; Social Inclusion; Teff; Wheat

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Market Intelligence

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Challenges and opportunities in Nigeria’s home-grown school feeding program: Toward a more efficient and sustainable model

2024Adeyanju, Dolapo; Amare, Mulubrhan; Andam, Kwaw S.; Bamiwuye, Temilolu; Gelli, Aulo; Idowu, Ifetayo
Details

Challenges and opportunities in Nigeria’s home-grown school feeding program: Toward a more efficient and sustainable model

This paper examines Nigeria’s Home-Grown School Feeding Program (HGSFP), an initiative that enhances traditional school feeding by supporting local agriculture. Operating across federal, state, and school levels, the HGSFP sources meals from local smallholder farmers, aiming to stimulate rural economies and improve food security. The program creates demand for locally grown food, encouraging farmers to increase productivity and adopt sustainable practices while providing them with stable income. The HGSFP has successfully expanded its impact beyond students to benefit farmers, communities, and local businesses; despite these achievements, the program still faces challenges including funding constraints, logistical issues, and monitoring difficulties. By analyzing successful implementations in other countries that are characterized by strong government support, well-developed supply chains, and active community participation, the paper offers insights for improvement. The discussion concludes with evidence-based recommendations for policymakers and program administrators. These suggestions aim to enhance the HGSFP’s effectiveness, efficiency, and long-term sustainability, ultimately contributing to Nigeria’s broader agricultural and economic development goals.

Year published

2024

Authors

Adeyanju, Dolapo; Amare, Mulubrhan; Andam, Kwaw S.; Bamiwuye, Temilolu; Gelli, Aulo; Idowu, Ifetayo

Citation

Adeyanju, Dolapo; Amare, Mulubrhan; Andam, Kwaw S.; Bamiwuye, Temilolu; Gelli, Aulo; and Idowu, Ifetayo. 2024. Challenges and opportunities in Nigeria’s home-grown school feeding program: Toward a more efficient and sustainable model. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2290. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/158431

Country/Region

Nigeria

Keywords

Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Western Africa; School Feeding; Efficiency; Sustainability; Agricultural Development

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Fragility, Conflict, and Migration

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Targeting social assistance in fragile settings: An experiment on community-based targeting

2024Abay, Kibrom A.; Berhane, Guush; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Tafere, Kibrom; Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum
Details

Targeting social assistance in fragile settings: An experiment on community-based targeting

Targeting is an important but challenging process in the design and delivery of social and humanitarian assistance programs. Community-based targeting (CBT) approaches are often preferred for their local information advantages, especially when data-driven methods are not feasible. However, how different variants of CBT approaches fare under various constraints and environments remains unclear. For example, it is not obvious whether agents involved in CBT maximize the number of beneficiaries or the intensity of transfers when given different levels of discretion or they face budget constraints. We implemented a clustered randomized control trial among community leaders in 180 villages in Ethiopia to evaluate how community leaders target and allocate resources when they face budget constraints and are in the presence (absence) of discretion. We find that under resource constraints, community leaders prefer to maximize the number of beneficiaries even at the expense of thinly spreading budgets (reducing average transfers to beneficiaries). Community leaders are keen to minimize exclusion errors even at the expense of increased inclusion errors, suggesting that community leaders may be sensitive to potential communal repercussions and hence prefer to accommodate beneficiaries who would otherwise be excluded based on survey-based measures and indicators of poverty. Consistent with this, we find that offering community leaders some level of discretion helps them reduce exclusion errors and include those most deprived or those affected by armed conflicts. Finally, we find that community leaders are more vulnerable to favoritism when real stakes (rather than hypothetical) are involved, budgets are relatively larger, and they lack discretion. We offer nuanced evidence about the implications of implementing CBT designs in the absence of incentives for community leaders to reveal how they use local information.

Year published

2024

Authors

Abay, Kibrom A.; Berhane, Guush; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Tafere, Kibrom; Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum

Citation

Abay, Kibrom A.; Berhane, Guush; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Tafere, Kibrom; and Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum. 2024. Targeting social assistance in fragile settings: An experiment on community-based targeting. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2289. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Community Development; Fragility; Social Protection; Targeting

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Fragility, Conflict, and Migration

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Irrigation schemes in Ethiopia’s Awash River Basin: An examination of physical, knowledge, and governance infrastructures

2024Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Yimam, Seid; Arega, Tiruwork; Alemu, Tekie; Gonfa, Kidist H.; Ringler, Claudia
Details

Irrigation schemes in Ethiopia’s Awash River Basin: An examination of physical, knowledge, and governance infrastructures

Using a representative sample of irrigation schemes, the study documents the physical, knowledge, and governance infrastructures of irrigation schemes in Ethiopia’s most intensively used river basin, the Awash. The findings show that about 20 percent of the equipped area of irrigation schemes in the basin is not being irrigated, while the number of actual beneficiaries on average exceeds the number of planned beneficiaries. The results also show significant knowledge gaps among irrigation scheme managers, extension agents, and leaders of water users’ associations (WUAs): 96 percent of them do not know the total water withdrawals or the irrigation water requirement per season. About 14 percent of the surveyed irrigation schemes have neither traditional water committees nor WUAs, and only 21 percent are organized in legally registered WUAs despite a substantial number of identified benefits of these organizations. Moreover, only 58 out of 489 irrigation schemes have women committee members. Many schemes lack a clear strategy for covering maintenance costs: almost 40 percent of schemes collect contributions from members only when the system fails, while 17 percent report no contributions for maintenance at all suggesting considerable risk of system deterioration and failure. The results challenge some of the assumptions about irrigation infrastructure in Ethiopia and confirm and quantify other assumptions in the literature.

Year published

2024

Authors

Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Yimam, Seid; Arega, Tiruwork; Alemu, Tekie; Gonfa, Kidist H.; Ringler, Claudia

Citation

Mekonnen, Dawit K.; Yimam, Seid; Arega, Tiruwork; Alemu, Tekie; Gonfa, Kidist H.; and Ringler, Claudia. 2024. Irrigation schemes in Ethiopia’s Awash River Basin: An examination of physical, knowledge, and governance infrastructures. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2287. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Irrigation Schemes; Infrastructure; Awash River; River Basins; Advisory Officers; Water User Associations; Women

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

NEXUS Gains

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Systematic risk profiling: A novel approach with applications to Kenya, Rwanda, and Malawi

2024Mukashov, Askar; Robinson, Sherman; Thurlow, James; Arndt, Channing; Thomas, Timothy S.
Details

Systematic risk profiling: A novel approach with applications to Kenya, Rwanda, and Malawi

This paper uses machine learning, simulation, and data mining methods to develop Systematic Risk Profiles of three developing economies: Kenya, Rwanda, and Malawi. We focus on three exogenous shocks with implications for economic performance: world market prices, capital flows, and climate-driven sectoral productivity. In these and other developing countries, recent decades have been characterized by increased risks associated with all these factors, and there is a demand for instruments that can help to disentangle them. For each country, we utilize historical data to develop multi-variate distributions of shocks. We then sample from these distributions to obtain a series of shock vectors, which we label economic uncertainty scenarios. These scenarios are then entered into economywide computable general equilibrium (CGE) simulation models for the three countries, which allow us to quantify the impact of increased uncertainty on major economic indicators. Finally, we utilize importance metrics from the random forest machine learning algorithm and relative importance metrics from multiple linear regression models to quantify the importance of country-specific risk factors for country performance. We find that Malawi and Rwanda are more vulnerable to sectoral productivity shocks, and Kenya is more exposed to external risks. These findings suggest that a country’s level of development and integration into the global economy are key driving forces defining their risk profiles. The methodology of Systematic Risk Profiling can be applied to many other countries, delineating country-specific risks and vulnerabilities.

Year published

2024

Authors

Mukashov, Askar; Robinson, Sherman; Thurlow, James; Arndt, Channing; Thomas, Timothy S.

Citation

Mukashov, Askar; Robinson, Sherman; Thurlow, James; Arndt, Channing; and Thomas, Timothy S. 2024. Systematic risk profiling: A novel approach with applications to Kenya, Rwanda, and Malawi. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2286. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.

Country/Region

Kenya; Rwanda; Malawi

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Climate; Computable General Equilibrium Models; Machine Learning; Risk; Uncertainty

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Foresight

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Evaluation of the programme to reduce vulnerability in coastal fishing areas in Djibouti: Qualitative findings

2024Eissler, Sarah; Heckert, Jessica
Details

Evaluation of the programme to reduce vulnerability in coastal fishing areas in Djibouti: Qualitative findings

We present findings from a qualitative study conducted as part of an impact assessment of the Programme to Reduce Vulnerability in Coastal Fishing Areas (PRAREV) , supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and implemented from 2013 to 2021. This study was designed to focus solely on the gender aspects of PRAREV, which overall aimed to support fishing communities and actors in the fishing sector in Djibouti, specifically those living in rural coastal areas affected by climate change, by reducing their vulnerability to the effects of climate change and promote co-management of marine resources. The program targeted those who are poor and who rely on fishing, particularly women involved in fish processing and marketing. The qualitative findings shared in this paper complement findings from an accompanying quantitative study, which found positive effects of the program on incomes, production, women’s influence on decisions, and food security, but not on resilience or nutritional status. We used multiple qualitative methods, including semi-structured interviews and focus group discussions with program staff and men and women leaders and members of fishing organizations to examine the following research questions focused on the gender component of the program: 1) How the program was delivered from multiple perspectives; 2) How the program strengthened the fishers’ and fishmonger associations; and 3) The benefits and costs of the program in the areas of climate change resilience, livelihoods, and changes in the fishing sector. While PRAREV aimed to take a gender-sensitive approach, the gender strategy and its delivery could have been improved. PRAREV mainly reached women by intentionally including women fishing organizations so that they could benefit from access to collective resources, training, and knowledge. PRAREV trainings often were not communicated to women members of fishing organizations, which led to women’s relative exclusion compared to men members. However, participants shared both positive and negative feedback on the PRAREV program. They generally agreed that when delivered, the trainings were well received and increased knowledge and awareness of climate change and knowledge of upgrading techniques in the fishing sector. The climate change trainings developed awareness about the drivers of climate change and taught best practices on the preservation of local marine resources. However, these trainings did not address adaptation to depleted fish populations in mangroves or reefs. Other trainings focused on value chain upgrading were well received and when delivered, increased relevant knowledge. However, their reach was limited, particularly among women fishing organization members. Finally, PRAREV provided organizations key resources for value chain upgrading and integration in the fishing sector in a way that preserved the local marine environment (e.g., boats, knives, fishing wires, nets). While fishing organization members spoke positively of these resources, there were challenges in delivering them. They were delivered late in the project, often without training or a sustainability plan, or were often not delivered as promised, creating frustration and tension among group members. They were also often delivered in smaller quantities than originally communicated and as such, the recipient fishing organizations limited their use. Overall, group members felt there was limited transparency in delivering these resources. Based on these findings, we share recommendations for PRAREV and similar programs. We suggest conducting formative research on the local fishing sector to identify how men and women want to participate and the key barriers they face in doing so. With respect to resource provision, programs should provide resources earlier and should deliver them with a sustainability plan that has community buy in. Implementers should aim to understand how groups could make use of high-value common property to enable transparency and sustainability. Trainings should also be tailored to the local context and be more in-depth. Importantly, program staff should ensure that all intended beneficiaries, especially women, are invited and able to participate in program trainings so that all members can benefit from the knowledge, awareness, and skill building gained at each training event. Programs should implement a more robust monitoring plan to ensure resources are adequately used and equitably distributed, and that all intended beneficiary groups benefit equitably. Finally, although PRAREV was designed to undertake a gender-sensitive approach, further refinement of this approach could likely improve program delivery and impact. A gender accommodative approach would have supported and empowered women from within the traditional gender roles that they feel more comfortable with to participate and upgrade in their respective fishing activities.

Year published

2024

Authors

Eissler, Sarah; Heckert, Jessica

Citation

Eissler, Sarah; and Heckert, Jessica. 2024. Evaluation of the programme to reduce vulnerability in coastal fishing areas in Djibouti: Qualitative findings. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2284. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.

Country/Region

Djibouti

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Fishing; Gender; Vulnerability; Women’s Empowerment

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Agriculture for Nutrition and Health

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Farming for the future: Prioritization of climate-smart agriculture technologies in SAARC countries

2024Kapoor, Shreya; Sma, Abdelkarim; Pathak, Himanshu; Pradhan, Mamata
Details

Farming for the future: Prioritization of climate-smart agriculture technologies in SAARC countries

Climate-smart agriculture (CSA) is pivotal in combating the impacts of climate change on global agriculture and food security. It has increasingly gained prominence as an adaptation strategy against the adverse impacts of climate change on agriculture, particularly in South Asia. However, scaling up the adoption of CSA interventions becomes critical, due to predominantly small and marginal nature of landholdings in the region, various institutional and policy constraints, and trade regulations and barriers. Another significant challenge lies in categorizing and prioritizing the multitude of technologies considered to be climate smart. Therefore, this study attempts to explore the different CSA technologies within the socio-economic context of six South Asian countries: Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka, with the main objective of proioritization and scaling-up of these methods. The study begins by compiling an inventory of existing technologies and subsequently prioritizing them by using the World Bank (WB) CSA Technology Index. Secondly, the study tries to address the key challenges and propose policy measures to upscale the adoption of CSA technologies in these countries using participatory research conducted with the key stakeholders in these countries. The participatory research provided valuable insights, revealing critical policy and institutional barriers, and providing a basis for framing strategies and policy solutions to facilitate wider adoption of CSA technologies in the region.

Year published

2024

Authors

Kapoor, Shreya; Sma, Abdelkarim; Pathak, Himanshu; Pradhan, Mamata

Citation

Kapoor, Shreya; Sma, Abdelkarim; Pathak, Himanshu; and Pradhan, Mamata. 2024. Farming for the future: Prioritization of climate-smart agriculture technologies in SAARC countries. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2285. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute

Country/Region

Bangladesh; Bhutan; India; Nepal; Pakistan; Sri Lanka

Keywords

Asia; Southern Asia; Climate Change; Climate-smart Agriculture; Prioritization; Scaling Up

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Understanding the organizational approaches of funders and project implementers to strengthen women’s empowerment through agricultural collectives

2024Rubin, Deborah
Details

Understanding the organizational approaches of funders and project implementers to strengthen women’s empowerment through agricultural collectives

This paper reports on approaches for strengthening women’s empowerment that were implemented by project partners involved in the International Food Policy Research (IFPRI)-led Applying New Evidence for Women’s Empowerment (ANEW) project funded by the Walmart Foundation. The study explores the partner organizations’ websites and publications, project materials, and selected staff interviews to better understand how each envisions women’s empowerment and the pathways for supporting it. The four implementing project partners are Grameen Foundation, Professional Assistance for Development Action (PRADAN) in India, Root Capital in Mexico, and TechnoServe in Guatemala. Their programs and their organizational approaches vary in whether they primarily focus on women rather than more broadly targeting both women and men and their gender relationships. Some organizations are more “organic” in integrating attention to gender and empowerment into their programs, designing and implementing an approach on a case by case basis. Others are more intentional in establishing organization-wide policies, strategies, and monitoring systems. The organizations also differ in their positions on supporting “economic empowerment” and clear economic benefits such as prioritizing increased income or assets in contrast to those that also seek to actively change social norms and achieve other social dimensions of empowerment that encompass behaviors around decision-making, mobility, and self-confidence. Another variation is in the organizations’ attention to enterprise development and, consequently to entrepreneurship and upgrading, and what aspects of women’s empowerment are most critical for achieving those goals. This paper offers implementers and their funders insight into organizational differences in approaches to women’s empowerment. The review demonstrates that both funders and implementers continue to focus on strengthening women’s economic empowerment by increasing women’s incomes and assets, often with good results. However, they often lack clear theories of change or explicit strategies to strengthen other dimensions of women’s empowerment. More nuanced, evidence-based theories of change and targeted actions could strengthen program design to expand and support women’s achievement of empowerment across all its dimensions.

Year published

2024

Authors

Rubin, Deborah

Citation

Rubin, Deborah. 2024. Understanding the organizational approaches of funders and project implementers to strengthen women’s empowerment through agricultural collectives. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2283. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.

Keywords

Agriculture; Gender; Policies; Women; Women’s Empowerment

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Does nutrition-sensitive social protection protection build longer-term resilience? Experimental evidence from Bangladesh

2024Ahmed, Akhter U.; Bakhtiar, M. Mehrab; Hoddinott, John; Roy, Shalini
Details

Does nutrition-sensitive social protection protection build longer-term resilience? Experimental evidence from Bangladesh

Evidence shows that cash and in-kind transfer programs increase food security while interventions are ongoing, including during or immediately after shocks. But less is known about whether receipt of these programs can have protective effects for household food security against shocks that occur several years after interventions end. We study the effects of a transfer program implemented as a cluster-randomized control trial in rural Bangladesh from 2012-2014 – the Transfer Modality Research Initiative (TMRI) – on food security in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. We assess TMRI’s impacts at three post-program time points: before the shock (2018), amidst the shock (2021), and after the immediate effects of the shock (2022). We find that TMRI showed protective effects on household food security during and after the pandemic, but program design features “mattered”; positive impacts were only seen in the treatment arm that combined cash transfers with nutrition behavior change communication (Cash+BCC). Other treatment arms – cash only, and food only – showed no significant sustained effects on our household food security measures after the intervention ended, nor did they show protective effects during the pandemic. A plausible mechanism is that investments made by Cash+BCC households in productive assets – specifically livestock – increased their pre-shock resilience capacity.

Year published

2024

Authors

Ahmed, Akhter U.; Bakhtiar, M. Mehrab; Hoddinott, John; Roy, Shalini

Citation

Ahmed, Akhter U.; Bakhtiar, M. Mehrab; Hoddinott, John; and Roy, Shalini. 2024. Does nutrition-sensitive social protection protection build longer-term resilience? Experimental evidence from Bangladesh. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2282. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/155053

Country/Region

Bangladesh

Keywords

Asia; Southern Asia; Covid-19; Resilience; Shock; Social Protection

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Gender Equality

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

The adoption and impact of food safety measures on smallholder dairy farmers’ economic welfare: Evidence from the Indo-Gangetic plains of India.

2024Katoch, Sonali; Kumar, Anjani; Kolady, Deepthi E.; Sharma, Kriti
Details

The adoption and impact of food safety measures on smallholder dairy farmers’ economic welfare: Evidence from the Indo-Gangetic plains of India.

This study examines the adoption of compliance with food safety measures (FSM) using cross-sectional data collected at the farm level in three key states of the Indo-Gangetic Plains, Bihar, Punjab, and Uttar Pradesh in 2023. A Food Safety Index (FSI) was developed to assess the intensity of adoption of food safety practices. Determinants of compliance with practices were assessed using multiple linear regression and an ordered logistic model. Generalized propensity score matching was used to evaluate the heterogenous impact of the adoption of FSM on farm-level performance indicators. The findings indicate that farmers are embracing a moderate level (0.48–0.58) of the food safety index at the farm level. The various socioeconomic and demographic factors influence compliance with FSM which include education, income, marketing channel, training exposure, awareness level, and infrastructure. The impact assessment reveals the direct relationship between FSM compliance and performance indicators. However, a lower level of compliance may not yield significant improvements. The study suggests incentivization through pricing reforms, improving infrastructure, and strengthening formal marketing channels.

Year published

2024

Authors

Katoch, Sonali; Kumar, Anjani; Kolady, Deepthi E.; Sharma, Kriti

Citation

Katoch, Sonali; Kumar, Anjani; Kolady, Deepthi E.; and Sharma, Kriti. 2024. The adoption and impact of food safety measures on smallholder dairy farmers’ economic welfare: Evidence from the Indo-Gangetic plains of India. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2281. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/152508

Country/Region

India

Keywords

Asia; Southern Asia; Dairy Farming; Data; Food Safety; Impact Assessment; Smallholders

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Varietal turnover in potato and its effect on yield: Evidence from household surveys in India

2024Sharma, Kriti; Kumar, Anjani; Kumar, Nalini Ranjan
Details

Varietal turnover in potato and its effect on yield: Evidence from household surveys in India

Potato remains a crucial crop for achieving India’s food security goals and generating income for small-scale farmers. But India, the largest potato producer after China, remains behind many of its peers in attaining high yield. A low varietal replacement rate could be one of the major reasons for low yield in India. This critical issue warrants investigation, yet empirical results remain limited in the Indian context. Drawing on data from a comprehensive field survey of 892 potato growing farmers conducted in 2018–19 across five major potato-producing states in India, we find the determinants of the average area-weighted age of potato varieties used, and their impact on potato yield. The instrumental variable regression analysis establishes a negative association between varietal age and yield of potato. It also underscores the importance of access to weather forecast and linkages with agricultural organizations to achieve higher yield. Furthermore, it shows that household size, links to political party, and information about new seeds from friends, progressive farmers and input dealers are associated with lower varietal age. These insights will be instrumental for policymakers and potato breeders in promoting sustainable agricultural practices and boosting food security in India amidst the impending demographic challenges.

Year published

2024

Authors

Sharma, Kriti; Kumar, Anjani; Kumar, Nalini Ranjan

Citation

Sharma, Kriti; Kumar, Anjani; and Kumar, Nalini Ranjan. 2024. Varietal turnover in potato and its effect on yield: Evidence from household surveys in India. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2280. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/152446

Country/Region

India

Keywords

Asia; Southern Asia; Crop Yield; Food Security; Policy Innovation; Potato Harvesters; Regression Analysis

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Seed Equal

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

A guide to developing quantitative tools for measuring gender norms in agrifood systems

2024Seymour, Greg; Cole, Steven M.; Costenbader, Elizabeth; Mwakanyamale, Devis; Adeyeye, Olajumoke; Feleke, Shiferaw; Ferguson, Nathaniel; Heckert, Jessica
Details

A guide to developing quantitative tools for measuring gender norms in agrifood systems

Increasingly, gender transformative approaches (GTAs), which seek to transform the underlying causes of gender inequalities, including discriminatory gender norms, are being used in agrifood systems (AFS) interventions. A growing body of evidence finds that GTAs contribute to positive impacts on a wide range of important development outcomes and have potential for improving gender equality. One limitation to better understanding changes in AFS-based gender norms as a result of GTAs is a lack of appropriate quantitative tools for measuring these norms. This work is an important step in filling that gap. Herein we detail the collaborative process that we undertook in Nigeria and Tanzania to develop a quantitative approach to measuring gender norms in the cassava, poultry, and fisheries value chains in each country. We then provide guidance for how implementing and research partners using GTAs in AFS can apply our learnings to their own work.

Year published

2024

Authors

Seymour, Greg; Cole, Steven M.; Costenbader, Elizabeth; Mwakanyamale, Devis; Adeyeye, Olajumoke; Feleke, Shiferaw; Ferguson, Nathaniel; Heckert, Jessica

Citation

Seymour, Greg; Cole, Steve; Costenbader, Elizabeth; Mwakanyamale, Devis; Adeyeye, Olajumoke; Feleke, Shiferaw; Ferguson, Nathaniel; and Heckert, Jessica. 2024. A guide to developing quantitative tools for measuring gender norms in agrifood systems. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2279. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/152444

Country/Region

Nigeria

Keywords

Tanzania; Africa; Eastern Africa; Western Africa; Agrifood Systems; Gender Norms; Gender Inequality; Value Chains; Gender

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Gender Equality

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Modeling crop-livestock interactions in semi-subsistence economies

2024Aragie, Emerta A.; Thurlow, James
Details

Modeling crop-livestock interactions in semi-subsistence economies

Climate and weather shocks pose significant threats to crop-livestock systems, leading to economic losses and humanitarian crises. Utilizing a modeling framework that innovatively integrates the crop and livestock systems, this study examines the interactions and dynamic adjustments within these systems following weather shocks, using Ethiopia as a case study. We also evaluate the effectiveness of various adaptation strategies in sustaining farm incomes, food security, and welfare. Results show unique effects on the crop and livestock sectors resulting from a joint shock on the two systems. While food crops experience a strong and immediate growth effect that fades quickly, the livestock sector faces the full impact of the shock a year later, with the effect persisting to some degree. We also find diverging economic and livestock system adjustment trajectories from the separate shocks to the crop and livestock systems. Further, the intervention options analyzed show contrasting impacts on various outcome indications, with only the resilient crop intervention causing sector-indifferent impacts. Our findings emphasize the importance of proactive measures to enhance the resilience of crop-livestock systems, with implications for policy and practice aimed at safeguarding food security and livelihoods in semi-subsistence economies.

Year published

2024

Authors

Aragie, Emerta A.; Thurlow, James

Citation

Aragie, Emerta; and Thurlow, James. 2024. Modeling crop-livestock interactions in semi-subsistence economies. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2278. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/152379

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Crops; Economics; Livestock; Weather

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Foresight

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Task or time? Comparing methods for measuring the gender distribution of work

2024Banerjee, Archis; Kumar, Neha; Quisumbing, Agnes R.
Details

Task or time? Comparing methods for measuring the gender distribution of work

There is growing evidence that gender disparities in the distribution of paid and unpaid work impose constraints on women’s well-being and livelihoods, reducing access to paid employment, and time for education, leisure, and social activities. Yet, gender disparities in unpaid work often go undiagnosed by traditional household surveys. While time-use surveys are well-suited for measuring unpaid work, they are often expensive to administer and take substantial amounts of survey time, leading to respondent fatigue, particularly in multi-topic surveys where other outcomes are also being collected. In this paper, we compare data collected using the task allocation module in the Transforming Agrifood Systems in South Asia (TAFSSA) integrated household survey and the time-use module in the Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (WEAI) survey. We begin by describing the methods used to collect the data in each of the surveys. We present an overview of the characteristics of the study sites in the TAFSSA integrated survey and sites in the same countries where the WEAI data were collected. We then present comparable data from each of the two methods. The findings confirm the gendered patterns in involvement in different activities as measured by both survey modules. While women’s participation in agricultural activities is high across Bangladesh, India, and Nepal, the amount of time they spend on agricultural activities is less than that spent by men. Both survey tools confirm that women undertake most of the food preparation-related activities, and men contribute through shopping/purchasing food.

Year published

2024

Authors

Banerjee, Archis; Kumar, Neha; Quisumbing, Agnes R.

Citation

Banerjee, Archis; Kumar, Neha; and Quisumbing, Agnes R. 2024. Task or time? Comparing methods for measuring the gender distribution of work. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2277. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/152347

Country/Region

Bangladesh; India; Nepal

Keywords

Southern Asia; Asia; Time Use Patterns; Households; Gender; Unpaid Work; Women’s Empowerment; Surveys; Gender Norms

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Transforming Agrifood Systems in South Asia

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

The agricultural transformation index

2024Diao, Xinshen; Jones, Eleanor; Pauw, Karl; Thurlow, James; Xu, Wenqian
Details

The agricultural transformation index

Agricultural transformation, in broad terms, is the process during which the agricultural sector develops from a low-productivity, subsistence-oriented sector to a modern, commercially oriented one. It typically involves adopting advanced technologies and more sustainable and efficient production practices, and results in higher agricultural productivity per worker, agricultural diversification into high-value crops, and rising rural incomes. Importantly, agricultural transformation is also seen as a catalyst for broader economic development and a structural shift towards industrialization in developing economies. Given the central role of agricultural transformation in driving such change, as well as its contribution to development objectives such as poverty reduction, improvements in diet quality, and environmental sustainability, it is useful to measure and monitor progress on agricultural transformation. This is the purpose of the Agricultural Transformation Index (ATI), a newly developed composite index constructed from four indicators of progress on agricultural transformation: staple crop productivity, crop diversification, agricultural labor productivity, and food system expansion. Together, these indicators, which are calculated from publicly available, global datasets, can be used to examine progress over time on global, regional, and national scales. In addition to being transparent and easy to interpret, the index can be updated annually as new data is released. As demonstrated in this study, the ATI produces a plausible ranking of countries and is highly correlated with indicators of overall economic wellbeing such as GDP per capita or household-specific welfare measures such as poverty or the prevalence of undernourishment. The ATI is not only useful for identifying countries in need of support from international development partners or tracking their progress on agricultural transformation but can also highlight specific areas of agricultural transformation where technical or investment support might be directed by governments or their partners.

Year published

2024

Authors

Diao, Xinshen; Jones, Eleanor; Pauw, Karl; Thurlow, James; Xu, Wenqian

Citation

Diao, Xinshen; Jones, Eleanor; Pauw, Karl; Thurlow, James; and Xu, Wenqian. 2024. The agricultural transformation index. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2275. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/152282

Keywords

Agricultural Transformation; Economic Development; Productivity; Structural Adjustment

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Foresight

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Cooperation among community leaders: The role of women’s leadership and exposure to conflict

2024Nigus, Halefom Yigzaw; Abay, Kibrom A.
Details

Cooperation among community leaders: The role of women’s leadership and exposure to conflict

In rural settings, community leaders play important roles in mobilizing resources and delivering public goods and services. However, little is known about their attributes and incentives in delivering these public goods and services. Exploiting survey, lab-in-the-field experiment, and geo-referenced data, we study the role of leaders, especially women’s leadership, and their exposure to conflict in explaining differences in cooperation among com-munity leaders in Ethiopia. We measure cooperation through a public-good experiment and examine the implications of community leaders’ characteristics. We then merge these lab-in-the field experimental data with geo-referenced data on conflict exposure to examine the implication of different types of conflict on community leaders’ cooperation behavior. We find that female leaders contribute more to public goods than their male counterparts. For example, compared to those assuming the highest official administrative responsibility in the village, women leaders contribute about 11 percent more to the public good. We also document nuanced findings that reconcile existing mixed evidence on the implication of exposure to conflict on cooperation: while conflict events that affect the whole community, such as political violence (including battles) are associated with higher cooperation, other types of conflict (e.g., demonstrations and riots) are associated with lower levels of cooperation. Finally, we identify additional predictors of cooperation among community leaders, including beliefs about other leaders’ cooperative behavior. These findings shed light on potential avenues for facilitating and fostering cooperation among community leaders.

Year published

2024

Authors

Nigus, Halefom Yigzaw; Abay, Kibrom A.

Citation

Nigus, Halefom Yigzaw; and Abay, Kibrom A. 2024. Cooperation among community leaders: The role of women’s leadership and exposure to conflict. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2273. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/152266

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Conflicts; Cooperation; Leaders; Public Goods; Women; Women’s Empowerment; War

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Fragility, Conflict, and Migration

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

How do videos fit into current agricultural advisory services? Lessons from Kenya and Uganda

2024Aladesuru, Damilola T.; Kasule, James B.; Bosch, Christine; Kato, Edward; Ringler, Claudia; Birner, Regina
Details

How do videos fit into current agricultural advisory services? Lessons from Kenya and Uganda

While video extension is a recognized means to overcome the challenges posed by traditional agricultural advisory services, adoption has been limited. This paper presents two case studies conducted in Kenya and Uganda that explore the potential of video extension for promoting climate-smart agriculture (CSA) practices. In Kenya, videos were rolled out by GROOTS Kenya, which predominantly serves women farmers. In Uganda, the Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries’ Agricultural Extension Services implemented the video rollout, focusing on both women and men farmers. We used qualitative research linked to both video rollouts to understand the benefits and challenges linked to the intervention. We also compared the implementation strategies used in the two countries to evaluate the suitability of videos as a “best fit” advisory provision tool. Both women and men farmers enjoyed watching the videos. They improved farmers’ access to information, resulting in increased knowledge and adoption of CSA practices. Costs involved in some practices affected their adoption as did lack of intrahousehold decision-making power, particularly for women. In some cases, infrastructural challenges complicated the video showings. The findings underscore the importance of complementing traditional agricultural extension with interactive and context-specific video content without replacing and neglecting other modes of extension, as well as the need for political support to ensure the scalability and long-term success of video extension initiatives.

Year published

2024

Authors

Aladesuru, Damilola T.; Kasule, James B.; Bosch, Christine; Kato, Edward; Ringler, Claudia; Birner, Regina

Citation

Aladesuru, Damilola T.; Kasule, James B.; Bosch, Christine; Kato, Edward; Ringler, Claudia; and Birner, Regina. 2024. How do videos fit into current agricultural advisory services? Lessons from Kenya and Uganda. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2276. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/152283

Country/Region

Kenya; Uganda

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Agricultural Extension; Climate-smart Agriculture; Decision Making; Farmers; Women

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Strengthening women’s empowerment, climate resilience, and nutrition along the goat value chain in Senegal: A qualitative study

2024Kane, Papa Abdoulaye; Barry, Mamadou Bobo; Eissler, Sarah; Tall, Thiané; Camara, Astou Diao; Sall, Moussa; Fass, Simone; Bryan, Elizabeth; Ringler, Claudia
Details

Strengthening women’s empowerment, climate resilience, and nutrition along the goat value chain in Senegal: A qualitative study

Goats are an important source of income, nutrition and resilience in Senegal. This study assesses opportunities to strengthen women’s agency, increase resilience to climate change, and improve nutrition along the various stages of goat value chains from the acquisition of feed resources and other inputs to processing, marketing and consumption of various goat products. The qualitative study finds that even though goats are more climate resilient than other livestock, climate change impacts on goat production and productivity are increasingly felt, particularly through impacts on feed resources. The study identified opportunities to strengthen women’s roles along the goat value chain, particularly in goat production and, to a lesser extent, in processing of goat products. Women and their families also benefit from the consumption of goat milk and women have some degree of control over income from the sale of goat products. Strengthening women’s agency in these nutrient-rich and relatively climate-resilient value chains will require improving their access to land resources and better animal feeds, supporting women’s groups and building women’s capacity for processing and marketing goat products, improving access to electricity for cold storage of goat products, and raising awareness regarding the nutritional benefits of goat products, especially for women and children.

Year published

2024

Authors

Kane, Papa Abdoulaye; Barry, Mamadou Bobo; Eissler, Sarah; Tall, Thiané; Camara, Astou Diao; Sall, Moussa; Fass, Simone; Bryan, Elizabeth; Ringler, Claudia

Citation

Kane, Papa Abdoulaye; Barry, Mamadou Bobo; Eissler, Sarah; Tall, Thiané; Camara, Astou Diao; Sall, Moussa; et al. 2024. Strengthening women’s empowerment, climate resilience, and nutrition along the goat value chain in Senegal: A qualitative study. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2274. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/152294

Country/Region

Senegal

Keywords

Africa; Western Africa; Climate Change; Goats; Nutrition; Climate Resilience; Value Chains; Women’s Empowerment; Gender

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Unlocking locally-led resilience amid conflict and climate stress: Views from community leaders in Mali on development priorities, aid distribution, and anticipatory action

2024Bleck, Jaimie; Carrillo, Lucia; Gottlieb, Jessica; Kosec, Katrina; Kyle, Jordan; Soumano, Moumouni
Details

Unlocking locally-led resilience amid conflict and climate stress: Views from community leaders in Mali on development priorities, aid distribution, and anticipatory action

We surveyed 2,919 community leaders across seven regions of Mali to provide insights on the prevalence and severity of shocks and crises across localities; which types of shocks and crises are most difficult from which to recover; the formal and informal ways in which local actors are involved in aid distribution systems; and the types of programming local actors view as most beneficial for promoting resilience. Despite increasing prevalence of conflict across localities, leaders predominately cited climate-related shocks as the most difficult from which to recover— especially droughts. We find that localities vary in the inclusiveness of local governance around aid distribution: while elected mayors are almost always involved, traditional leaders, women’s group and youth leaders in villages, civil servants, and civil society leaders are each involved in 40–60% of localities. We used both a budget allocation exercise and an experimental game in which we introduced the concept of anticipatory action (AA) programming—aid that is “triggered” by an early warning signal to arrive before a shock and mitigate its worst effects—to probe preferences over aid modality. We found that leaders see value in balancing investment across resilience programming (including AA) and humanitarian response, especially food aid. However, there is some important variation between village- and commune-level officials: village-level leaders are more likely to prioritize aid modalities that target households directly, like food aid and cash transfers, while commune-level leaders are more likely to prioritize risk prevention trainings. Our findings have important policy implications for promoting local resilience in Mali, including the importance of investing more in drought resilience, engaging actors at different levels of local governance who have different information and perspectives, and simultaneously investing in capacity-building around early warning system accuracy and dissemination.

Year published

2024

Authors

Bleck, Jaimie; Carrillo, Lucia; Gottlieb, Jessica; Kosec, Katrina; Kyle, Jordan; Soumano, Moumouni

Citation

Bleck, Jaimie; Carrillo, Lucia; Gottlieb, Jessica; Kosec, Katrina; Kyle, Jordan; and Soumano, Moumouni. 2024. Unlocking locally-led resilience amid conflict and climate stress: Views from community leaders in Mali on development priorities, aid distribution, and anticipatory action. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2272. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/152260

Country/Region

Mali

Keywords

Africa; Western Africa; Governance; Climate; Conflicts; Resilience

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Fragility, Conflict, and Migration

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

To defer or differ: Experimental evidence on the role of cash transfers on Nigerian couples’ decision-making

2024Bakhtiar, M. Mehrab; Fafchamps, Marcel; Goldstein, Markus; Leonard, Kenneth L.; Papineni, Sreelakshmi
Details

To defer or differ: Experimental evidence on the role of cash transfers on Nigerian couples’ decision-making

We conduct an original lab-in-the-field experiment on the decision–making process of married couples over the allocation of rival and non-rival household goods. The experiment measures individual preferences over allocations and traces the process of deferral, consultation, communication and accommodation by which couples implement these preferences. We find few differences in individual preferences over allocations of goods. However, wives and husbands have strong preferences over process: women prefer to defer decisions to their husbands even when deferral is costly and is not observed by the husband; men rarely defer under any condition. Our study follows a randomized controlled trial that ended a year earlier and gave large cash transfers over eighteen months to half of the women in the study. We estimate the effect of treatment on the demand for agency among women and find that the receipt of cash transfers does not change women’s bargaining process except in a secret condition when the decision to defer is shrouded from her husband. This suggests that the cash transfer to women increases their demand for agency but does not change the intra-household balance of power enough to allow them to express it publicly.

Year published

2024

Authors

Bakhtiar, M. Mehrab; Fafchamps, Marcel; Goldstein, Markus; Leonard, Kenneth L.; Papineni, Sreelakshmi

Citation

Bakhtiar, M. Mehrab; Fafchamps, Marcel; Goldstein, Markus; Leonard, Kenneth L.; and Papineni, Sreelakshmi. 2024. To defer or differ: Experimental evidence on the role of cash transfers on Nigerian couples’ decision-making. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2271. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/152230

Country/Region

Nigeria

Keywords

Africa; Western Africa; Bargaining Power; Cash Transfers; Decision Making; Intrahousehold Relations

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Gender Equality

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Making the CAADP BR forward looking: A decision support tool for transforming African agrifood systems

2024Benin, Samuel
Details

Making the CAADP BR forward looking: A decision support tool for transforming African agrifood systems

This paper presents an Excel-based interactive decision-support tool that policymakers and development practitioners can use to evaluate policy options to achieve targeted outcomes of the Malabo Declaration at the country level. The tool is based on a partial equilibrium simulation model that allows the user to simulate different scenarios based on the desired level of change in one outcome or more. For each scenario that is created, the simulated results provide information on the level of change required in each of the policies included in the model, the level of change in the other outcomes included in the model, and the allocation of the resources provided, including reallocation of some of the existing resources. A prototype of the tool that is developed using the fourth biennial review (BR) data on Ghana, which has some quality issues, is presented to demonstrate the potential features and utility of the tool. Limitations of the model and further work that is required to develop the actual tool for reliable policy evaluation are discussed. The latter includes using accurate data on the various indicators and expanding it to cover more years, in addition to developing a web-based interactive version of the tool.

Year published

2024

Authors

Benin, Samuel

Citation

Benin, Samuel. 2024. Making the CAADP BR forward looking: A decision support tool for transforming African agrifood systems. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2270. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/152192

Keywords

Africa; Caadp; Agrifood Systems; Decision Support; Policy Analysis; Public Expenditure

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

The true costs of food production in Kenya and Viet Nam

2024Benfica, Rui; Hossain, Marup; Davis, Kristin E.; Boukaka, Sedi Anne; Azzarri, Carlo
Details

The true costs of food production in Kenya and Viet Nam

Sustainable agrifood systems (AFS) provide food security and nutrition without compromising economic, social, and environmental objectives. However, many AFS generate substantial unaccounted for environmental, social, and health costs. True cost accounting (TCA) is one method that adds direct and external costs to find the “true cost” of food production, which can inform policies to reduce externalities or adjust market prices. We find that for Kenya— considering the entire food system, including crops, livestock, fishing, and value addition sectors at the national level—external costs represent 35 percent of the output value. Social costs account for 73 percent of the total external costs, while environmental costs are 27 percent. In contrast, in Viet Nam, where total external costs represent 15 percent of the output value, the environmental costs (75 percent) dominate social costs. At the subnational level, in the three Kenyan counties (Kisumu, Vihiga, and Kajiado) covered by the CGIAR Research Initiative on Nature-Positive Solutions (NATURE+), external costs (or the true cost gap) represent about 30 percent of all household crop production costs. Those external costs are overwhelmingly dominated by social (84 percent) over environmental (16 percent) externalities. In Viet Nam’s Sa Pa and Mai Son districts, external costs represent about 24 percent of all household crop production costs. Environmental externalities (61 percent) are greater than social ones (39 percent). In Kenya, forced labor is the main social (and overall) external impact driven by factors ranging from “less severe” financial coercion to “more severe” forms of physical coercion. Land occupation is the most important environmental impact, resulting from occupation of lands for cultivation rather than conservation, while underpayment (low wages) and low profits are important social costs that are closely associated with the prevailing gender wage gap and occurrence of harassment. Soil degradation is the only other environmental impact, linked with the use of inorganic fertilizers (60 percent of households) and pesticides (36 percent). In Viet Nam, land occupation is the most important external impact, followed by soil degradation and contributions to climate change, primarily due to widespread use of inorganic fertilizers (98 percent of households) and pesticides (93 percent). Underpayment and insufficient income are significant social costs, followed by the gender wage gap and child labor. Crop production systems in Kenya exhibit relatively high labor-related costs compared with nonlabor inputs, with relatively lower intensity in the use of inorganic fertilizer and other chemical inputs and lower crop yields. This production system leads to relatively greater social externalities. Conversely, crop yields in Viet Nam are significantly higher than those in Kenya, likely due to the extensive use of inorganic fertilizers representing the largest direct cost component and leading to a relatively higher level of environmental externalities. Because external costs represent a significant part of the total cost of food production, policy and investments to minimize these costs are essential to a nature-positive AFS that is environmentally sustainable and socially equitable. Strategies to reach this goal include regulatory adjustments, investments in resource efficient infrastructure and technologies that minimize costs, and the prudent management of environmentally impactful production inputs and factors.

Year published

2024

Authors

Benfica, Rui; Hossain, Marup; Davis, Kristin E.; Boukaka, Sedi Anne; Azzarri, Carlo

Citation

Benfica, Rui; Hossain, Marup; Davis, Kristin E.; Boukaka, Sedi Anne; and Azzarri, Carlo. 2024. The true costs of food production in Kenya and Viet Nam. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2269. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/152074

Country/Region

Kenya; Vietnam

Keywords

Africa; South-eastern Asia; Asia; Eastern Africa; Agrifood Systems; Environment; Food Security; Sustainability; True Cost Accounting; Food Production

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Nature-Positive Solutions

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Estimating multidimensional development resilience

2024Lee, Seungmin; Abay, Kibrom A.; Barrett, Christopher B.; Hoddinott, John F.
Details

Estimating multidimensional development resilience

Resilience measurement has received substantial attention over the past decade or so. Existing measures, however, relate resilience to a single well-being indicator. This may be problematic in contexts where households face deprivations in multiple dimensions. We explore how sensitive estimates of household-level resilience are to the specific well-being indicator used and show that measures are only weakly correlated across different, reasonable indicators based on expenditure-based poverty, dietary diversity, and livestock asset holdings. We then introduce a multidimensional resilience measure, integrating the probabilistic moment-based resilience measurement approach of Cissé and Barrett (2018) with the multidimensional poverty measurement method of Alkire and Foster (2011). Applying the new method to household panel data, we show that univariate and multidimensional resilience measures can yield varied inferences on the ranking of households as well as potential impact of development interventions.

Year published

2024

Authors

Lee, Seungmin; Abay, Kibrom A.; Barrett, Christopher B.; Hoddinott, John F.

Citation

Lee, Seungmin; Abay, Kibrom A.; Barrett, Christopher B.; and Hoddinott, John F. 2024. Estimating multidimensional development resilience. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2268. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/151999

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Assets; Consumption; Dietary Diversity; Livestock; Nutrition; Poverty; Resilience

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

National Policies and Strategies

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Can farmer collectives empower women and improve their welfare? Mixed methods evidence from India

2024Ray, Soumyajit; Raghunathan, Kalyani; Bhanjdeo, Arundhita; Heckert, Jessica
Details

Can farmer collectives empower women and improve their welfare? Mixed methods evidence from India

Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs)—farmer collectives, often legally registered – can mitigate some of the constraints smallholder farmers face by improving their access to extension, services, and markets, especially for women. We evaluate the effects of a set of interventions delivered through women-only FPOs in Jharkhand, India, using a panel of 1200 households and a difference-in-difference model with nearest neighbor matching. A complementary qualitative study in the same areas helps triangulate and interpret our findings. The interventions aimed to improve agricultural productivity by coordinating production and improving access to services, while also providing gender sensitization trainings to FPO leaders and members. We collect household data on asset ownership and agricultural outcomes and individual data on women’s and men’s empowerment using the project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index for Market Inclusion (pro-WEAI+MI). Our results for asset ownership, land cultivated, cropping intensity, and per acre yields, revenues or costs are statistically insignificant. Effects on men’s and women’s empowerment are mixed. While we see positive effects on women’s decisionmaking, asset ownership, control over income and attitudes towards intimate partner violence, the program is associated with an increase in workload and a reduction in active group membership for both men and women. Men appear to cede control over resources and decisionmaking to other household members. Additional analyses suggest that while some effects can occur in the short-term, others take time to accrue. FPO based interventions that aim to empower women or other marginalized groups likely require sustained investments over multiple years and will need to go beyond improving FPO functioning and increasing women’s participation to transforming social norms.

Year published

2024

Authors

Ray, Soumyajit; Raghunathan, Kalyani; Bhanjdeo, Arundhita; Heckert, Jessica

Citation

Ray, Soumyajit; Raghunathan, Kalyani; Bhanjdeo, Arundhita; and Heckert, Jessica. 2024. Can farmer collectives empower women and improve their welfare? Mixed methods evidence from India. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2267. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/151877

Country/Region

India

Keywords

Asia; Agriculture; Farmers Organizations; Cooperatives; Markets; Prices; Yields; Empowerment; Smallholders; Women; Gender

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Gender

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

The unmet financial needs of intermediary firms within agri-food value chains in Uganda and Bangladesh

2024Adong, Annet; Ambler, Kate; Bloem, Jeffrey R.; de Brauw, Alan; Herskowitz, Sylvan; Islam, AHM Saiful; Wagner, Julia
Details

The unmet financial needs of intermediary firms within agri-food value chains in Uganda and Bangladesh

Intermediary firms within agri-food value chains operating between the farmgate and retailers typically account for at least as much, if not more, value added as the primary agricultural production sector of the economy, but little is known about how these small and largely informal firms conduct their business. Drawing on a set of innovative surveys implemented amid the arabica coffee and soybean value chains in Uganda and the rice and potato value chains in Bangladesh, we describe the financial activities of the firms that transform agricultural produce into food. We document four sets of results. First, across all intermediary actors in our data the overwhelming majority of transactions are cash-based. Second, although many intermediary actors are un-banked, access to financial accounts varies considerably by value chain segment, commodity, and country. Third, while most intermediary actors report using mobile money for personal purposes, especially in Uganda, very few use mobile money to facilitate business transactions. Fourth, although intermediary actors frequently report exposure to risk, very few effectively manage this risk. We conclude by discussing how intermediary agri-food value chain actors represent an underappreciated population for the promotion of new technologies both to improve the stability of the agricultural sector and to improve outcomes among smallholder farmers.

Year published

2024

Authors

Adong, Annet; Ambler, Kate; Bloem, Jeffrey R.; de Brauw, Alan; Herskowitz, Sylvan; Islam, AHM Saiful; Wagner, Julia

Citation

Adong, Annet; Ambler, Kate; Bloem, Jeffrey R.; de Brauw, Alan; Herskowitz, Sylvan; Islam, AHM Saiful; and Wagner, Julia. 2024. The unmet financial needs of intermediary firms within agri-food value chains in Uganda and Bangladesh. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2266. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/151859

Country/Region

Bangladesh; Uganda

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Asia; Southern Asia; Agrifood Systems; Finance; Mobile Phones; Technology; Value Chains

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Rethinking Food Markets

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Addressing food system transformation, food security, and deforestation in Indonesia: Challenges and opportunities

2024Laborde Debucquet, David; Olivetti, Elsa B.; Piñeiro, Valeria; Illescas, Nelson
Details

Addressing food system transformation, food security, and deforestation in Indonesia: Challenges and opportunities

This study identifies food system interventions with high transformational potential for Indonesia by utilizing the MIRAGRODEP a multi-region, multisector computable general equilibrium model to analyze policy scenarios. Our findings reveal a range of economic, social, and environmental impacts. Initiatives such as social safety nets and food stamps can enhance affordability, while repurposing farm subsidies can improve socio-economic sustainability. Comprehensive policy packages that include social safety nets, repurposing agricultural supports, environmental regulation and investment in sustainable production, can lead to substantial GDP growth, poverty reduction, and dietary enhancements. However, each intervention presents distinct trade-offs between economic gains and environmental implications. This analysis underscores the need for a holistic policy approach when trying to achieve multiple sustainability goals. Implementing a blend of policies designed to promote environmental, social, and economic sustainability simultaneously could drive Indonesia towards a sustainable and resilient food system, addressing the complex interplay between economic development, environmental conservation, and improved nutrition.

Year published

2024

Authors

Laborde Debucquet, David; Olivetti, Elsa B.; Piñeiro, Valeria; Illescas, Nelson

Citation

Laborde, David; Olivetti, Elsa; Piñeiro, Valeria; and Illescas, Nelson. 2024. Addressing food system transformation, food security, and deforestation in Indonesia: Challenges and opportunities. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2265. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://doi.org/10.4060/cd1411en

Country/Region

Indonesia

Keywords

South-eastern Asia; Asia; Food Systems; Computable General Equilibrium Models; Policies; Social Safety Nets; Sustainable Development; Agriculture; Economic Development; Nutrition; Poverty

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-NC-SA-3.0-IGO

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https://doi.org/10.4060/cd1411en Source record

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Quality upgrading in dairy value chains: Mixed methods evidence from southwestern Uganda

2024Ariong, Richard M.; Chamberlin, Jordan; Kariuki, Sarah Wairimu; Van Campenhout, Bjorn
Details

Quality upgrading in dairy value chains: Mixed methods evidence from southwestern Uganda

Quality upgrading may be lagging in value chains where the assessment and traceability of the quality of the underlying commodity is challenging. In Uganda’s southwestern milk shed, a variety of initiatives are trying to increase the quality of raw milk in dairy value chains. These initiatives generally involve the introduction of technologies that enable measurement of key quality parameters at strategic nodes in the value chain, in conjunction with a system that allows for tracking of these parameters throughout the supply chain. In this paper, we use a combination of focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and quantitative data that is generated by these initiatives to document outputs, describe emerging outcomes, and reflect on the potential impact. We find clear evidence that milk quality improved, but the effects on milk prices are more subtle.

Year published

2024

Authors

Ariong, Richard M.; Chamberlin, Jordan; Kariuki, Sarah Wairimu; Van Campenhout, Bjorn

Citation

Ariong, Richard M.; Chamberlin, Jordan; Kariuki, Sarah Wairimu; and Van Campenhout, Bjorn. 2024. Quality upgrading in dairy value chains: Mixed methods evidence from southwestern Uganda. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2264. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/149239

Country/Region

Uganda

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Dairy Value Chains; Raw Milk; Research Methods; Technology

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Rethinking Food Markets

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Revisiting the demand and profitability of chemical fertilizers amid global fuel-food-fertilizer crisis: Evidence from Ethiopia

2024Assefa, Thomas; Berhane, Guush; Abate, Gashaw T.; Abay, Kibrom A.
Details

Revisiting the demand and profitability of chemical fertilizers amid global fuel-food-fertilizer crisis: Evidence from Ethiopia

We revisit the state of smallholder fertilizer demand and profitability in Ethiopia in the face of the recent global fuel–food–fertilizer price crisis triggered by the Russian–Ukraine war and compounded by other domestic supply shocks. We first examine farmers’ response to changes in both fertilizer and food prices by estimating price elasticity of demand. We then revisit the profitability of fertilizer by computing average value–cost ratios (AVCRs) associated with fertilizer application before and after these crises. We use three-round detailed longitudinal household survey data, covering both pre-crisis (2016 and 2019) and post-crisis (2023) production periods, focusing on three main staple crops in Ethiopia (maize, teff, and wheat). Our analysis shows that fertilizer adoption, use, and yield levels were increasing until the recent crises, but these trends seem halted by these crises. We also find relatively large fertilizer price elasticity of demand estimates, ranging between 0.4 and 1.1, which vary across crops and are substantially larger than previous estimates. We find suggestive evidence that households with smaller farm sizes are relatively more responsive to changes in fertilizer prices. We also document that farmers’ response to increases in staple crop prices is not as strong as perceived and hence appears to be statistically insignificant. Finally, we show important dynamics in the profitability of chemical fertilizer. While the AVCRs show profitable trends for most crops, the share of farmers with profitable AVCRs declined following the fertilizer price surge. Our findings offer important insights for policy focusing on mitigating the adverse effects of fertilizer price shocks.

Year published

2024

Authors

Assefa, Thomas; Berhane, Guush; Abate, Gashaw T.; Abay, Kibrom A.

Citation

Assefa, Thomas; Berhane, Guush; Abate, Gashaw T.; and Abay, Kibrom. 2024. 2024. Revisiting the demand and profitability of chemical fertilizers amid global fuel-food-fertilizer crisis: Evidence from Ethiopia. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2263. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Fertilizer Application; Smallholders; Household Surveys; Yield Response Factor; Shock

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

National Policies and Strategies

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

The effectiveness of cash and cash plus interventions on livelihoods outcomes: Evidence from a systematic review and meta-analysis

2024Leight, Jessica; Hirvonen, Kalle; Zafar, Sarim
Details

The effectiveness of cash and cash plus interventions on livelihoods outcomes: Evidence from a systematic review and meta-analysis

Over the last 20 years, a burgeoning scholarly literature has analyzed the effects of cash transfer and cash plus interventions in a wide range of contexts and using a range of empirical designs. We conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to estimate the pooled effect of any cash or cash plus intervention on livelihoods-related outcomes (consumption, income and labor supply), ultimately compiling 305 different treatment estimates from 155 treatment arms in 104 studies (and in 43 countries). Using random effects and multilevel models, our findings suggest that cash transfer programming is associated with an increase of between $1 and $2 in monthly household consumption and income per $100 in cumulative transfers, an effect that persists for a period of roughly three years (inclusive of the period of program implementation); this effect is meaningfully larger (as much as $4 larger) for cash transfer programs that also include a cash plus livelihoods intervention. There are no significant effects observed on labor force participation. We also present a range of estimates capturing the longer-term (cumulative) effects of cash transfers on consumption under alternate assumptions.

Year published

2024

Authors

Leight, Jessica; Hirvonen, Kalle; Zafar, Sarim

Citation

Leight, Jessica; Hirvonen, Kalle; and Zafar, Sarim. 2024. The effectiveness of cash and cash plus interventions on livelihoods outcomes: Evidence from a systematic review and meta-analysis. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2262. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148881

Keywords

Cash Transfers; Consumption; Income; Livelihoods

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Fragility, Conflict, and Migration

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Farmer groups as ICT Hubs: Findings from a cluster-randomized controlled trial in Malawi

2024Ragasa, Catherine; Ma, Ning; Hami, Emmanuel
Details

Farmer groups as ICT Hubs: Findings from a cluster-randomized controlled trial in Malawi

Many rural producer groups face poor management practices, low productivity, and weak market linkages. An information and communication technology (ICT)-based intervention bundle was provided to producer groups to transform them into ICT hubs, where members learn about and adopt improved management practices and increase their productivity and incomes. The intervention bundle includes phone messages and videos, promotion of the call center/hotline, and facilitation of radio listening clubs and collective marketing. The study, a cluster-randomized controlled trial, randomly assigned 59 groups into treatment groups and 59 into control groups. After 18 months of interventions, results show positive but small impact on crop sales (USD65 per household) and no impact on productivity. The income effect was mainly from Kasungu and Nkhota-kota, which experienced increased production and sales of rice, soybean, and groundnut and received higher prices due to collective marketing. Farmers in Kasungu and Nkhota-kota improved a few agricultural management practices, while farmers in other districts did not improve their management practices. Results show more farmers accessing phone messaging on agriculture and markets, greater awareness and use of the call center, more listening groups established, and more farmers—especially women—joining these groups. Nevertheless, coverage and uptake remain very low, which are likely reasons for the limited impact.

Year published

2024

Authors

Ragasa, Catherine; Ma, Ning; Hami, Emmanuel

Citation

Ragasa, Catherine; Ma, Ning; and Hami, Emmanuel. 2024. Farmer groups as ICT Hubs: Findings from a cluster-randomized controlled trial in Malawi. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2261. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148814

Country/Region

Malawi

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Markets; Information and Communication Technologies; Digital Agriculture; Digital Extension Tools; Impact Assessment; Sales; Productivity; Agriculture

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Two decades after Maputo, What’s in the CAADP ten percent? Determinants and effects of the composition of government agriculture expenditure in Africa

2024Benin, Samuel
Details

Two decades after Maputo, What’s in the CAADP ten percent? Determinants and effects of the composition of government agriculture expenditure in Africa

This paper analyzes the determinants of the composition of government agriculture expenditure (GAE) in Africa and estimates the effect of the composition on agricultural productivity using cross-country annual data from 2014 to 2020 and structural equations modeling methods. It includes different specifications of the explanatory variables to assess the sensitivity of the results to different assumptions of the conceptual variables that are hypothesized to affect the composition and pathways of impact of government expenditure. The results show that there is a wide variation in GAE across African countries, and few have achieved the 10 percent CAADP agriculture expenditure target. Most African countries spend much smaller proportions of the national budget on agriculture than the sector’s share in the economy, and total agriculture expenditure seems to be allocated across subsectors according to their relative contribution to the sector’s output, with forestry and fisheries being slightly favored compared with crops and livestock, which dominate the sector. The allocation is also affected by several factors, such as past output and size of the subsector, official development assistance, education, irrigation, and state of agricultural transformation, although there are cross-subsector differences in their influence. There are also subsector differences in the estimated effect of GAE on land productivity: 0.06 to 0.08 for expenditure on the total sector, 0.02 for research, 0 to 0.09 for crops, 0 to 0.08 for livestock, and 0 to 0.07 for fisheries. The lower bound of zero means that the estimated effect is not statistically significant in some of the model specifications, such as whether cross-subsector expenditure effects are considered. We discuss implications of the results and suggestions for future research.

Year published

2024

Authors

Benin, Samuel

Citation

Benin, Samuel. 2024. Two decades after Maputo, What’s in the CAADP ten percent? Determinants and effects of the composition of government agriculture expenditure in Africa. Discussion Paper 2260. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148782

Keywords

Africa; Agricultural Productivity; Agriculture; Caadp; Data; Expenditure

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Barriers and facilitators to women’s participation in farmer producer organizations: A qualitative study exploring women’s empowerment and collective efficacy in Jharkhand, India

2024Bhanjdeo, Arundhita
Details

Barriers and facilitators to women’s participation in farmer producer organizations: A qualitative study exploring women’s empowerment and collective efficacy in Jharkhand, India

Over the last decade in India, farmer producer organizations (FPOs) have emerged as a means of collectivizing smallholder farmers and providing them access to extension, innovation, and market services. FPOs that center women farmers, traditionally at a disadvantage vis-à-vis their male counterparts in access to resources and extension, can serve to enhance women’s agency and collective action in agricultural value chains. We used 59 key informant interviews and nine focus group discussions to examine the constraints to, and facilitators of, women’s and men’s participation in three women-only FPOs in Jharkhand, an eastern Indian state. Additionally, we study the gender and power dynamics in such FPOs and the potential of collective efficacy to enhance agricultural and empowerment outcomes. The FPO intervention we evaluated was supported by an NGO that provides FPO members with both agricultural and gender-based inputs to improve agronomic practices, market linkages, agricultural yields and profits, and the role of women both within the FPO and within their households and communities. In this paper, we provide contextual insights on ‘what works’ to empower women in this context. Women’s perceptions of the benefits from FPO membership were heterogeneous. Our qualitative analysis suggests a nuanced picture of women’s autonomy and decision-making within and outside their household, further shaped by women’s and men’s perception of shifts in women’s access to resources and services. The emerging lessons provide inputs for development implementers and policymakers to recognize diverse contextual barriers in designing FPO interventions to enable and enhance women empowerment outcomes. The research also contributes to the body of knowledge on local gender norms and understanding of empowerment.

Year published

2024

Authors

Bhanjdeo, Arundhita

Citation

Bhanjdeo, Arundhita. 2024. Barriers and facilitators to women’s participation in farmer producer organizations: A qualitative study exploring women’s empowerment and collective efficacy in Jharkhand, India. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2259. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/145187

Country/Region

India

Keywords

Asia; Southern Asia; Agricultural Value Chains; Collectivization; Extension; Gender; Innovation; Women’s Empowerment

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Agriculture for Nutrition and Health

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Buyers’ response to third-party quality certification: Theory and evidence from Ethiopian wheat traders

2024Abate, Gashaw T.; Bernard, Tanguy; Bulte, Erwin; Miguel, Jérémy Do Nascimento; Sadoulet, Elisabeth
Details

Buyers’ response to third-party quality certification: Theory and evidence from Ethiopian wheat traders

When quality attributes of a product are not directly observable, third-party certification (TPC) enables buyers to purchase the quality they are most interested in and reward sellers accordingly. Beyond product characteristics, buyers’ use of TPC services also depends on market conditions. We study the introduction of TPC in typical smallholder-based agriculture value chains of low-income countries, where traders must aggregate products from many small-scale producers before selling in bulk to downstream processors, and where introduction of TPC services has oftentimes failed. We develop a theoretical model identifying how different market conditions affect traders’ choice to purchase quality-certified output from farmers. Using a purposefully designed lab-in-the-field experiment with rural wheat traders in Ethiopia, we find mixed support for the model’s prediction: traders’ willingness to specialize in certified output does increase with the share of certified wheat in the market, and this effect is stronger in larger markets. It, however, does not decrease with the quality of uncertified wheat in the market. We further analyze conditions where traders deviate from the theoretically optimal behavior and discuss implications for future research and public policies seeking to promote TPC in smallholder-based food value-chains.

Year published

2024

Authors

Abate, Gashaw T.; Bernard, Tanguy; Bulte, Erwin; Miguel, Jérémy Do Nascimento; Sadoulet, Elisabeth

Citation

Abate, Gashaw T.; Bernard, Tanguy; Bulte, Erwin; Miguel, Jérémy Do Nascimento; and Sadoulet, Elisabeth. 2024. Buyers’ response to third-party quality certification: Theory and evidence from Ethiopian wheat traders. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2258. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/144973

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Agriculture; Certification; Markets; Quality; Smallholders

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Rethinking Food Markets

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Social protection and gender: policy, practice and research

2024Hidrobo, Melissa; Peterman, Amber; Kumar, Neha; Lambon-Quayefio, Monica; Roy, Shalini; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Paz, Flor
Details

Social protection and gender: policy, practice and research

Gender considerations in the design and delivery of social protection programs are critical to meet overall objectives of reducing poverty and vulnerability. We provide an overview of the policy discourse and research on social protection and gender in low- and middle-income countries, focusing on social assistance, social care, and social insurance. Taking a ‘review of reviews’ approach, we aggregate findings from rigorous evaluations on women’s health, economic, empowerment, and violence impacts. We show there is robust evidence that social assistance has beneficial effects across all four domains. In addition, there is emerging evidence that social care has positive impacts on women’s economic outcomes, but scarce evidence of its impacts on other domains. Aggregated evidence on the impacts of social insurance are lacking. Key design elements facilitating positive impacts for women relate to gender targeting; quality complementary programming; replacing conditionalities with soft nudges; ensuring the value, frequency, and duration of benefits are sufficient; and gender-sensitive operational components. We close with a discussion of evidence gaps and priorities for future research.

Year published

2024

Authors

Hidrobo, Melissa; Peterman, Amber; Kumar, Neha; Lambon-Quayefio, Monica; Roy, Shalini; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Paz, Flor

Citation

Hidrobo, Melissa; Peterman, Amber; Kumar, Neha; Lambon-Quayefio, Monica; Roy, Shalini; Gilligan, Daniel O.; and Paz, Flor. 2024. Social protection and gender: policy, practice and research. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2257. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/144240

Keywords

Gender; Poverty; Social Protection; Vulnerability; Women’s Empowerment

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Gender Equality

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Measuring land rental market participation in smallholder agriculture can survey design innovations improve land market participation statistics?

2024Abate, Gashaw T.; Abay, Kibrom A.; Chamberlin, Jordan; Sebsibie, Samuel
Details

Measuring land rental market participation in smallholder agriculture can survey design innovations improve land market participation statistics?

The emergence of rural land rental markets in Sub-Saharan Africa is recognized as a key component of the region’s ongoing economic transformation. However, the evidence base on land market participation relies on survey-derived measures, which do not always cohere when compared and triangulated, suggesting the possibility of non-trivial measurement error. We report the results of a priming and list experiments designed to shed light on a persistent mystery in rural household survey data from Africa: why there are so many fewer self-reported landlords (renters-out) than tenants (renters-in)? Our design addresses two hypotheses using experimental data from Ethiopia. First, rented-out and rented-in land may be systematically underreported because enumerators and respondents are typically primed to emphasize parcels that are actively managed/cultivated by the household. Second, rented or sharecropped-out land may be systematically underreported because of respondents’ reluctance to acknowledge an activity for which public disclosure may have negative repercussions. We address the first hypothesis with a priming experiment by exposing a random subset of respondents to a nudge that explicitly reminded them to fully account for all land, including rented/sharecropped-in and rented/sharecropped-out. We address the second hypothesis with a double-list experiment, designed to elicit true rates of land renting and sharecropping-out. We find that nudging induces about 4 percentage points increase (or 13% in relative terms) in the share of households participating in renting in or sharecropping-in practices but has negligible effects on reported rates of renting and sharecropping-out. Interestingly, our list experiment indicates much higher revealed rates of renting-out (14-15%) than is reflected in the nominal parcel-roster responses (3%). The magnitude of the latter finding fully explains the apparent difference in renting in versus renting-out rates derived from the regular parcel roster responses. These results indicate that efforts to document land market participation rate and associated impacts must overcome large systematic reporting biases.

Year published

2024

Authors

Abate, Gashaw T.; Abay, Kibrom A.; Chamberlin, Jordan; Sebsibie, Samuel

Citation

Abate, Gashaw Tadesse; Abay, Kibrom A.; Chamberlin, Jordan; and Sebsibie, Samuel. 2024. Measuring land rental market participation in smallholder agriculture can survey design innovations improve land market participation statistics? IFPRI Discussion Papers 2255. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/144206

Keywords

Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Land; Households; Survey Design; Surveys

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

A network-driven data collection approach for agri-food value chains

2024Ambler, Kate; Bloem, Jeffrey R.; de Brauw, Alan; Herskowitz, Sylvan; Wagner, Julia
Details

A network-driven data collection approach for agri-food value chains

A key challenge in systematically collecting data on intermediary agri-food value chain actors is that value chains take the form of a network, with actors linked by a series of transactions. Moreover, we have limited ex ante knowledge about the structure or scale of these networks, which complicates the construction of valid sampling frames and limits traditional random sampling approaches to collect data. To address these challenges, we adapt the respondent-driven sampling approach to collect data on intermediary agri-food value chain actors within their transaction-linked network and implement this approach in the arabica coffee and soybean value chains in Uganda and the rice and potato value chains in Bangladesh. We observe meaningful heterogeneity in the structure and scale of agri-food value chains across commodities and countries. Focusing on traders, we show that the respondent-driven sampling approach generates a larger sample of traders who differ in observable characteristics (i.e., value added, enterprise scale, and financial access) compared to a sub-sample of traders generated in a way that mimics traditional random sampling approaches used to study traders. We conclude by discussing how this respondent-driven sampling approach, applied within transaction-linked networks, can provide a useful data collection method for studying intermediary agri-food value chain actors.

Year published

2024

Authors

Ambler, Kate; Bloem, Jeffrey R.; de Brauw, Alan; Herskowitz, Sylvan; Wagner, Julia

Citation

Ambler, Kate; Bloem, Jeffrey R.; de Brauw, Alan; Herskowitz, Sylvan; and Wagner, Julia. 2024. A network-driven data collection approach for agri-food value chains. Discussion Paper 2256. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/144207

Country/Region

Bangladesh; Uganda

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Southern Asia; Data; Agrifood Systems; Value Chains; Networks; Arabica Coffee; Soybeans; Rice; Potatoes

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Rethinking Food Markets

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Measuring women’s empowerment in national surveys: Development of the Women’s Empowerment Metric for National Statistical Systems (WEMNS)

2024
Seymour, Greg; Heckert, Jessica; Quisumbing, Agnes R.; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.; Malapit, Hazel J.; Paz, Florencia; Faas, Simone; Myers, Emily; Doss, Cheryl; Sinharoy, Sheela S.
…more Cheong, Yuk Fai; Yount, Kathryn M.; Hassan, Md. Zahidul; Hassan, Md. Imrul; Sharma, Sudhindra; Pokhrel, Pankaj; Sagastume, Mónica Dardón; Kanyanda, Shelton S. E.; Vundru, Wilbert D.; Moylan, Heather
Details

Measuring women’s empowerment in national surveys: Development of the Women’s Empowerment Metric for National Statistical Systems (WEMNS)

Monitoring progress toward Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5—achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls—remains challenging unless we incorporate women’s empowerment metrics into nationally representative and multi-topic surveys. To address this data gap, we designed the Women’s Empowerment Metric for National Statistical Systems (WEMNS) as a streamlined empowerment module suitable for the 50×2030 Initiative, a global partnership that aims to build capacity and close the agricultural data gap in 50 countries by 2030, as well as other large multi-topic surveys. WEMNS measures women’s and men’s empowerment and is applicable to urban and rural areas and a variety of livelihood strategies (farming, self-employment, wage labor) across countries in different stages of structural transformation. WEMNS is a counting-based, multidimensional index composed of four domains: intrinsic agency, instrumental agency, collective agency, and agency-enabling resources. Each domain is measured with binary indicators derived from question sets in the WEMNS module. In this paper, we describe the development and testing of WEMNS and its components, including: (1) WEMNS’s distinctiveness from other empowerment metrics; (2) the iterative approach used to develop and pilot the WEMNS module in Bangladesh, Guatemala, Malawi, and Nepal, using cognitive interviewing, phone surveys, and face-to-face surveys; (3) analysis of quantitative pilot data; and (4) a summary of the findings from the cognitive interviewing. The paper concludes with a discussion of lessons learned and possibilities for further development of WEMNS and other empowerment metrics.

Year published

2024

Authors

Seymour, Greg; Heckert, Jessica; Quisumbing, Agnes R.; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.; Malapit, Hazel J.; Paz, Florencia; Faas, Simone; Myers, Emily; Doss, Cheryl; Sinharoy, Sheela S.; Cheong, Yuk Fai; Yount, Kathryn M.; Hassan, Md. Zahidul; Hassan, Md. Imrul; Sharma, Sudhindra; Pokhrel, Pankaj; Sagastume, Mónica Dardón; Kanyanda, Shelton S. E.; Vundru, Wilbert D.; Moylan, Heather

Citation

Seymour, Greg; Heckert, Jessica; Quisumbing, Agnes; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth; Malapit, Hazel; Paz, Florencia; Faas, Simone; Myers, Emily; et al. 2024. Measuring women’s empowerment in national surveys: Development of the Women’s Empowerment Metric for National Statistical Systems (WEMNS). Discussion Paper 2254. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute

Keywords

Gender Equality; Women; Women’s Empowerment; Data; Agricultural Development; Livelihoods; Surveys

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Agriculture for Nutrition and Health

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Assessing the impact of rice price stabilization policies in Bangladesh: Results from a stochastic spatial equilibrium model

2024Minot, Nicholas; Hossain, Shahadat; Kabir, Razin; Dorosh, Paul A.; Rashid, Shahidur
Details

Assessing the impact of rice price stabilization policies in Bangladesh: Results from a stochastic spatial equilibrium model

Rice plays a central role in the diet in Bangladesh and as a source of income for farmers. Although Bangladesh has largely liberalized international trade in rice, it maintains a public food distribution system to stablize prices, distributing an average of 2 million tons of rice per year at a cost of almost US$ 800 million per year. This study explores whether alternative policies could achieve similar stabilization at a lower cost. It uses a stochastic spatial-equilibrium model of rice markets to simulate monthly prices in eight regions of the country. Stochastic shocks are used to simulate fluctuations in regional production, replicating historical patterns at the region-season level, as well as inter-regional correlation in production shocks. It also simulates fluctuation in world rice prices, mimicking the mean, variance, and serial correlation of historical wholesale prices of rice in Delhi. Public procurement and distribution follow historic averages by month and region. Private storage is represented by a simplified version of rational expectations models, in which net storage is a non-linear function of availability in the previous month. One set of simulations tests alternative levels of distribution, finding that cutting distribution to 1 million tons would have minimal effects on the level of rice price stability. Another set of simulations tested different import tariff levels, including the baseline rate of 25%1. We find that lower tariffs result in both lower rice prices and less price instability, as world rice prices tend to be more stable than local prices. Simulating a buffer stock with different price bands shows that a narrow band can achieve high price stability but at a high fiscal cost. A 20 T/kg (USD 0.26/kg) price band generates similar price stabilization at a lower cost compared to current policy. However, it is difficult to set the “right” purchase and sale price, and many simulations result in exhausting reserves or reaching warehouse capacity. An adaptive buffer stock, in which the price is adjusted as the stock runs too low or too high, solves some of these problems. In general, the study finds that current procurement and distribution patterns do not match well with the regional and monthly patterns of surplus and deficit, possibly reflecting multiple and conflicting goals of the public food distribution system.

Year published

2024

Authors

Minot, Nicholas; Hossain, Shahadat; Kabir, Razin; Dorosh, Paul A.; Rashid, Shahidur

Citation

Minot, Nicholas; Hossain, Shahadat; Kabir, Razin; Dorosh, Paul A.; and Rashid, Shahidur. 2024. Assessing the impact of rice price stabilization policies in Bangladesh: Results from a stochastic spatial equilibrium model. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2252. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/141799

Country/Region

Bangladesh

Keywords

Asia; Southern Asia; Equilibrium; Price Stabilization; Stochastic Models; Rice; Tariffs

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

The enabling environment for large-scale food fortification in Madagascar

2024Resnick, Danielle
Details

The enabling environment for large-scale food fortification in Madagascar

Why is there high variability—both across countries and across different food staples—in the adoption and implementation of large-scale food fortification (LSFF)? A systematic diagnostic of the enabling environment for LSFF can identify key bottlenecks and help to calibrate policy interventions appropriately. This paper delineates the components of such a tool by focusing on two core elements of the enabling environment—political will and implementation capacity—and applies the framework to Madagascar. With more than 75 percent of its population living below the poverty line and almost 40 percent of children under five who are stunted, Madagascar faces major hurdles to addressing malnutrition, including weak consumer purchasing power, recurrent political crises, and frequent climate shocks that undermine agricultural productivity. LSFF has been identified in several national nutrition plans as an option for addressing malnutrition. Yet, thus far, only salt has been fortified at a national scale. Drawing on semi-structured interviews with 31 knowledgeable stakeholders in Madagascar in the areas of mandatory fortification of salt, voluntary targeted fortification of infant flour, and fortification of foods for humanitarian assistance, the framework reveals several key priorities. First, weak governance overall affects several dimensions of nutrition and fortification policy, including policy momentum, commitment, and communication. Nutrition interventions therefore need to be calibrated to the country’s broader political risks, incentive structures, and capacities of relevant civil servants. To this end, fortification advocates should go beyond drawing on the expertise of nutrition professionals alone and also engage public sector governance experts as partners in fortification efforts. Second, major priorities for investment include a large-scale micronutrient and consumption survey to update information on micronutrient deficiencies and identify viable food vehicles for mass fortification. Third, an accredited laboratory to test micronutrients is sorely needed in the country to help reduce costs faced by companies who currently send their products overseas for testing and who face competition from counterfeit products. Fourth, financial and technical partners must pursue a multi-pronged lobby approach to overcome high government taxes on imported premix. Fifth, the National Food Fortification Alliance, which serves as a multi-stakeholder platform, requires a sustainable financing model to attract committed leadership and ensure consistent coordination activities. These and other lessons hold policy relevance for other low-income and fragile settings where LSFF is being considered as an option to address micronutrient deficiencies.

Year published

2024

Authors

Resnick, Danielle

Citation

Resnick, Danielle. 2024. The enabling environment for large-scale food fortification in Madagascar. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2251. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/141798

Country/Region

Madagascar

Keywords

Africa; Southern Africa; Eastern Africa; Environment; Food Fortification; Implementation; Micronutrient Deficiencies; Governance; Fragility

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Food trade policy and food price volatility

2024Martin, Will; Mamun, Abdullah; Minot, Nicholas
Details

Food trade policy and food price volatility

Food trade barriers in many countries are systematically adjusted to insulate domestic markets from world price changes—a response not predicted by traditional political economy models. In this study, policymakers are assumed to minimize the political costs associated with changing domestic prices and deviating from longer-run political-economy equilibria. Error correction techniques applied to domestic and world price data for rice and wheat collected to measure trade policy distortions allow estimation of policy response parameters. The results suggest that systematic short-run price insulation reduces shocks to domestic prices but sharply increases world price volatility and the costs of trade distortions. However, idiosyncratic domestic price shocks resulting from inefficient policy instruments such as quantitative restrictions increase domestic price volatility relative to the magnified volatility of world prices—frequently outweighing the stabilizing impacts of price insulation. This fundamentally changes our understanding of the impacts of price-insulation—from a zero-sum game where some countries reduce the volatility of their prices using beggar-thy-neighbor policies that raise price volatility elsewhere, into one where price volatility rises in most countries. National policy reforms to move away from discretionary, destabilizing policies could lower costs, reduce volatility in domestic and world prices, and facilitate reform of international trade rules.

Year published

2024

Authors

Martin, Will; Mamun, Abdullah; Minot, Nicholas

Citation

Martin, Will; Mamun, Abdullah; and Minot, Nicholas. 2024. Food trade policy and food price volatility. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2253. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/141800

Keywords

Food Prices; Volatility; Consumer Economics; Trade Policies; Behaviour; Econometric Models

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Rethinking Food Markets

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Economic valuation of ecosystem services of selected interventions in agriculture in India

2024Kumara T M, Kiran; Birthal, Pratap Singh; Meena, Dinesh Chand; Kumar, Anjani
Details

Economic valuation of ecosystem services of selected interventions in agriculture in India

Agriculture is multi-functional, producing economic goods including food, feed, fibre, and fuel, as well as providing several intangible or non-tradable services to society free of cost. Non-tradable services, unlike economic goods, remain unpriced; as a result, farmers are not compensated monetarily for the benefits of the several non-tradable services they provide through agriculture. Recognizing the monetary value of non-tradable ecosystem services is crucial to incentivize farmers to adopt eco-friendly technologies and practices for the sustainable development of agriculture. Through a meta-analysis of the existing evidence on ecosystem services, this study attempts to estimate the value of ecosystem services by using direct and indirect valuation methods—for example, carbon sequestration, methane emission, nutrient availability, biological nitrogen fixation, and water saving—generated by several important technological and agronomic interventions, namely the direct seeding of rice (DSR), zero-tillage in wheat, leguminous crops, organic manure, integrated nutrient management, and agroforestry, based on studies conducted in India. It also explores the trade-offs between the non-tradable and tradable ecosystem services attributable to these interventions. The monetary value of the non-tradable services resulting from most of these interventions is quite large, 34–77% of the total value of all the ecosystem services. However, not all interventions result in a win-win situation that yields improvements in both tradable and non-tradable outcomes. While no-till wheat, legumes, and integrated nutrient management result in a win-win outcome, there are trade-offs between the tradable and non tradable ecosystem services in the cases of directed seed rice, organic manure, and agroforestry. This evidence suggests that not all agricultural technologies and practices are beneficial for farmers, despite their higher environmental benefits. Thus, the findings of this study imply that agricultural policy should provide incentives for the adoption of technologies and practices to conserve ecosystems and natural resources.

Year published

2024

Authors

Kumara T M, Kiran; Birthal, Pratap Singh; Meena, Dinesh Chand; Kumar, Anjani

Citation

Kumara T M, Kiran; Birthal, Pratap Singh; Meena, Dinesh Chand; and Kumar, Anjani. 2024. Economic valuation of ecosystem services of selected interventions in agriculture in India. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2250. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/140796

Country/Region

India

Keywords

Southern Asia; Ecosystem Services; Agriculture; Economic Value; Farmers; Sustainability; Incentives; Technology Adoption

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Nutrition-sensitive agriculture diversification and dietary diversity: Panel data evidence from Tajikistan

2024Takeshima, Hiroyuki; Lambrecht, Isabel; Akramov, Kamiljon; Ergasheva, Tanzila
Details

Nutrition-sensitive agriculture diversification and dietary diversity: Panel data evidence from Tajikistan

Nutrition-sensitive agricultural diversification continues to receive interest among developing country stakeholders as a viable option for achieving dual goals of poverty reduction and food/nutrition security improvements. Assessing the effectiveness of this strategy is also essential in countries like Tajikistan. We attempt to enrich the evidence base in this regard. We assess the linkages between household-level agricultural diversification and dietary diversity (both household- and individual-levels) using unique panel samples of households and individual women of reproductive ages in the Khatlon province. Using difference-in-difference propensity-score methods and panel fixed-effects instrumental variable regressions, we show that higher agricultural diversification together with greater overall production per worker and land at the household level leads to higher dietary diversity, particularly in areas with poor food market access. Typology analyses and crop-specific analyses suggest that vegetables, fruits, legumes/nuts/seeds, dairy products and eggs are particularly important commodities for which a farmer’s own production contributes to dietary diversity improvement. Furthermore, decomposition exercises within the subsistence farming framework suggest that nutritional returns and costs of agricultural diversification vary across households, and expected nutritional returns may be partly driving the adoption of agricultural diversification. In other words, households’ decisions to diversify agriculture may be partly driven by potential nutritional benefits associated with enhanced direct on-farm access to diverse food items rather than farm income growth alone. Our findings underscore the importance of supporting household farm diversification in Tajikistan to support improved nutrition intake, especially among those living in remote areas. In a low-income setting with limited local employment opportunities that is vulnerable to a wide range of external shocks, this will likely continue to be one of the most straightforward and realistic paths to improving household’s nutrition resilience.

Year published

2024

Authors

Takeshima, Hiroyuki; Lambrecht, Isabel; Akramov, Kamiljon; Ergasheva, Tanzila

Citation

Takeshima, Hiroyuki; Lambrecht, Isabel; Akramov, Kamiljon; and Ergasheva, Tanzila. 2024. Nutrition-sensitive agriculture diversification and dietary diversity: Panel data evidence from Tajikistan. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2249. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/140750

Country/Region

Tajikistan

Keywords

Asia; Central Asia; Dietary Diversity; Food Security; Nutrition; Propensity Score Matching; Agriculture; Modelling

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Fragility to Resilience in Central and West Asia and North Africa

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Claim-making under India’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA): Barriers and opportunities for women’s voice and agency over asset selection

2024Kosec, Katrina; Kyle, Jordan; Narayanan, Sudha; Raghunathan, Kalyani; Ray, Soumyajit
Details

Claim-making under India’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA): Barriers and opportunities for women’s voice and agency over asset selection

This paper examines the dynamics of women’s claim-making within the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) scheme in India, focusing on their participation in selecting durable assets for climate resilience. Despite legal entitlements and protections for women within the program, gender disparities persist in claiming public resources. Utilizing a mixed-methods approach including surveys and qualitative interviews, the study uncovers various pathways to women’s claim-making, influenced by factors such as gender norms around mobility and women’s voice and agency, internal barriers and constraints including comfort in public speaking, and knowledge of the program and its various procedures for selecting assets. While challenges to women’s effective participation remain, findings from our analysis suggest potential for interventions to reduce gender gaps and enhance inclusivity in planning processes. Moreover, the study underscores the importance of recognizing diverse claim-making pathways to promote inclusion effectively within the program.

Year published

2024

Authors

Kosec, Katrina; Kyle, Jordan; Narayanan, Sudha; Raghunathan, Kalyani; Ray, Soumyajit

Citation

Kosec, Katrina; Kyle, Jordan; Narayanan, Sudha; Raghunathan, Kalyani; and Ray, Soumyajit. 2024. Claim-making under India’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA): Barriers and opportunities for women’s voice and agency over asset selection. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2247. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.

Country/Region

India

Keywords

Asia; Southern Asia; Climate Resilience; Gender Equality; Infrastructure; Women’s Empowerment; Employment; Women’s Participation; Gender Norms; Governance

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Gender Equality

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

A qualitative study exploring women’s empowerment in coffee cooperatives in Chiapas, Mexico

2024Eissler, Sarah; Rubin, Deborah; de Anda, Victoria
Details

A qualitative study exploring women’s empowerment in coffee cooperatives in Chiapas, Mexico

This study presents findings from a qualitative research study conducted in Chiapas, Mexico that is one component of a larger activity funded by the Walmart Foundation and implemented by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), titled Applying New Evidence for Women’s Empowerment (ANEW). ANEW seeks to generate evidence from mixed-methods evaluations of women’s empowerment in production and other entrepreneurial efforts at different nodes of agricultural value chains and aims to develop and validate measures of women’s empowerment that focus on agricultural marketing and collective empowerment at the group level, both of which build upon the project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index for Market Inclusion (pro-WEAI+MI). In this report, we present findings of a qualitative study of coffee cooperatives supported by Root Capital in Chiapas, Mexico and how Root Capital engages with them to advance women’s economic empowerment, among other objectives. As part of this study, we aimed to describe the gender dynamics and roles and responsibilities of men and women in the coffee value chain in Chiapas, and the opportunities and barriers faced as a result of these dynamics. This study employed qualitative methods to collect primary data from types of respondents using individual and group interviews. Two coffee cooperatives in Chiapas that work with Root Capital were selected to participate in this study. From June to July 2023, 21 individual interviews and 9 group interviews were conducted with market actors, men and women coffee cooperative leaders, men and women cooperative members and their wives, and Root Capital staff from two municipalities in Chiapas. The data were transcribed into Spanish and then translated into English. These transcripts were analyzed using thematic analysis in NVivo software. A codebook inclusive of inductive and deductive themes was developed to guide the thematic analysis. This study design adhered to best practices for ethical research and received approval from IFPRI’s IRB. Several limitations should be considered when reviewing the findings and conclusions of this study. There exist defined gender roles and divisions of labor at each node of the coffee value chain in Chiapas, and participants often described these roles as expected given social norms or perceived gender-specific limitations of natural abilities that would shape how men or women could engage in different activities. Men and women indicated that while men are in charge of coffee production activities, women do spend time contributing to cleaning and management activities, and that women are heavily involved in the coffee harvest. Both men and women explained that women are responsible for processing activities, which can be time consuming and laborious, but often occur close to the home. Although the coffee harvest activities require physical labor in picking and carrying the baskets of ripened cherries, there is a perception that women cannot participate in other post-harvesting activities, such as transporting bags of coffee, because the lifting is too physically heavy of a task for women. Men are responsible for managing the sale of coffee and directly negotiating with the buyer to the extent that a negotiation happens. In instances when buyers travel to the household as the point of sale, women can participate in sales, typically facilitating the sale under the direction of her husband. However, women still do not lift the coffee bags nor transport the bags for sale. And many coffee producing households prefer to or sometimes need to hire labor to help with coffee harvest activities; they tend to hire men as laborers more out of preference or their availability compared to women. Men and women interviewed for this study also described their perceptions and understanding of empowerment and elements of an empowered person with relation to engaging in the coffee value chain. Overall, while the concept of an empowered person was difficult for both men and women to relate to, they shared perceptions of how relations between men and women had changed over the years. Respecting women’s rights or the perception of respecting women’s rights was more acknowledged at the time of the interviews than in previous years, and it was more common to see men and women both generating incomes for the household. Men and women shared different perspectives regarding attitudes toward intimate partner violence, whereas both acknowledged men often mistreated their wives, but women discussed it as a private matter where men shared concerns over women’s reaction to the mistreatment rather than the mistreatment itself. Varying access to resources limited both men and women farmer’s ability to advance in the coffee value chain, particularly access to credit, which was limited for both men and women in the study areas. Limited access to credit with favorable or reasonable terms limited men’s and women’s ability to hire additional labor on their coffee farm or to purchase machines that would reduce specifically women’s time burdens within the household. Women’s time use is constrained by expectations and normative tasks in ways that men are not constrained. Future research is needed and discussed to better understand these dynamics of gendered roles and relations and elements of empowerment in the coffee value chain in Chiapas. Men and women members of the two respective cooperatives shared differences in how they were able to participate in and benefit from their participation in each cooperative. One cooperative provided more opportunities for members to directly engage in meetings, social activities, and capacity building opportunities whereas the other operated through a more decentralized structure and did not offer opportunities for members to directly participate in decision-making or meetings beyond the representation of their delegate. Members of both cooperatives perceived their cooperatives to be consistent and reliable coffee buyers offering stable prices. The former cooperative was also perceived as a source of support and community for members to advance their coffee production and post-harvesting activities. Both cooperatives also addressed key barriers faced by members, such as providing consistent and reliable pricing. Some members reported that cooperatives offered higher prices than those offered by non-cooperative buyers. Cooperatives also provided transportation options for producers to sell their coffee, which also enables women to have more engagement in coffee sales. However, normative barriers, such as women’s existing time burdens and their need for their husbands’ permission, limits women’s full participation in the cooperatives. Finally, we explored the extent to which Root Capital’s engagement with the cooperatives had supported activities or changes that strengthen women’s empowerment by understanding members and leaders’ perceptions of this engagement. Overall, cooperative members were generally unaware of Root Capital and its engagement with the cooperative. Since Root Capital does not provide direct services to farmers or cooperative members, it was not surprising that many cooperative members were generally unaware of Root Capital and its engagement with the cooperative. However, a few were aware of Root Capital, knowing it had provided their cooperative a loan to purchase and maintain a truck, which was used to reduce barriers faced by producers to bring their coffee to the point of sale and had implications for shifting gender roles to manage coffee sales. Cooperative leaders reflected on the loan that facilitated increased transportation capacity, as well as other benefits from working with Root Capital. However, as Root Capital operates with a client-driven approach, adoption of the Gender Equity Advisory services was limited as these services only became recently available in 2021 and cooperatives opted not to prioritize these until 2023. Therefore, there was limited data to understand how these activities may be influencing cooperative operations, gender dynamics and roles, and perception of women engaged in the coffee value chain at the time of this study. We present several recommendations for areas of future research and considerations for Root Capital to strengthen its approach to gender equity programming.

Year published

2024

Authors

Eissler, Sarah; Rubin, Deborah; de Anda, Victoria

Citation

Eissler, Sarah; Rubin, Deborah; and de Anda, Victoria. 2024. A qualitative study exploring women’s empowerment in coffee cooperatives in Chiapas, Mexico. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2248. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute.

Country/Region

Mexico

Keywords

Americas; Northern America; Coffee; Cooperatives; Research Methods; Value Chains; Women’s Empowerment; Gender; Collective Behaviour; Qualitative Analysis

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Role of international price and domestic inflation in triggering export restrictions on food commodities

2024Mamun, Abdullah; Laborde Debucquet, David
Details

Role of international price and domestic inflation in triggering export restrictions on food commodities

This paper investigates the drivers of export restrictions on agricultural products based on an original dataset developed at IFPRI. We focus on four food price crises when export restrictions (e.g., ban, tax, licensing etc.) were applied: the 2008 and 2010 food price crises, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the 2022 crisis associated with the Russia-Ukraine war. Although the justifications for such trade policies have been discussed in the literature, the ability to forecast their implementation remains understudied. The probit model used in this study suggests that the inflation rate has a higher power to predict export restrictions than do international commodity prices. The probability of export restrictions increases more when price change is measured from a reference level in the long interval than the short interval. Among the covariates, agricultural land per capita, commodity share in production and export, weather condition increases the chances of imposing export restrictions. Per capita income, population density, share of agriculture in GDP, urbanization rate, political economy indicators – all have a negative influence on this likelihood.

Year published

2024

Authors

Mamun, Abdullah; Laborde Debucquet, David

Citation

Mamun, Abdullah; and Laborde Debucquet, David. 2024. Role of international price and domestic inflation in triggering export restrictions on food commodities. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2246. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/140687

Keywords

Agricultural Products; Commodities; Covid-19; Export Controls; International Trade; War; Trade Liberalization; Exports

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Farm subsidies and global agricultural productivity

2024Mamun, Abdullah
Details

Farm subsidies and global agricultural productivity

The agriculture sector receives substantial fiscal subsidies in various forms, including through programs that are linked to production and others that are decoupled. As the sector has reached the technology frontier in production over the last three decades or so, particularly in high- and middle-income countries, it is intriguing to investigate the impact of subsidies on productivity at aggregate level. This study examines the impact of subsidies on productivity growth in agriculture globally using a long time series on the nominal rate of assistance for 42 countries that covers over 80 percent of agricultural production. The econometric results show heterogenous effects from various subsidy instruments depending on the choice of productivity measure. Regression results suggest a strong positive effect of input subsidies on both output growth and labor productivity. A positive but relatively small impact of output subsidies is found on output growth only. Subsidies that are mostly decoupled reveal no significant impact on any of the productivity measures.

Year published

2024

Authors

Mamun, Abdullah

Citation

Mamun, Abdullah. 2024. Farm subsidies and global agricultural productivity. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2245. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/140668

Keywords

Agricultural Productivity; Agricultural Technology; Econometrics; Globalization; Input Output Analysis; Subsidies

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Rethinking Food Markets

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Corporate taxes and labor market informality evidence from China

2024Deng, Guoying; Du, Pengcheng; Hernandez, Manuel A.; Xu, Shu
Details

Corporate taxes and labor market informality evidence from China

This paper examines the association between corporate income taxes and labor market informality. We present a theoretical framework showing that a higher tax enforcement can push firms to pass on the burden to workers by reducing their social security compliance as well as downsizing and lowering wages. The model propositions are tested using a regression discontinuity design that exploits a national corporate tax reform in China. We find that for every one percentage point increase in the effective tax rate, firms reduce their probability of making basic social security contributions by 0.8%, their compliance rate by 1.4 percentage points, and the probability of making supplementary contributions by 0.6%, while the number of workers and wages fall by 4.4% and 0.7%, respectively. We observe that the effects are more salient among firms privately owned and controlled, large businesses, and in locations where social security contributions are directly collected by the social security administration. The findings suggest that workers not only bear part of the higher corporate taxes faced by firms, but an increase in firms’ tax burden contributes to social security evasion and informality in labor markets. JEL Codes: H32, H55, J30, J23, H25

Year published

2024

Authors

Deng, Guoying; Du, Pengcheng; Hernandez, Manuel A.; Xu, Shu

Citation

Deng, Guoying; Du, Pengcheng; Hernandez, Manuel A.; and Xu, Shu. 2024. Corporate taxes and labor market informality evidence from China. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2244. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/140480

Country/Region

China

Keywords

Asia; Eastern Asia; Taxes; Labour Market; Social Security; Remuneration

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Assessing the vulnerability of national food security to international food price shocks: A new index

2024Minot, Nicholas; Vos, Rob; Kim, Soonho; Park, Beyeong; Zaki, Sediqa; Mamboundou, Pierre
Details

Assessing the vulnerability of national food security to international food price shocks: A new index

Recent spikes in staple food prices resulting from the invasion of Ukraine have once again highlighted the difficulty faced by low-income countries that rely on imports for a substantial portion of their food supply. To better understand which countries are most affected by higher world food prices, we propose a food import vulnerability index (FIVI). One version of the index describes the vulnerability of each country to higher world prices for each of 15 major staple foods. Another version of the FIVI is a national index, aggregating across the 15 commodities. Both are based on three components, the caloric contribution of the commodity(ies) in the national diet, the dependence on imports, and the level of moderate and severe food insecurity in the country. The values of the FIVI are calculated for 2020, the most recent year for which data are available. The results indicate that countries are most adversely affected by increases in the world price of wheat, rice, and maize, followed by sugar, and vegetable oil. This is because the five commodities listed are both major contributors to the diet in many countries and because countries often depend on imports for a large share of the domestic requirements of these foods. Yemen, Djibouti, and Afghanistan are most vulnerable to increases in world wheat prices, while Liberia, Gambia, and Guinea-Bissau are particularly vulnerable to spikes in rice prices. In the case of maize, Zimbabwe, Lesotho, and Eswatini have the highest vulnerability score. These results should help policymakers and development partners target their efforts to reduce food import vulnerability through policies and programs to strengthen resilience.

Year published

2024

Authors

Minot, Nicholas; Vos, Rob; Kim, Soonho; Park, Beyeong; Zaki, Sediqa; Mamboundou, Pierre

Citation

Minot, Nicholas; Vos, Rob; Kim, Soonho; Park, Beyeong; Zaki, Sediqa; and Mamboundou, Pierre. 2024. Assessing the vulnerability of national food security to international food price shocks: A new index. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2243. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/140444

Keywords

Staple Foods; Food Prices; Ukraine; Less Favoured Areas; Vulnerability; Food Security; Imports; Price Volatility

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

The economic importance of cowpea in Nigeria trends and Implications for achieving agri-food system transformation

2024Nwagboso, Chibuzo; Andam, Kwaw S.; Amare, Mulubrhan; Bamiwuye, Temilolu; Fasoranti, Adetunji
Details

The economic importance of cowpea in Nigeria trends and Implications for achieving agri-food system transformation

Nigeria is the largest producer of cowpea in the world and one of the highest consumers. This paper documents the challenges in cowpea production and consumption, export, and import trends in Nigeria. The critical and comparative review reveals several important insights. Cowpea is important for households and communities due to its substantial contributions to food security, nutrition, and revenue production. It plays a pivotal role in supporting various stakeholders involved in the value chain, including producers, processors, traders, and food vendors. Thus, cowpea is a crucial multipurpose crop. Although Nigeria is the largest producer of cowpea in the world, with a total production of 3.6 million tons in 2021, the demand for cowpea surpasses its supply due to factors such as the country’s large population and low productivity. We describe the main challenges encountered in Nigeria’s cowpea production, encompassing a range of issues such as high susceptibility to pests and diseases from planting to storage phases, low adoption of improved cowpea seed varieties, poor soil fertility, drought, and heat stress. The data suggest that low input use, low-yield varieties, and low productivity characterize the current level of cowpea production. Our findings suggest the need for tailored strategies to support the adoption of improved cowpea varieties in Nigeria to increase domestic production, adherence to quality standards, exploration of international markets for export opportunities, and ultimately, household income and improve nutritional outcomes.

Year published

2024

Authors

Nwagboso, Chibuzo; Andam, Kwaw S.; Amare, Mulubrhan; Bamiwuye, Temilolu; Fasoranti, Adetunji

Citation

Nwagboso, Chibuzo; Andam, Kwaw S.; Amare, Mulubrhan; Bamiwuye, Temilolu; and Fasoranti, Adetunji. 2024. The economic importance of cowpea in Nigeria trends and Implications for achieving agri-food system transformation. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2241. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/139672

Country/Region

Nigeria

Keywords

Western Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Agrifood Systems; Cowpeas; Value Chains; Households; Exports; Imports

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

National Policies and Strategies

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Strengthening groundwater governance in Pakistan

2024Rana, Abdul Wajid; Gill, Sitara; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.; ElDidi, Hagar
Details

Strengthening groundwater governance in Pakistan

Pakistan is highly dependent on irrigated agriculture for employment, income generation and food security—around 90 percent of all food production relies on either surface or groundwater irrigation. The growing dependence of agriculture but also industries and the drinking water sector on groundwater has led to the overexploitation of groundwater resources and, in some areas, to the deterioration of groundwater quality. Fiscal incentives for solarization of irrigation/drinking water pumps are likely to further increase water withdrawals and make water governance more complex. To understand the perspectives of groundwater users, a qualitative study was conducted in the alluvial groundwater systems of Punjab as well as the hard rock systems of Balochistan. Interviews with key informants at federal, provincial, and district level were also conducted to capture insights from additional decisionmakers affecting groundwater management and governance. The study identified a series of challenges around groundwater management and use, including overexploitation of groundwater resources, worsening groundwater quality raising serious health challenges, lack of communities’ participation in decision making, particularly women, non-availability of actionable data, weak enforcement of laws and regulations relating to groundwater governance, and partisan decision-making driven by political influentials and local bureaucracies. Solarization of irrigation pumps without proper regulatory and monitoring framework is expected to exacerbate groundwater extraction and accelerate water stress. The study strongly suggests an urgent need for not only integrated water management at all levels with equitable distribution of water resources but also to engage local communities and other stakeholders, including women in water conservancy awareness campaigns, groundwater quality monitoring, and decision-making. Moreover, the management and governance of water, particularly groundwater, must be insulated from political and partisan decision making. It is equally important to look at the quality of groundwater from a wider prism, considering health and water supply, sanitation and hygiene to address the increase in water borne diseases.

Year published

2024

Authors

Rana, Abdul Wajid; Gill, Sitara; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.; ElDidi, Hagar

Citation

Rana, Abdul Wajid; Gill, Sitara; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth; and ElDidi, Hagar. 2024. Strengthening groundwater governance in Pakistan. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2240. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/139604

Country/Region

Pakistan

Keywords

Southern Asia; Asia; Agriculture; Food Security; Groundwater Irrigation; Women; Employment; Governance

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

NEXUS Gains

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Climate change and agriculture in eastern and southern Africa: An updated assessment based on the latest global climate models

2024Thomas, Timothy S.; Robertson, Richard D.
Details

Climate change and agriculture in eastern and southern Africa: An updated assessment based on the latest global climate models

In this paper we present analysis on the recent historical trend in agriculture in the Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) region, along with analysis of recent historical trends in temperature and precipitation. We also present 5 climate models and describe the possible future climates associated with these. We use these climate models with crop models — for seven crops — and bioeconomic models to further assess the impact on agricultural productivity throughout the region and how the agricultural sector will transform through 2050. While we evaluate seven crops in detail, we note the key role that maize plays for the region, and we assess — considering the regional and global impact of climate change — how the role of maize will change over time and whether the change will be rapid enough to shift regional agriculture into a more vibrant sector. We find that while the relative importance of maize to farmers in the region will decline, out to 2050 maize will remain the dominant crop. Additional policies and investments will need to be implemented if the goal is to hasten the transition to higher value or more nutritious crops.

Year published

2024

Authors

Thomas, Timothy S.; Robertson, Richard D.

Citation

Thomas, Timothy S.; and Robertson, Richard D. 2024. Climate change and agriculture in eastern and southern Africa: An updated assessment based on the latest global climate models. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2239. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/139503

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Southern Africa; Africa; Bioeconomic Models; Climate Change; Maize; Crop Modelling; Agricultural Production; Modelling; Climate Models

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Diversification in East and Southern Africa

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

From promises to action: Analyzing global commitments on food security and diets since 2015

2024Zorbas, Christina; Resnick, Danielle; Jones, Eleanor; Suri, Shoba; Iruhiriye, Elyse; Headey, Derek D.; Martin, Will; Vos, Rob; Arndt, Channing; Menon, Purnima
Details

From promises to action: Analyzing global commitments on food security and diets since 2015

Achieving Sustainable Development Goal 2 (SDG 2), Zero Hunger, by 2030 is in jeopardy due to slowing and unequal economic growth, climate shocks, the COVID-19 pandemic, conflict, lackluster efforts toward investing in food system sustainability and agricultural productivity growth, and persistent barriers to open food trade. Nevertheless, numerous commitments to achieving SDG 2 have been repeatedly expressed by Heads of State and Ministers at diverse global meetings since the SDGs became a focus in 2015. To identify the intensity and degree of convergence of commitments that national governments have collectively made to realizing SDG 2, this paper provides a qualitative assessment of statements from more than 68 global meetings and 107 intergovernmental commitment documents since 2015. Analyzing these commitments against seven critical factors necessary for impact at scale, we find that stated intentions to solve the global food security and hunger challenge have become more pronounced at global meetings over time, especially in the wake of the crises. However, the intent to act is not consistently matched by commitments to specific actions that could help accelerate reductions in hunger. For instance, while increased financing is often recognized as a priority to reach SDG 2, few commitments in global fora relate to detailed costing of required investments. Similarly, many commitment statements lack specificity regarding what and how policy interventions should be scaled up for greater action on SDG 2 or the ways to enhance different stakeholders’ capacities to implement them. While horizontal coherence was mentioned across most global fora, it was only present in about half of the commitment statements, with even less recognition of the necessity for vertical coherence from global to local levels. Despite global acknowledgement of the importance of accountability and monitoring, usually by way of progress reports, we find few consequences for governments that do not act on commitments made in global fora. We discuss the implications of these findings and offer recommendations for how to strengthen the commitment-making process to help accelerate actions that can reduce food insecurity and hunger and augment the legitimacy of global meetings. This work can inform the policy advocacy community focused on SDG 2 and those engaged in catalyzing and supporting intergovernmental action on other SDGs. Our findings reiterate the importance of attention to global governance and the political economy of global meetings—which is necessary to strengthen our focus on delivering outcomes that put the world on a path that brings the solution to the problems of global hunger and food insecurity within reach.

Year published

2024

Authors

Zorbas, Christina; Resnick, Danielle; Jones, Eleanor; Suri, Shoba; Iruhiriye, Elyse; Headey, Derek D.; Martin, Will; Vos, Rob; Arndt, Channing; Menon, Purnima

Citation

Zorbas, Christina; Resnick, Danielle; Jones, Eleanor; Suri, Shoba; Iruhiriye, Elyse; Headey, Derek D.; Martin, Will; et al. 2024. From promises to action: Analyzing global commitments on food security and diets since 2015. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2238. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/138946

Keywords

Food Security; Diet; Accountability; Food Policies; Hunger; Governance; Nutrition

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Extreme weather and undernutrition: A critical but constructive review of the literature

2024Headey, Derek D.; Venkat, Aishwarya
Details

Extreme weather and undernutrition: A critical but constructive review of the literature

Climate change is resulting in increased frequency of extreme weather events, especially in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) already characterized by highly vulnerable malnourished populations. Unsurprisingly, there are many empirical studies of the linkages between extreme weather events and undernutrition, especially stunting and wasting in early childhood, and several existing reviews of this literature. However, the quality of empirical studies in this highly multi-disciplinary literature is uneven, and existing reviews do exhaustively illustrate the potential pitfalls of climate-nutrition analyses. In this more critical review, we therefore have five objectives. First, to map out the existing literature, particularly in terms of the types of dependent and independent variables used, the geographies in which different studies focus their analysis, and the types of statistical methods used. Our second objective is to illustrate the empirical limitations and pitfalls of this literature through a more critical review. Our third objective is to be critically constructive, by developing a checklist of good practices for analytical studies in this literature, which we hope will be formalized and broadly adopted. Our fourth objective is to illustrate the usefulness of these good practices through a deep dive into what we consider an exemplary study in the literature from Blom et al. (2022). Our final objective is to identify possible steps for new types of survey methods and data collection, actions for the adoption of best-practice analytical methods and identify important research questions for future research.

Year published

2024

Authors

Headey, Derek D.; Venkat, Aishwarya

Citation

Headey, Derek; and Venkat, Aishwarya. 2024. Extreme weather and undernutrition: A critical but constructive review of the literature. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2236. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/138887

Keywords

Capacity Development; Climate Change; Nutrition; Undernutrition; Extreme Weather Events; Stunting; Wasting Disease (nutritional Disorder)

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Climate Resilience

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

The SDGs and food system challenges: Global trends and scenarios toward 2030

2024Martin, Will; Vos, Rob
Details

The SDGs and food system challenges: Global trends and scenarios toward 2030

Progress toward reducing global hunger has stalled since the mid-2010s. In fact, hunger is on the rise again, driven by slowing economic growth and protracted conflict, intensified by the impacts of climate change and economic shocks in many low- and middle-income countries. In addition, food systems worldwide have suffered disruptions in recent years, caused by the COVID-19-related global recession and associated supply chain disruptions, and exacerbated by the war in Ukraine. These factors have also jeopardized efforts at addressing the challenges to food system sustainability. The 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and the related sustainable development goals (SDGs), defined in 2015, recognize these challenges and set ambitious targets to end hunger and all forms of malnutrition and to make agriculture and food systems sustainable by 2030. Many other fora have restated and reiterated these ambitions, including the 2021 United Nations Food System Summit (UNFSS). While governments around the world have subscribed to these ambitions, collectively they have not been very specific as to how to achieve the SDGs and related goals and targets, except for three means of implementation (MOI) involving (i) increases in research and development, (ii) reductions in trade distortions, and (iii) improved functioning and reduced volatility in food markets. This paper is part of a wider effort at assessing the international community’s follow-through on the above ambitions and the related (implicit or explicit) commitments made toward action for achieving them. While not presenting new research findings, we bring together available evidence and scenario analyses to assess the progress made toward the ambitions for transforming food systems, the actions taken in regard of the internationally concerted agenda, and the potential for accelerating progress. The number of hungry people in the world has risen from 564 million in 2015, when the SDGs were agreed, to 735 million in 2022. While declines to between 570 and 590 million by 2030 are projected, this is far above the 470 million projected in the absence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the Ukraine war. The share of the world’s people unable to afford healthy diets is projected to decline from 42 percent in 2021 to a still far too high 36 percent by 2030. On the means of implementation, levels of spending on agricultural research and development have increased, particularly in key developing countries such as Brazil, China and India. However, rates of investment remain too low for comfort, particularly in low-income countries. Also, little progress has been made in reducing agricultural trade distortions and many countries continue to use trade policy measures, such as export restrictions, which have proven to increase the volatility of both world and domestic food prices. We conclude that progress toward the SDG-2 targets has been dismal, and that the food system challenges have only become bigger. But we also find that it is not too late to accelerate progress and that the desired food system transformation can still be achieved over a reasonable timespan and at manageable incremental cost. Doing so will require unprecedented concerted and coherent action on multiple fronts, which may prove the biggest obstacle of all.

Year published

2024

Authors

Martin, Will; Vos, Rob

Citation

Martin, Will; and Vos, Rob. 2024. The SDGs and food system challenges: Global trends and scenarios toward 2030. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2237. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/138940

Keywords

Food Security; Food Systems; Hunger; Nutrition; Diet; Sustainable Development Goals

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Small-scale irrigation protects farmers from climate-extreme events: Insights from the 2015/2016 ENSO in Ethiopia

2024Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Mekonnen, Yalew; Warner, James; Ringler, Claudia
Details

Small-scale irrigation protects farmers from climate-extreme events: Insights from the 2015/2016 ENSO in Ethiopia

The El Nino Southern Oscillation (ENSO) weather event of 2015/16 caused severe drought conditions in northern and central Ethiopia affecting the welfare of millions of farmers in late 2015 and early 2016. Using nationally representative panel data collected in 2012 and 2016 and recent advances in the difference-indifferences literature, this paper explores the effects of the 2015/16 drought and the potential role of irrigation in reducing the adverse effects of the drought. We find that the drought caused, on average, a 37 percent reduction in net annual crop income, an 8 percent decline in area cultivated, a 3 percent decline in household dietary diversity score, and a 10 percent decline in the share of harvest sold for rainfed farmers. On the other hand, irrigating farmers affected by the drought managed to increase their daily expenditures by 72 percent of their average daily food expenditure in the pre-drought period, and maintained their net crop income, size of cultivated land, household dietary diversity, and share of harvest sold to the market. Overall, while rainfed agricultural producers suffered sharp declines in welfare, those farmers with access to irrigation maintained their economic status. The results suggest that irrigation protected farmers from the adverse effects of the 2015/16 ENSO event and given increasing climate variability in Ethiopia, the government should intensify its investment and support to irrigation development in the country.

Year published

2024

Authors

Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Mekonnen, Yalew; Warner, James; Ringler, Claudia

Citation

Mekonnen, Dawit K.; Mekonnen, Yalew; Warner, James; and Ringler, Claudia. 2024. Small-scale irrigation protects farmers from climate-extreme events: Insights from the 2015/2016 ENSO in Ethiopia. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2242. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/139780

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Drought; Irrigation; Resilience; Farmers

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

NEXUS Gains

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Double-booked: Effects of overlap between school and farming calendars on education and child labor

2024Allen IV, James
Details

Double-booked: Effects of overlap between school and farming calendars on education and child labor

Across sub-Saharan Africa, countries with a greater percentage of overlapping days in their school and farming calendars also have lower primary school survival rates. In theory, greater overlap between the school and farming calendars should indeed reduce schooling investments, and farm-based child labor too, as it constrains the time allocation opportunity set for both productive activities. I causally identify such effects by leveraging a four-month shift to the school calendar in Malawi that exogenously changed the number of days that the school calendar overlapped with specific crop calendars, which differentially affected communities based on their pre-policy crop allotments. Using panel data for school-aged children, I find that a 10-day increase in school calendar overlap during peak farming periods significantly decreases school advancement by 0.34 grades (one lost grade for every three children) and the share of children engaged in peak-period household farming by 11 percentage points after four years. Secondary analyses reveal stronger negative schooling impacts for girls and poorer households driven by overlap with the labor-intensive planting period. A policy simulation illustrates that adapting the school calendar to minimize overlap with peak farming periods is a highly cost-effective educational intervention to increase school participation by better accommodating farm labor demand.

Year published

2024

Authors

Allen IV, James

Citation

Allen IV, James. 2024. Double-booked: Effects of overlap between school and farming calendars on education and child labor. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2235. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/138825

Country/Region

Malawi

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Education; Child Labour; Households; Crop Production

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Gender Equality

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Evaluation of the value chain development program in Nigeria: Qualitative findings

2024Eissler, Sarah; Heckert, Jessica
Details

Evaluation of the value chain development program in Nigeria: Qualitative findings

The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) and the Federal Government of Nigeria implemented the Nigeria Value Chain Development Program (VCDP) across six Nigerian states with the objective to improve farmer organizations’ collective efficacy, and alleviate poverty via improving rice and cassava production, farmers’ incomes, and value chain integration. The VCDP incorporated a gender-sensitive design to target women beneficiaries and improve empowerment by expanding access to training, opportunities, and resources. The VCDP also aimed to improve local infrastructure. This study presents qualitative findings from the VCDP impact evaluation. Four communities from two of the six treatment states were selected for this study: Niger and Anambra. Across study areas, sex disaggregated key-informant interview were conducted with 10 service providing agents (technical and capacity building), 8 farmer organization leaders, 14 producers, 13 processors, and 15 marketers. And 8 sex disaggregated FGDs were conducted with members of farmer organizations; 2 FGDs were also conducted with youth-only farmer organizations. Service providing agents found general success in delivering services to beneficiaries and benefitted themselves by working for the VCDP. Agents developed new skills that better enabled them to deliver services, and they benefitted from higher social standings as a result of their work. The VCDP was generally well received and improved target farmer organizations’ collective efficacy. These factors lead to improved rice and cassava production and processing, increasing access to necessary resources for value chain actors, and fostering cross node integration. Beneficiaries found that the different VCDP technical trainings that supported linkages to buyers were particularly useful for improving their outcomes within the value chains. Additionally, VCDP supported infrastructure development positively impacted value chain actors, particularly women, by reducing the time they spent on certain domestic chores and facilitated their ability to better participate in value chain activities. Some challenges persisted. Cultural norms restricted interaction between men and women in Niger state. Weak governance of participating farmer organizations, high levels of corruption, and security concerns that limited mobility and access to remote areas were especially challenging. Beneficiaries also noted that access to suitable financing was a significant challenge; the VCDP is rolling out a new financial linkages component to address this directly in 2020. Finally, beneficiaries were sometimes frustrated with what was perceived as unmet expectations or slow delivery of services by VCDP. In future iterations of VCDP and similar programs, it is recommended to continue strengthening the capacity building services to improve organizations’ collective efficacy, embed anti-corruption measures to ensure all intended beneficiaries have access to program resources, ensure appropriate and timely delivery of services to meet beneficiaries’ needs, and to strengthen the gender component of the program by increasing gender-sensitization trainings for beneficiaries, further targeting women beneficiaries for inclusion, and delivering context-specific solutions that enable all women beneficiaries have equal access to program support and resources.

Year published

2024

Authors

Eissler, Sarah; Heckert, Jessica

Citation

Eissler, Sarah; and Heckert, Jessica. 2024. Evaluation of the value chain development program in Nigeria: Qualitative findings. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2234. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://hdl.handle.net/10568/137795

Country/Region

Nigeria

Keywords

Africa; Agricultural Development; Collective Action; Farmers Organizations; Value Chains; Poverty

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Agriculture for Nutrition and Health

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Development and Validation of Women’s Empowerment in Migration Index (WEMI)

2023Sufian, Farha D.; Alvi, Muzna Fatima; Ratna, Nazmun N.; Ringler, Claudia; Choudhury, Zahid ul Arefin
Details

Development and Validation of Women’s Empowerment in Migration Index (WEMI)

There is little evidence on the association between women’s migration, empowerment, and well-being, driven in part due to difficulty in measuring empowerment in the migration context. To better understand these linkages, we developed a Women’s Empowerment in Migration Index (WEMI) and validated it with survey of 1019 returnee female migrants in Bangladesh, who had returned after working internationally, mostly from countries in West Asia. By incorporating indicators of subjective well-being from migration literature into measures of empowerment, our paper advances research over earlier assessments of women’s experiences in the migration process beyond seemingly objective indicators, such as income, health, and economic welfare. We find that 14% of all migrant women in our sample could be classified as being empowered. Lack of membership in groups, restricted mobility, and lack of asset ownership are the largest contributors to migrant women’s disempowerment in our sample. We find that WEMI is strongly correlated with other measures of well-being, including mental health and livelihood-efficacy. Women with higher empowerment scores are also less likely to experience discriminatory labor practices and unsafe work conditions. With broad applicability to migrants from low and middle-income countries, WEMI can be used as a tool, helping to identify sources of disempowerment, and enabling stakeholders to develop interventions targeting the welfare of women migrant workers.

Year published

2023

Authors

Sufian, Farha D.; Alvi, Muzna Fatima; Ratna, Nazmun N.; Ringler, Claudia; Choudhury, Zahid ul Arefin

Citation

Sufian, Farha D.; Alvi, Muzna Fatima; Ratna, Nazmun N.; Ringler, Claudia; and Choudhury, Zahid ul Arefin. 2023. Development and Validation of Women’s Empowerment in Migration Index (WEMI). IFPRI Discussion Paper 2223. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137066

Country/Region

Bangladesh

Keywords

Asia; Southern Asia; Gender; Migration; Women’s Empowerment; Income; Health; Economic Aspects; Assets; Mental Health; Livelihoods; Discrimination; Working Conditions

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137066 Source record

Project

Gender

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

When women hold local office: Women’s representation and political engagement amid conflict and climate shocks across Africa

2023Kosec, Katrina; Kyle, Jordan; Takeshima, Hiroyuki
Details

When women hold local office: Women’s representation and political engagement amid conflict and climate shocks across Africa

One argument in favor of quotas for women’s representation in political office is that female politicians can break down gender barriers more broadly, inspiring individual women to participate politically. In many African countries, where gender gaps in political participation are large, identifying effective strategies to reduce gender imbalances is critical. Recurring climate and conflict shocks are making this task more urgent, to ensure that women’s voices are included when designing responses to those shocks and as it is possible that climate and conflict shocks could widen participation gaps. Using data from 13 African countries on women’s representation in subnational political offices as well as survey data on individual political participation, we find, first, that women’s representation in local office is associated with higher political participation by individual women (but not by men) in this context. Second, using geo-referenced data on shocks, we show that violent conflict shocks in particular lower political participation for everyone, although the effects are stronger for men compared to women in the 12-month frame that we consider here. Third, we find that, when women leaders hold local political office, the negative effects of conflict shocks on political participation are mitigated for women. These analyses offer important new insights into the relationship between women’s political representation and women’s individual political activity within the context of shocks.

Year published

2023

Authors

Kosec, Katrina; Kyle, Jordan; Takeshima, Hiroyuki

Citation

Kosec, Katrina; Kyle, Jordan; and Takeshima, Hiroyuki. 2023. When women hold local office: Women’s representation and political engagement amid conflict and climate shocks across Africa. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2230. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

Keywords

Africa; Gender; Women; Women’s Participation; Political Systems; Conflicts; Shock; Climate; Fragility

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137086 Source record

Project

Fragility, Conflict, and Migration

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Remoteness, farm production, and dietary diversity in Nepal

2023Singh, Tushar; Kishore, Avinash; Alvi, Muzna
Details

Remoteness, farm production, and dietary diversity in Nepal

This paper explores the relationship between agriculture, dietary diversity, and market access in Nepal, testing the complex causal chains involved, and the nuanced connections between production diversity and dietary diversity among smallholder farmers. While diversifying farm production could enhance dietary diversity, the case of Nepal indicates a varied and context specific relationship. Market access emerges as a crucial factor, often exerting a more significant impact on smallholder farm households than production diversity. Access to markets not only influences economic viability but also contributes directly to food and nutrition security, offering a practical solution to address dietary needs. Focusing on Nepal’s diverse terrain, the study analyzes the interplay of remoteness, market access, irrigation availability, and complementary inputs in shaping farmers’ decisions, providing valuable insights into sustainable agricultural strategies for improved dietary outcomes in low- and middle-income countries.

Year published

2023

Authors

Singh, Tushar; Kishore, Avinash; Alvi, Muzna

Citation

Singh, Tushar; Kishore, Avinash; and Alvi, Muzna. 2023. Remoteness, farm production, and dietary diversity in Nepal. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2229. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137079

Country/Region

Nepal

Keywords

Asia; Southern Asia; Diets; Diversification; Energy Demand; Irrigation; Agriculture; Market Access; Smallholders; Dietary Diversity; Food Security

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137079 Source record

Project

NEXUS Gains

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Ecosystem services may provide large economic values in Kenya and Vietnam: A value transfer application based on results from a systematic literature review

2023Hettiarachchi, Upeksha; Zhang, Wei; Pham, Thuy Thu; Davis, Kristin; Fadda, Carlo
Details

Ecosystem services may provide large economic values in Kenya and Vietnam: A value transfer application based on results from a systematic literature review

This study focuses on the valuation of ecosystem services in Kenya and Vietnam, two countries that have received much attention from the international development community for their biodiversity significance, opportunities for scaling, climate and poverty challenges, and political will. Using The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) framework and the Millenium Ecosystem Assessment (MEA), this study estimates per hectare values of ecosystem services in Kenya and Vietnam based on a systematic literature review of studies on the values of ecosystem services in both countries. Provisioning services, such as medicines, timber, and non-timber forest products were better studied than regulating, supporting and cultural ecosystem services, underscoring the need for further research to better estimate the values of non-tangible services which would improve the estimation of total value of ecosystem services in Kenya and Vietnam. To complement the national level analysis, we selected forest biomes to conduct a value transfer analysis. Forests provide ecosystem service benefits worth $25.78 billion for Kenya and $35.6 billion in Vietnam in 2022 USD. In comparison, the agricultural sector contributed $48.50 billion to Vietnam’s GDP and $24.10 billon to Kenya’s GDP in 2021. The per hectare values for ecosystem services are used in a value transfer analysis to estimate the total value of forest ecosystem services in Vietnam and Kenya. The average per hectare value of ecosystem services provided by forests in Kenya is $5,718.50 ha−1 yr−1 estimated within a range spanning $1,609.44 to $15,606.62 ha−1 yr−1 , while Vietnam’s forests demonstrate an average value of $3,650.20 ha−1 yr−1 , with a range of $84.93 to $8,978.16 ha−1 yr−1 . We project the loss of forests into 2050 and estimate the annual economic loss of ecosystem services at $48.08 million for Kenya and $76.29 million for Vietnam, respectively, if deforestation and forest degradation continue at the current rates. Our approach presents a comprehensive overview of diverse ecosystem services, equipping policymakers with a nuanced comprehension of ecosystems’ inherent value. By consolidating values from the literature into a national-level estimate, we provide compelling evidence at a broader scale for informed decision-making. Despite the well-known limitations of value transfer method and with caveats, the values presented in our paper can provide a guiding reference for incorporating these estimations into broader policymaking endeavors.

Year published

2023

Authors

Hettiarachchi, Upeksha; Zhang, Wei; Pham, Thuy Thu; Davis, Kristin; Fadda, Carlo

Citation

Hettiarachchi, Upeksha; Zhang, Wei; Pham, Thuy Thu; Davis, Kristin; and Fadda, Carlo. 2023. Ecosystem services may provide large economic values in Kenya and Vietnam: A value transfer application based on results from a systematic literature review. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2228. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137080

Country/Region

Kenya; Vietnam

Keywords

Africa; Asia; Sub-saharan Africa; Eastern Africa; South-eastern Asia; Biodiversity; Deforestation; Ecosystem Services; Forests; Policies; Value Theory

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137080 Source record

Project

Nature-Positive Solutions

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

The economywide impacts of increasing water security through policies on agricultural production: The case of rice and sugarcane in Pakistan

2023Davies, Stephen; Akram, Iqra; Ali, Muhammad Tahir; Hafeez, Mohsin; Ringler, Claudia
Details

The economywide impacts of increasing water security through policies on agricultural production: The case of rice and sugarcane in Pakistan

Increasing demand for water juxtaposed with shrinking supplies will require a transfer of water resources out of agriculture into the domestic, industrial, and ideally environmental sectors. To examine the potential of policies to facilitate a release of water from agriculture, this paper uses IFPRI’s Computable General Equilibrium Model with a water extension, CGE-W, to assess the impact of commodity taxes on two highly water consumptive crops, rice and sugarcane, on water consumption and the overall economy. We find that land use grows by 1.56 million acres overall when the tax is imposed on both commodities, while 3.2-million-acre feet (MAF) of consumed water, equivalent to 6.35 MAF of water withdrawals, are released from agriculture. These outcomes are due to sugarcane’s reduced use of land over two cropping seasons and significant changes in cropping patterns. The study also examined releases of water from other possible policy measures and found that an even tax rate of 30% on sugarcane, rice and cotton yields 8.73 MAF of water from agriculture. However, with a hotter, drier climate virtually all these releases of water disappear because water must stay in agriculture due to higher evaporation and less precipitation, which raises irrigation demands. The needed policies will go beyond just taxation and might include changing cropping patterns and irrigation practices, as well as development of drought resistant varieties. Other approaches, such as buying tubewells from farmers, and developing markets for nonagricultural purchases of water, may have a role. The role of international trade in sugar and rice is shown to be significant and should be considered further in these analyses.

Year published

2023

Authors

Davies, Stephen; Akram, Iqra; Ali, Muhammad Tahir; Hafeez, Mohsin; Ringler, Claudia

Citation

Davies, Stephen; Akram, Iqra; Ali, Muhammad Tahir; Hafeez, Mohsin; and Ringler, Claudia. 2023. The economywide impacts of increasing water security through policies on agricultural production: The case of rice and sugarcane in Pakistan. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2226. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137073

Country/Region

Pakistan

Keywords

Asia; Southern Asia; Water Security; Policies; Agricultural Production; Rice; Sugar Cane; Water Conservation; Water Allocation; Water Demand; Climate Change; Land Tax; Farmland; Computable General Equilibrium Models

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137073 Source record

Project

NEXUS Gains

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Closing the gendered energy technology gap in rural Ethiopia: A qualitative study

2023Arega, Tiruwork; Yami, Mastewal; Bekele, Rahel Deribe; Ringler, Claudia; Jeuland, Marc
Details

Closing the gendered energy technology gap in rural Ethiopia: A qualitative study

Much has been written about energy poverty, but there is relatively limited evidence of what determines the gender gap in energy poverty and how it can be overcome in rural areas. This study used Focus Group Discussions, in-depth interviews with farmers and Key Informant Interviews to analyze gendered information, access, adoption and use of rural energy technologies in the domestic and productive spheres. We find striking differences in how men and women adopt and use energy technologies in both spheres. Substantial asymmetries exist between women and men regarding knowledge of energy technologies, as most information about them is directed to men in the household. Even so, women are typically the primary decision-makers regarding energy technology adoption for domestic use, while men dominate decision-processes in the productive energy technology space. Women remain largely excluded from the adoption and use of agricultural energy technologies, even though they are heavily engaged in agricultural production systems. Our study highlights the need for tailored mechanisms that reach women with information on and means to acquire energy technologies as well as changes in gendered norms to ensure that women benefit equally from their use.

Year published

2023

Authors

Arega, Tiruwork; Yami, Mastewal; Bekele, Rahel Deribe; Ringler, Claudia; Jeuland, Marc

Citation

Arega, Tiruwork; Yami, Mastewal; Deribe, Rahel; Ringler, Claudia; and Jeuland, Marc. 2023. Closing the gendered energy technology gap in rural Ethiopia: A qualitative study. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2224. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137070

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Gender; Energy; Rural Areas; Energy Poverty; Households; Decision Making; Innovation Adoption; Agriculture; Irrigation; Stoves

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137070 Source record

Project

NEXUS Gains

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

The role of gender in bargaining: Evidence for selling seed to smallholders in Uganda

2023Campenhout, Bjorn van; Nabwire, Leocardia
Details

The role of gender in bargaining: Evidence for selling seed to smallholders in Uganda

In rural societies with strong gender norms and customs, small informal agribusinesses may often be one of the few ways in which women can independently generate revenue. However, previous research has indicated that female run business may be perceived less favorably compared to their male counterparts. In this paper, we examine potential consequences of these biased perceptions on business transactions. In particular, we test whether the gender of the seller has an impact on buyers’ negotiation strategies and eventual outcomes in bilateral price negotiations. We use a lab-in-the-field experiment in eastern Uganda, where a representative sample of smallholder maize farmers are offered the opportunity to bargain over a bag of improved maize seed variety from a male or female seller. We find that buyers confronted with a female seller are less likely to accept the initial offer price and respond with a lower counter-bid price than farmers faced with a male seller. Negotiations take an average of one round longer when the seller is a woman and the transaction price is almost 9 percent lower. For comparison, we also look at the effect of the starting price on the same bargaining outcomes and find that the gender disadvantage is roughly equal to a 20 percent higher starting price.

Year published

2023

Authors

Campenhout, Bjorn van; Nabwire, Leocardia

Citation

Van Campenhout, Bjorn; and Nabwire, Leocardia. 2023. The role of gender in bargaining: Evidence for selling seed to smallholders in Uganda. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2225. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137074

Country/Region

Uganda

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Gender; Seeds; Smallholders; Maize; Bargaining Power; Gender Norms

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137074 Source record

Project

Market Intelligence

Record type

Working Paper

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

Working Paper

A conceptual framework of living labs for people for sustainable food systems

2023
Habermann, Birgit; Nehring, Ryan; Zhang, Wei; Hettiarachchi, Upeksha; Leñero, Eva Marina-Valencia; Falk, Thomas; Rietveld, Anne M.; Woltering, Lennart; Kumar, Praveen; Wang, Xinxin
…more Zhou, Yunyi; Chen, Kevin Z.; Pham, Thuy Thu; Rodríguez, Luz Ángela; Venegas, Martha
Details

A conceptual framework of living labs for people for sustainable food systems

Innovation spaces are often dominated by linear, top-down approaches, with the transfer of technology being seen as the solution to many problems rather than trying to understand which innovation processes people are engaging with themselves. In other words, barriers to progress are typically viewed as issues of technology adoption, not as part of the innovation process itself. This study contributes to changing the paradigm by proposing a living lab approach, which considers innovation as an adaptive process where stakeholders co-produce knowledge and collaborate based on inclusivity and empowerment. Our specific concept for this approach is called a Living Lab for People (LL4P). This conceptual paper outlines a framework to guide the development of a LL4P that remains flexible to be adapted for specific sites. While we seek to identify common denominators, we recognize the necessity for such a framework to remain open enough to be adaptable for varied contexts. Consequently, the framework draws on the living lab literature but tailors existing approaches for sustainable food system transformation and puts people (men, women, and marginalized groups among key food system actors) at the center of innovation processes with a clear intention to address power and social inequity. We draw on specific cases in China, Colombia, Kenya and Vietnam as learning grounds for formulating LL4Ps through locally led innovation processes. Based on our learnings and consultations, we define a LL4P as an inclusive and diverse space for people to advance their socio-technical innovation processes and associated modes of governance within a facilitated organizational structure. The principles of LL4Ps include co-production, gender equality and social inclusion, governance and institutional sustainability to advance existing and novel innovation processes. The practical experiences from applying this framework in the four case studies indicate alternative pathways for transforming the food system toward a sustainable and socially equitable trajectory through the establishment of a LL4P.

Year published

2023

Authors

Habermann, Birgit; Nehring, Ryan; Zhang, Wei; Hettiarachchi, Upeksha; Leñero, Eva Marina-Valencia; Falk, Thomas; Rietveld, Anne M.; Woltering, Lennart; Kumar, Praveen; Wang, Xinxin; Zhou, Yunyi; Chen, Kevin Z.; Pham, Thuy Thu; Rodríguez, Luz Ángela; Venegas, Martha

Citation

Habermann, Birgit; Nehring, Ryan; Zhang, Wei; et al. 2023. A conceptual framework of living labs for people for sustainable food systems. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2227. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137077

Country/Region

China; Colombia; Kenya; Vietnam

Keywords

Africa; Asia; South America; Eastern Asia; Eastern Africa; South-eastern Asia; Food Systems; Sustainability; Innovation; Governance; Social Inclusion; Inclusion

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137077 Source record

Project

Low-Emission Food Systems

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Intervening in complex agrifood systems: Assessing outcomes of a multistakeholder approach in central Mozambique

2023Falk, Thomas; Kee-Tui, Sabine Homann; Hauser, Michael; Sixpence, Claudio; Quembo, Carlos João
Details

Intervening in complex agrifood systems: Assessing outcomes of a multistakeholder approach in central Mozambique

Inclusive co-design of system innovations incorporates diverse perspectives and bodies of knowledge that can generate solutions that fit well in a local context and over time influence the socio-technical regime. In operationalizing system transformation-oriented co-design processes, research and development actors have experimented in recent decades with the role of multistakeholder approaches. A specific application of such approaches in the agrifood system context are Agricultural Innovation Platforms (AIPs). Despite the growing application of AIPs and similar approaches, documentation of AIP achievements and assessment of their outcomes beyond the lifetime of the program are rare. We present an approach for integrating the logic of outcome harvesting into the process of AIP facilitation. We also document the outcomes from an AIP approach implemented in a mixed crop-livestock farming system in central Mozambique, using a mixed-methods approach. Our results indicate likely changes in behavior and behavioral drivers associated with the AIP approach. We also share experiences on methodological challenges in assessing outcomes of AIP processes. We hope that our results increase development actors’ confidence in applying AIPs at a larger scale.

Year published

2023

Authors

Falk, Thomas; Kee-Tui, Sabine Homann; Hauser, Michael; Sixpence, Claudio; Quembo, Carlos João

Citation

Falk, Thomas; Kee-Tui, Sabine Homann; Hauser, Michael; Sixpence, Claudio; and Quembo, Carlos João. 2023. Intervening in complex agrifood systems: Assessing outcomes of a multistakeholder approach in central Mozambique. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2233. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137087

Country/Region

Mozambique

Keywords

Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Southern Africa; Eastern Africa; Capacity Development; Agriculture; Mixed Farming; Integrated Crop-livestock Systems; Social Networks; Innovation Platforms

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137087 Source record

Project

Low-Emission Food Systems

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Gender, deliberation, and natural resource governance: Experimental evidence from Malawi

2023Clayton, Amanda; Dulani, Boniface; Kosec, Katrina; Robinson, Amanda Lea
Details

Gender, deliberation, and natural resource governance: Experimental evidence from Malawi

Initiatives to combat climate change often strive to include women’s voices, but there is limited evidence on how this feature influences program design or its benefits for women. We examine the causal effect of women’s representation in climate-related deliberations using the case of community-managed forests in rural Malawi. We run a lab-in-the-field experiment that randomly varies the gender composition of six-member groups asked to privately vote, deliberate, then privately vote again on their preferred policy to combat local over-harvesting. We find that any given woman has relatively more influence in group deliberations when women make up a larger share of the group. This result cannot be explained by changes in participants’ talk time. Rather, women’s presence changes the content of deliberations towards topics on which women tend to have greater expertise. Our work suggests that including women in decision-making can shift deliberative processes in ways that amplify women’s voices.

Year published

2023

Authors

Clayton, Amanda; Dulani, Boniface; Kosec, Katrina; Robinson, Amanda Lea

Citation

Clayton, Amanda; Dulani, Boniface; Kosec, Katrina; and Robinson, Amanda Lea. 2023. Gender, deliberation, and natural resource governance: Experimental evidence from Malawi. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2232. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).

Country/Region

Malawi

Keywords

Africa; Southern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Eastern Africa; Gender; Natural Resources Management; Natural Resources; Governance; Women’s Empowerment; Community Forestry; Decision Making; Poverty; Capacity Development

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137083 Source record

Project

Gender Equality

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Women’s Empowerment in Agrifood Governance (WEAGov) assessment framework: A pilot study in Nigeria

2023Ragasa, Catherine; Kyle, Jordan; Onoja, Anthony Ojonimi; Achika, Anthonia I.; Adejoh, Stella O.; Onyenekwe, Chinasa S; Koledoye, Gbenga; Ujor, Gloria C.; Nwali, Perpetual Nkechi
Details

Women’s Empowerment in Agrifood Governance (WEAGov) assessment framework: A pilot study in Nigeria

Women’s equal participation and leadership in political and public life can boost a country’s long-run economic growth, foster social inclusion, and help countries reach the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Beyond these important outcomes, women’s inclusion in public life is a basic human right: women deserve a role in making decisions, controlling resources, and shaping policies. Despite the importance of women’s voices and their empowerment in policy and decision-making processes, it is far easier to lament their absence than to define and measure them. We know that political empowerment, measured in terms of the share of women in government ministries and parliament, is low and is the weakest dimension in the Global Gender Gap. Yet such national statistics, while important and informative, risk mismeasuring women’s participation and influence in public life and do not give policymakers and advocacy organizations traction on specific gaps and opportunities for increasing women’s voice in policymaking. With this situation in mind and focusing on agrifood systems, which are crucial for delivering the SDGs, we developed an assessment framework—Women’s Empowerment in Agrifood Governance (WEAGov)— to assess women’s voice and empowerment in national policy processes in agrifood systems. This paper presents the first pilot-testing of WEAGov in Nigeria. In this paper, we present how the WEAGov tool works in the Nigerian context, analyze the data, and provide diagnostic on the status of women’s voice and empowerment in the agrifood policy process. As discussed in this paper, the pilot-testing in Nigeria provides useful lessons toward improving the measurement for future use and provides valuable policy insights on critical entry points for increasing women’s voice and empowerment in the national agrifood policy process.

Year published

2023

Authors

Ragasa, Catherine; Kyle, Jordan; Onoja, Anthony Ojonimi; Achika, Anthonia I.; Adejoh, Stella O.; Onyenekwe, Chinasa S; Koledoye, Gbenga; Ujor, Gloria C.; Nwali, Perpetual Nkechi

Citation

Ragasa, Catherine; Kyle, Jordan; Onoja, Anthony Ojonimi; Achika, Anthonia I.; Adejoh, Stella O.; Onyenekwe, Chinasa S; et al. 2023. Women’s Empowerment in Agrifood Governance (WEAGov) assessment framework: A pilot study in Nigeria. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2222. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137059

Country/Region

Nigeria

Keywords

Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Western Africa; Women’s Empowerment; Policies; Agrifood Systems; Governance; Gender

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137059 Source record

Project

Gender Equality

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Modeling the economywide effects of water and energy interventions in the face of climate change

2023Aragie, Emerta; Gebretsadik, Yohannes
Details

Modeling the economywide effects of water and energy interventions in the face of climate change

The Ethiopian economy relies predominantly on rainfed agriculture for income generation, export earnings, and rural livelihoods. However, the frequency and intensity of extreme ago-climatic events projected by climate scenarios suggest considerable and growing risks from climate change to the country’s agri-food systems and the overall economy. This study assesses the economic impacts of recurrent climate shocks on the Ethiopian economy to 2040. The results indicate that recurrent climate shocks will lead to a reduction in Ethiopia’s cumulative GDP from 2020 to 2040 compared to a “no climate change” baseline. Specifically, extreme weather events could cumulatively cost Ethiopia up to 17 percent (or US$ 534.3 billion) in GDP between 2020 and 2040 compared to a no-climate change baseline. The weight of the economic loss is concentrated in the agricultural production sector, with rural households and poorer households in urban areas being worst affected. Strategic investments in irrigation infrastructure and in hydroelectricity generation are found to be effective in mitigating some of the damage caused by recurrent climate variability.

Year published

2023

Authors

Aragie, Emerta; Gebretsadik, Yohannes

Citation

Aragie, Emerta; and Gebretsadik, Yohannes. 2023. Modeling the economywide effects of water and energy interventions in the face of climate change. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2220. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137048

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Rainfed Farming; Agriculture; Income; Exports; Livelihoods; Rural Population; Climate Change; Agrifood Systems; Extreme Weather Events; Water; Energy; Computable General Equilibrium Models

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137048 Source record

Project

NEXUS Gains

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Understanding intra-household food allocation rules: Evidence from a randomized social safety net intervention in Bangladesh

2023Coleman, Fiona M.; Ahmed, Akhter; Roy, Shalini; Hoddinott, John
Details

Understanding intra-household food allocation rules: Evidence from a randomized social safety net intervention in Bangladesh

Evidence shows social protection can improve diets, but little is understood about how effects vary within a household or what factors determine how food is allocated across different household members. We use individual food intake data from two randomized control trials to estimate intrahousehold dietary impacts of cash or food transfers, with or without nutrition behavior change communication (BCC), in two regions of Bangladesh. We assess whether intrahousehold impacts 1) are consistent with different allocation “rules” hypothesized in the literature, 2) differ by transfer modality, provision of BCC, or regional context. Results indicate that households distribute food equally among their members (men, women, boys, and girls), both in absolute terms and in proportion to individual-specific requirements and deficits. Patterns are similar across regions and do not depend on transfer modality or whether BCC is provided. Findings have implications for designing nutrition-sensitive social protection with different target groups prioritized.

Year published

2023

Authors

Coleman, Fiona M.; Ahmed, Akhter; Roy, Shalini; Hoddinott, John

Citation

Coleman, Fiona M.; Ahmed, Akhter; Roy, Shalini; and Hoddinott, John. 2023. Understanding intra-household food allocation rules: Evidence from a randomized social safety net intervention in Bangladesh. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2221. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137047

Country/Region

Bangladesh

Keywords

Asia; Southern Asia; Social Safety Nets; Diets; Households; Cash Transfers; Gender Equality; Nutrition; Behaviour; Resource Allocation

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137047 Source record

Project

Gender Equality

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

COVID-19 and livelihoods in rural Guatemala: Lessons from a long term assessment and the path to recovery

2023Berrospi, Maria Lucia; Ceballos, Francisco; Hernandez, Manuel A.; Paz, Cynthia
Details

COVID-19 and livelihoods in rural Guatemala: Lessons from a long term assessment and the path to recovery

The COVID-19 pandemic has had profound effects on livelihoods and food security across rural populations worldwide. This study offers a long-term assessment of the impacts of the pandemic and the path to recovery among smallholder agricultural households in the Western Highlands of Guatemala. We rely on a unique longitudinal survey of 1,262 households collected over four survey rounds between 2019 and 2022. The results show substantial recoveries in incomes, food security, and dietary diversity in the region by mid-2022 compared to 2020, but at levels still worse than pre pandemic ones. There is also a sustained increase in the intention to emigrate. The households that were initially more affected in terms of food security and nutrition but recovered faster include those located in one (San Marcos) of the three departments and families living above the poverty line, while smallholders affected by the ETA and IOTA tropical storms, non-coffee producers, and indigenous populations have taken longer to recover. In addition, we provide quantitative estimates for a subsample of households interviewed during a fifth survey round at the end of 2022, showing an average decline of about 16 percent in total household income three years after the start of the pandemic, mainly driven by a decrease in agricultural income, combined with a 26 percent increase in expenditures and an important surge in indebtedness. Overall, the study offers valuable lessons regarding the recovery of vulnerable households following a major global crisis and in a context of additional shocks, remarking the importance of continue monitoring the situation of vulnerable households, especially those exposed to recurrent (weather) shocks that also have a more exhausted portfolio of coping mechanisms & express a higher willingness to emigrate.

Year published

2023

Authors

Berrospi, Maria Lucia; Ceballos, Francisco; Hernandez, Manuel A.; Paz, Cynthia

Citation

Berrospi, Maria Lucia; Ceballos, Francisco; Hernandez, Manuel A.; and Paz, Cynthia. 2023. COVID-19 and livelihoods in rural Guatemala: Lessons from a long term assessment and the path to recovery. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2219. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137039

Country/Region

Guatemala

Keywords

Latin America; Central America; Northern America; Expenditure; Rural Population; Long-term Experiments; Coronavirus; Covid-19; Households; Recuperation; Agriculture; Coronavirinae; Food Security; Migration; Coronavirus Disease; Shocks; Debt; Dietary Diversity

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137039 Source record

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Welfare implications of public expenditure in Indian agriculture: New evidence from CS-ARDL Approach

2023Akber, Nusrat; Kumar, Anjani
Details

Welfare implications of public expenditure in Indian agriculture: New evidence from CS-ARDL Approach

This study explores the welfare implications of public expenditure at the subnational level. We empirically examine the efficiency of different categories of public expenditure on agriculture and irrigation using the novel cross-sectional autoregressive distributed lag (CS-ARDL) model and the data from 1981 to 2019 for 17 major agricultural states of India. The findings reveal the strong long-term positive effect in rural India of public sector expenditure on crop husbandry, agricultural research and education, soil and water conservation, irrigation, food storage and warehousing, animal husbandry and dairy development, and fisheries on total factor productivity (TFP), farm income, and poverty alleviation. Irrigation and electricity subsidies do not significantly affect outcome variables, while fertilizer subsidies showed a long-term negative impact on TFP, and credit subsidies had a positive effect on income and on the reduction of rural poverty. Other factors that were shown to have welfare implications included rainfall, literacy rate, and agricultural terms of trade (TOT), that is, the ratio of agriculture GDP to non-agriculture GDP. Policymakers should thus better target and rationalize government expenditure programs by removing unproductive input subsidies and reallocating those funds toward other types of public investment in Indian agriculture.

Year published

2023

Authors

Akber, Nusrat; Kumar, Anjani

Citation

Akbar, Nusrat; and Kumar, Anjani. 2023. Welfare implications of public expenditure in Indian agriculture: New evidence from CS-ARDL Approach. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2216. New Delhi, India: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137035

Country/Region

India

Keywords

Southern Asia; Asia; Models; Education; Food Storage; Dairies; Resource Conservation; Welfare; Cultivation; Agriculture; Animal Husbandry; Irrigation; Subsidies; Fisheries; Public Expenditure

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137035 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Evaluating the gendered credit constraints and uptake of an insurance-linked credit product

2023Timu, Anne G.; Shee, Apurba; Ward, Patrick S.; You, Liangzhi
Details

Evaluating the gendered credit constraints and uptake of an insurance-linked credit product

Smallholder farmers in low- and medium-income countries lack sufficient access to agricultural production credit that can help them adopt new technologies and improve their farm production. Compared to men, women smallholder farmers face additional social, and economic barriers that further limit their credit access. Bundling agricultural credit with insurance, or risk contingent credit (RCC), provides a mechanism for addressing some of the credit access constraints and reducing credit rationing among smallholder farmers. In this paper, we evaluate the gendered determinants of credit rationing and the gender differences of the effects of RCC innovation on credit uptake decisions. We use three-wave panel data from a randomized control trial (RCT) in Kenya. We find that female-headed households (FHH) are significantly more risk rationed (or demand-side credit constrained) compared to male-headed households (MHH), however, the gender of the household head does not significantly determine the household quantity rationing status (supply-side constrained). We also find that farmers randomly assigned to be offered the RCC are up to four percent more likely to take up credit. RCC’s impacts on credit uptake decisions do not vary with the gender of the household head, however, RCC has a differential positive and significant impact on the credit uptake decisions of farmers that were previously (at baseline) risk rationed. Based on these findings, we suggest that policies should focus on reducing gendered demand-side barriers to credit access, especially among poorer women households. Climate financing innovations such as RCC should also be designed and delivered in a gender-inclusive manner to accommodate women farmers who face time, liquidity, and financial literacy barriers.

Year published

2023

Authors

Timu, Anne G.; Shee, Apurba; Ward, Patrick S.; You, Liangzhi

Citation

Timu, Anne G.; Shee, Apurba; Ward, Patrick S.; and You, Liangzhi. 2023. Evaluating the gendered credit constraints and uptake of an insurance-linked credit product. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2215. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137037

Country/Region

Kenya

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Smallholders; Agricultural Production; Credit; Agricultural Technology; Gender; Insurance; Climate Resilience; Rural Finance

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137037 Source record

Project

Climate Resilience

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Aflatoxin contamination of maize flour in Kenya: Results from multi-city, multi-round surveillance

2023Barasa, Allan; Hoffmann, Vivian; Murphy, Mike; Ndisio, Boaz; Okoth, Sheila A.
Details

Aflatoxin contamination of maize flour in Kenya: Results from multi-city, multi-round surveillance

This research was undertaken to characterise the level and distribution of aflatoxin contamination of maize flour, a key food safety concern in Kenya. More than 1,200 samples of maize flour were collected and analyzed over the course of one year, allowing a robust characterization of relative risk across geography and product type. Informally milled flour was found to be significantly more contaminated than branded flour, a result attributable to the refining process applied to this flour. The results of this study can be used to inform messaging to consumers about the relative riskiness of informally versus formally milled flour, and for geographical targeting of resources for aflatoxin mitigation.

Year published

2023

Authors

Barasa, Allan; Hoffmann, Vivian; Murphy, Mike; Ndisio, Boaz; Okoth, Sheila A.

Citation

Barasa, Allan; Hoffmann, Vivian; Murphy, Mike; Ndisio, Boaz; and Okoth, Sheila A. 2023. Aflatoxin contamination of maize flour in Kenya: Results from multi-city, multi-round surveillance. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2217. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137033

Country/Region

Kenya

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Aflatoxins; Food Safety; Mycotoxins; Maize Flour; Milling; Risk

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137033 Source record

Project

One Health

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Nutrition-sensitive food distribution amidst inflationary shock: Evidence from a randomized intervention in Egypt

2023Abay, Kibrom A.; Abdelfattah, Lina Alaaeldin; Elkaramany, Mohamed; Elsabbagh, Dalia; Kurdi, Sikandra
Details

Nutrition-sensitive food distribution amidst inflationary shock: Evidence from a randomized intervention in Egypt

We evaluate the impacts of a traditional food distribution and a nutrition-sensitive food distribution intervention in the context of a rapidly increasing inflationary pressure in Egypt. Besides evaluating the relative and absolute impacts of these interventions on household food and nutrition security, we also examine their impacts on households’ preferences for in-kind versus cash transfers. We implement a clustered randomized control trial through which we randomly assigned communities into: (i) “nutrition-sensitive” food box, (ii) traditional “staple-heavy” food box, and (iii) control group. We find that the nutrition-sensitive food distribution cushioned falls in dietary quality and food security of targeted households relative to the control group while the impact of the traditional and staple-heavy food distribution appears to be negligible. The nutrition-sensitive food boxes increased beneficiary households’ dietary diversity by about 9 percent while also increasing energy, protein, and iron intake by 12, 13, and 19 percent, respectively. We also find that experience with the food boxes increases households’ preference for in-kind transfers, more so among households experiencing high inflation rates and among those households not covered by other food and cash transfer programs. Receiving food boxes increases preference for in-kind transfer by about 9-11 percentage points. Our findings have important implications for the debate on the efficacy of alternative interventions to support poor households as food prices rise and the relative efficacy of in-kind and cash-transfers. The lack of effectiveness of the staple-heavy food boxes suggests that the design and content of in-kind transfers are crucial when considering this policy option, including compared to cash.

Year published

2023

Authors

Abay, Kibrom A.; Abdelfattah, Lina Alaaeldin; Elkaramany, Mohamed; Elsabbagh, Dalia; Kurdi, Sikandra

Citation

Abay, Kibrom A.; Abdelfattah, Lina; Elkaramany, Mohamed; Elsabbagh, Dalia; and Kurdi, Sikandra. 2023. Nutrition-sensitive food distribution amidst inflationary shock: Evidence from a randomized intervention in Egypt. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2218. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137031

Country/Region

Egypt

Keywords

Middle East; Northern Africa; Food Systems; Inflation; Households; Nutrition; Food Security; Cash Transfers; Diet; Poverty; Policies

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137031 Source record

Project

National Policies and Strategies

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Public expenditure and growth dynamics in Indian agriculture: Trends, structural breaks, and linkages

2023Akber, Nusrat; Kumar, Anjani; Bathla, Seema
Details

Public expenditure and growth dynamics in Indian agriculture: Trends, structural breaks, and linkages

The present study analyzes temporal and spatial trends in public expenditure on agriculture and irrigation in India. It links sub-period growth performance with expenditure based on structural breaks. The analysis pertains to the period between 1992/1993 and 2019/2020. This is a period that has witnessed a stagnation, and even a decrease in public expenditure in the agricultural sector and a resulting deceleration in productivity growth, which was then followed by a revival in both expenditure and output. Significantly expenditure on subsidies of key inputs, viz. fertilizer, irrigation, and power, however, has not incentivized farmers to increase output and productivity to achieve a higher rate of growth. Empirical findings based on the first-difference regression analysis confirm that agricultural growth is determined by public expenditure on agriculture and irrigation; across the states, however, input subsidies alone are shown to be less, or not at all, efficient. Funds to agriculture and irrigation should be increased in proportion to their contribution to the state domestic product, and input subsidies should be rationalized by weighing their positive welfare effects against their cost to the exchequer.

Year published

2023

Authors

Akber, Nusrat; Kumar, Anjani; Bathla, Seema

Citation

Akber, Nusrat; Kumar, Anjani; and Bathla, Seema. 2023. Public expenditure and growth dynamics in Indian agriculture: Trends, structural breaks, and linkages. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2214. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137019

Country/Region

India

Keywords

Southern Asia; Asia; Inputs; Agriculture; Subsidies; Public Expenditure

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137019 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Trends and determinants of India’s virtual water trade in crop products

2023Kannan, Elumalai; Kumar, Anjani
Details

Trends and determinants of India’s virtual water trade in crop products

This paper analyzed the determinants of India’s virtual water trade in crops and crop products for the period 2001 to 2020. The study used product data at the 6-digit level of commodity classification, covering 206 commodities traded across 218 partner countries. Analysis shows that India has a favorable virtual water trade balance and terms of trade with its partner countries. Among the commodities traded, rice accounted for over one-fourth of the total volume of virtual water exported, and sunflower/safflower oil constitute over one-third of the total volume of virtual water imported. No consistent pattern was observed with regard to the level of endowment of water resources of export destination countries. Gravity model results revealed, as expected, that partner countries’ GDP and population size had a positive effect on virtual water exports, while distance had a negative effect. The coefficient of membership in a free trade agreement (FTA) was negative and statistically significant, implying that FTA member countries are sensitive to the trading of water-intensive agricultural products. The effect of amount of arable land on virtual water exports was negative; this implies that larger virtual water exports correlate with land constraints in a destination country that impede domestic agricultural production. The water endowment variables did not show any significant relationship with virtual water export flows, which confirms the finding in the literature that the water stress of a partner countries does not affect the direction of virtual water flows.

Year published

2023

Authors

Kannan, Elumalai; Kumar, Anjani

Citation

Kannan, Elumalai; and Kumar, Anjani. 2023. Trends and determinants of India’s virtual water trade in crop products. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2213. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137023

Country/Region

India

Keywords

Southern Asia; Asia; Trade Liberalization; Commodities; Crops; Water; Capacity Development; Trade

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137023 Source record

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Men can cook: Effectiveness of a light-touch men’s engagement intervention to change attitudes and behaviors in rural Ethiopia

2023Alderman, Harold; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Hidrobo, Melissa; Leight, Jessica; Mulford, Michael; Tambet, Heleene
Details

Men can cook: Effectiveness of a light-touch men’s engagement intervention to change attitudes and behaviors in rural Ethiopia

Graduation model interventions seek to address multiple barriers constraining households’ exit from poverty, however, few explicitly target unequal gender norms. Using a randomized control trial design, combined with three rounds of data, we investigate the impacts on gender equitable attitudes and behaviors of a graduation program that seeks to simultaneously “push” households out of poverty and improve unequal gender norms in Ethiopia. We find that at midline all treatment arms lead to improvements in men’s gender equitable attitudes and their engagement in household domestic tasks as reported by both men and women; but at endline, impacts are only sustained in the treatment arms that introduced men’s engagement groups after the midline survey to further promote improvements in equitable gender norms.

Year published

2023

Authors

Alderman, Harold; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Hidrobo, Melissa; Leight, Jessica; Mulford, Michael; Tambet, Heleene

Citation

Alderman, Harold; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Hidrobo, Melissa; Leight, Jessica; Mulford, Michael; and Tambet, Heleene. 2023. Men can cook: Effectiveness of a light-touch men’s engagement intervention to change attitudes and behaviors in rural Ethiopia. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2212. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137021

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Gender Norms; Men; Poverty; Households; Gender Equity; Behaviour

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137021 Source record

Project

Gender Equality

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Reverting to traditional views of gender during times of relative deprivation: An experimental study in Nepal

2023Kosec, Katrina; Mo, Cecilia Hyunjung; You, Soosun; Boittin, Margaret
Details

Reverting to traditional views of gender during times of relative deprivation: An experimental study in Nepal

Do individuals’ perceptions of their relative economic status affect their attitudes regarding gender roles in patriarchal societies? What role does hearing messages designed to increase support for women’s empowerment play in moderating these effects? Leveraging an original survey experiment in Nepal, we find that a prime conferring feelings of relative deprivation causes women to revert to traditional views of gender in economic decision-making; they become less supportive of women having equal control over household income, sharing house hold chores with men, and working outside the home. Women’s empowerment messaging does not attenuate these effects. Priming men to feel relatively deprived causes declines in gender equitable economic and political views, but women’s empowerment messaging nullifies these effects. The results suggest that among populations feeling relatively deprived, regressive gender norms may take hold. However, light-touch efforts to spur support for women’s empowerment may counter some reversion to traditional views of gender.

Year published

2023

Authors

Kosec, Katrina; Mo, Cecilia Hyunjung; You, Soosun; Boittin, Margaret

Citation

Kosec, Katrina; Mo, Cecilia Hyunjung; You, Soosun; and Boittin, Margaret. 2023. Reverting to traditional views of gender during times of relative deprivation: An experimental study in Nepal. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137020

Country/Region

Nepal

Keywords

Asia; Southern Asia; Economic Aspects; Gender; Women’s Empowerment; Decision Making; Income; Households; Poverty; Workforce

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137020 Source record

Project

Fragility, Conflict, and Migration

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

C’est la vie! Mixed impacts of an edutainment television series in West Africa

2023Dione, Malick; Heckert, Jessica; Hidrobo, Melissa; Le Port, Agnès; Peterman, Amber; Seye, Moustapha
Details

C’est la vie! Mixed impacts of an edutainment television series in West Africa

Edutainment shows promise in changing behavior at scale, yet little is known about how to maximize impacts. We undertake an experimental evaluation of a popular television series, C’est la vie!, delivered through film clubs in rural Senegal, on violence against women and girls, and sexual and reproductive health knowledge, attitudes, and behaviors. We find C’est la vie! improved knowledge three months after film clubs ended, as well as violence-related attitudes nine months later, however, find no impacts on behaviors. We investigate design components intended to strengthen impacts, generally finding no additional impacts from post-screening discussions, engaging men, and podcasts.

Year published

2023

Authors

Dione, Malick; Heckert, Jessica; Hidrobo, Melissa; Le Port, Agnès; Peterman, Amber; Seye, Moustapha

Citation

Dione, Malick; Heckert, Jessica; Hidrobo, Melissa; Le Port, Agnès; Peterman, Amber; and Seye, Moustapha. 2023. C’est la vie! Mixed impacts of an edutainment television series in West Africa. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2210. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137017

Country/Region

Senegal

Keywords

Western Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Education; Gender; Television; Impact; Health; Behaviour; Violence; Women; Knowledge

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137017 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Income aspirations, migration, and investments on and off the farm: Evidence from rural Tajikistan

2023Bloem, Jeffrey R.; Lambrecht, Isabel
Details

Income aspirations, migration, and investments on and off the farm: Evidence from rural Tajikistan

In places with few casual or salaried employment opportunities, investments in farm or non-farm assets may offer the main pathway to increased incomes locally, whereas others may seek alternative investment options elsewhere—as migrants. What factors, then, explain these investment choices? One theory suggests that aspirations that are ahead, but not too far ahead, of current levels provide the best incentive for promoting investment. If this theory holds, then estimates of the relationship between the aspirations gap and investment choices should take the form of a non-monotonic inverted U-shape. We test for such a relationship between the income aspirations gap and investments in migration, farm assets, and non-farm assets using data from a household survey in rural Tajikistan. We find evidence of an inverted U-shaped relationship between the income aspirations gap and measures of migration, with the strongest relationship found with international migration. Strikingly, we do not observe any association between the income aspirations gap and measures of investment in farm or non-farm assets. Exploring heterogeneity, we find that these results can vary by household poverty status and by the respondent’s gender. Investigating a possible mechanism, we find that the relationship between the income aspirations gap and migration seems to be driven by remittances, which outweigh migration costs and increase household income.

Year published

2023

Authors

Bloem, Jeffrey R.; Lambrecht, Isabel

Citation

Bloem, Jeffrey R.; and Lambrecht, Isabel. 2023. Income aspirations, migration, and investments on and off the farm: Evidence from rural Tajikistan. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2209. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137012

Country/Region

Tajikistan

Keywords

Central Asia; Asia; Income; Gender; Investment; Remittances; Agriculture; Livelihoods; Farms; Migration; Poverty

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137012 Source record

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Including scalable nutrition interventions in a graduation model program: Experimental evidence from Ethiopia

2023Alderman, Harold; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Leight, Jessica; Mamo, Tigist; Mulford, Michael; Tambet, Heleene
Details

Including scalable nutrition interventions in a graduation model program: Experimental evidence from Ethiopia

We explore the impact of different models of scalable nutrition services embedded within a light-touch graduation program, implemented at scale in Ethiopia. The graduation program provided poor households enrolled in Ethiopia’s national safety net, the Protective Safety Net Program (PSNP), with additional livelihood programming including savings groups, business skills training and linkages to financial services. In addition, extremely poor households received a one-time livelihood grant on an experimental basis, as cash transfers or in-kind poultry grants, at a value much smaller than lump sum transfers in other graduation model programs in recent literature. The experiment compared a core nutrition model of nutrition information and sanitation and hygiene activities to an enhanced model that added more intensive nutrition messaging, supplementary feeding of malnourished children, mental health services, and a male engagement activity. Results show that interaction with health care workers and participation in community health activities increased significantly under the enhanced nutrition model, as did maternal nutritional knowledge. Nevertheless, neither nutrition model led to significant improvements in child dietary diversity or anthropometric outcomes on average. However, cash livelihood grants combined with the enhanced nutrition model reduced childhood stunting.

Year published

2023

Authors

Alderman, Harold; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Leight, Jessica; Mamo, Tigist; Mulford, Michael; Tambet, Heleene

Citation

Alderman, Harold; Gilligan, Daniel; Leight, Jessica; Mamo, Tigist; Mulford, Michael; and Tambet, Heleene. 2023. Including scalable nutrition interventions in a graduation model program: Experimental evidence from Ethiopia. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2208. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137009

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Grants; Poultry; Nutrition-sensitive Agriculture; Nutrition; Livelihoods; Hygiene; Cash Transfers; Poverty; Social Safety Nets

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137009 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Development of a Women’s Empowerment metric for Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WE-WASH)

2023
Heckert, Jessica; Raghunathan, Kalyani; Myers, Emily; Ramani, Gayathri V.; Faas, Simone; Ferguson, Nathaniel; Seymour, Greg; Malapit, Hazel J.; Paz, Florencia; Chiwasa, Febbie
…more Chilalika, Joan; Kamwaba-Mtethiwa, Jean; Chirwa, Gowokani Chijere; Simkoko, Abigail; Chilungo, Abdallah; Upadhyaya, Rachana; Pradhan, Meeta S.; Joshi, Nira; Shrestha, Sanish
Details

Development of a Women’s Empowerment metric for Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WE-WASH)

There is a growing focus on gender-sensitive approaches and women’s empowerment in the water, sanitation, and hygiene sectors. At the same time, there is a lack of metrics to measure women’s empowerment in the WASH sector. Such metrics are important for understanding the types of programmatic interventions that are most needed for addressing women’s empowerment, as well as for assessing their impacts on women’s empowerment. In this report, we describe the development of a Women’s Empowerment metrics for Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WE-WASH). We collected data from individual women and men in 812 households in Malawi and 826 households in Nepal. Using the data, we develop 14 indicators and establish cutoff thresholds (i.e., whether the individual is empowered) in the areas of intrinsic, instrumental, and collective agency in WASH; instrumental and intrinsic agency in menstrual hygiene management; and the empowerment environment (or resources for empowerment). In each country, we observe differences in empowerment levels between women and men, that favor men on most outcomes. Notably, in both countries, we find that women are much less likely than men to contribute to WASH infrastructure decisions, and most women are spending an undue amount of time contributing to WASH-related labor. In Nepal especially, agency related to menstrual hygiene management is also a substantial area of disempowerment for women.

Year published

2023

Authors

Heckert, Jessica; Raghunathan, Kalyani; Myers, Emily; Ramani, Gayathri V.; Faas, Simone; Ferguson, Nathaniel; Seymour, Greg; Malapit, Hazel J.; Paz, Florencia; Chiwasa, Febbie; Chilalika, Joan; Kamwaba-Mtethiwa, Jean; Chirwa, Gowokani Chijere; Simkoko, Abigail; Chilungo, Abdallah; Upadhyaya, Rachana; Pradhan, Meeta S.; Joshi, Nira; Shrestha, Sanish

Citation

Heckert, Jessica; Raghunathan, Kalyani; Myers, Emily; Ramani, Gayathri V.; Faas, Simone; Ferguson, Nathaniel; et al. 2023. Development of a Women’s Empowerment metric for Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene (WE-WASH). IFPRI Discussion Paper 2207. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137008

Country/Region

Malawi; Nepal

Keywords

Southern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Southern Asia; Asia; Eastern Africa; Women’s Empowerment; Gender; Water; Capacity Development; Hygiene; Infrastructure; Men; Women

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137008 Source record

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Resilience in farm technical efficiency and enabling factors: Insights from panel farm enterprise surveys in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan

2023Takeshima, Hiroyuki; Djanibekov, Nodir; Abduvalieva, Nilufar; Mirkasimov, Bakhrom; Akramov, Kamiljon
Details

Resilience in farm technical efficiency and enabling factors: Insights from panel farm enterprise surveys in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan

Economic resilience within the agrifood system is becoming increasingly crucial for assuring sustainable development. This is particularly so in regions with volatile and fragile environments, including Central Asia. Evidence remains scarce regarding what factors can enhance the economic resilience of agents within the agrifood system, including the resilience of productivity and technical efficiency. We partly fill this knowledge gap using the unique panel datasets of farm enterprises in Uzbekistan and southern Kazakhstan, collected in 2019 and 2022, during which these enterprises experienced significant economic shocks in input prices. Using novel methods that combine Inverse Probability Weighting and panel stochastic frontier analyses models, we show that farmers who received more agricultural training and who had been granted greater autonomy in their production decisions in 2018 experienced greater resilience in technical efficiency despite the need to reduce the use of chemical fertilizer and oil/diesel in response to their price surges. Our findings suggest that providing critical public goods like information (related to training) and enabling environment (related to decision-making autonomy) can potentially enhance the resilience in the technical efficiency of farm enterprises. Furthermore, with chemical fertilizer and oil/diesel being potentially environmentally harmful inputs, these farmers also indirectly demonstrated resilience toward environmental sustainability.

Year published

2023

Authors

Takeshima, Hiroyuki; Djanibekov, Nodir; Abduvalieva, Nilufar; Mirkasimov, Bakhrom; Akramov, Kamiljon

Citation

Takeshima, H., Djanibekov, N., Abduvalieva, N., Mirkasimov, B. and Akramov, K. 2023. Resilience in farm technical efficiency and enabling factors: Insights from panel farm enterprise surveys in Kazakh-stan and Uzbekistann. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2205. Washington, D.C.: IFPRI.

Country/Region

Kazakhstan; Uzbekistan

Keywords

Asia; Central Asia; Resilience; Agrifood Systems; Sustainable Development; Agricultural Training; Inputs; Prices

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136985 Source record

Project

Fragility to Resilience in Central and West Asia and North Africa

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Do ultra-poor graduation programs build resilience against droughts? Evidence from rural Ethiopia

2023Hirvonen, Kalle; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Leight, Jessica; Tambet, Heleene; Villa, Victor
Details

Do ultra-poor graduation programs build resilience against droughts? Evidence from rural Ethiopia

We study the role of a multifaceted ultra-poor graduation program in protecting household wellbeing and women’s welfare from the effects of localized droughts in Ethiopia. We use data from a large experimental trial of an integrated livelihood and nutrition intervention that supplemented the consumption support provided by Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP), conducted within a sample in which all households were beneficiaries of the PSNP. We match three rounds of household survey data to detailed satellite weather data to identify community-level exposure to droughts. We then exploit random assignment to the graduation program to evaluate whether exposed households show heterogeneous effects of drought on household food security and livestock holdings, women’s diets and nutritional status, and prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV). We find that droughts have substantial negative effects on these outcomes, but the intervention serves to consistently moderate these effects, and for some outcomes (particularly diets and nutrition and IPV), the intervention fully protects households from any adverse drought affects. A further analysis exploits variation across treatment arms that received different program elements and suggests that the primary mechanism is enhanced household savings.

Year published

2023

Authors

Hirvonen, Kalle; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Leight, Jessica; Tambet, Heleene; Villa, Victor

Citation

Hirvonen, Kalle; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Leight, Jessica; Tambet, Heleene; and Villa, Victor. 2023. Do ultra-poor graduation programs build resilience against droughts? Evidence from rural Ethiopia. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2206. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137000

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Resilience; Shocks; Weather; Climate Change; Social Safety Nets; Poverty; Households; Welfare; Women; Livelihoods; Nutrition; Drought; Food Security; Livestock; Gender

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.137000 Source record

Project

Gender Equality

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Climate risks and damage abatement effects of pesticides: Evidence based on four-wave panel data in Nigeria

2023Takeshima, Hiroyuki; Edeh, Hyacinth; Lawal, Akeem; Oniybe, Johnson E.; Daudu, Christogonus K.; Andam, Kwaw S.
Details

Climate risks and damage abatement effects of pesticides: Evidence based on four-wave panel data in Nigeria

Managing biotic stress, such as pests, diseases, and weeds, remain critical in enhancing the productivity of agrifood systems in developing countries, including Nigeria. The public sector continues to seek solutions for efficient and effective measures for addressing these biotic stresses, ranging from varietal technologies, improved crop husbandry, and the application of agrochemicals. The field-level evidence remains scarce regarding the effectiveness of these measures in developing countries like Nigeria. Furthermore, increasing climate uncertainty poses further challenges in identifying effective measures. This study assesses the damage abatement effects of agrochemicals in Nigeria and how these effects are affected by weather shocks. We extend the standard damage abatement framework to 4 waves of farm panel data to minimize the potential bias due to the endogeneity in agrochemical use decisions. Our results indicate that weather shocks have significant effects. In particular, rising nighttime minimum temperatures above 20 ℃ have significantly increased damage abatement effects of pesticides in Nigeria. This is possibly because of increased pest activities induced by the warmer nighttime temperatures, which, in the absence of pesticide uses, would cause more significant damage to crops. These results hold for all crops combined, as well as individual crops, including cowpea and maize, for which Nigeria has intensified its effort in pest control through both agrochemicals and Bt varieties in recent years.

Year published

2023

Authors

Takeshima, Hiroyuki; Edeh, Hyacinth; Lawal, Akeem; Oniybe, Johnson E.; Daudu, Christogonus K.; Andam, Kwaw S.

Citation

Takeshima, Hiroyuki; Edeh, Hyacinth; Lawal, Akeem; Oniybe, Johnson E.; Daudu, Christogonus K.; and Andam, Kwaw S. 2023. Climate risks and damage abatement effects of pesticides: Evidence based on four-wave panel data in Nigeria. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2204. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136983

Country/Region

Nigeria

Keywords

Western Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Data; Pesticides; Agrifood Systems; Developing Countries; Agrochemicals; Biotic Stress; Weather; Shocks; Climate Change

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136983 Source record

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

A multi-country validation and sensitivity analysis of the project level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (Pro-WEAI)

2023Seymour, Greg; Faas, Simone; Ferguson, Nathaniel; Heckert, Jessica; Malapit, Hazel J.; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.; Quisumbing, Agnes R.; van Biljon, Chloe; Gender Agriculture Assets Project Phase 2 Study Team
Details

A multi-country validation and sensitivity analysis of the project level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (Pro-WEAI)

We discuss the evolution of the project-level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (pro-WEAI) from its initial launch in 2018 until early 2023. We explain the reasons motivating changes to the composition of pro-WEAI and the adequacy thresholds of several indicators and discuss the implications of both for the overall measurement of project impacts on women’s empowerment. We present supporting empirical results comparing projects’ impacts calculated using the abbreviated Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (A-WEAI) (the predecessor to pro-WEAI with fewer indicators and less stringent indicator cut-offs), the pilot 12-indicator version of pro-WEAI, and the final, revised 10-indicator version of pro-WEAI, based on longitudinal data from six agricultural development projects in East and West Africa and South Asia as part of the Gender, Agriculture, and Assets Project, Phase 2 (GAAP2). In addition, we assess the sensitivity of the revised pro-WEAI to an alternative weighting scheme, namely inverse covariance weighting (ICW). Overall, we find that the revised pro-WEAI performs well: In comparison to A-WEAI, pro-WEAI—regardless of version—identifies larger and more frequently significant impact estimates, indicating that pro-WEAI is more sensitive to detecting project impacts on women’s empowerment than A-WEAI. And we find only minor differences in impact estimates produced using the 12-indicator, 10-indicator, or alternate weighting scheme versions of pro-WEAI. We conclude with reflections on six years of work on pro-WEAI during GAAP2.

Year published

2023

Authors

Seymour, Greg; Faas, Simone; Ferguson, Nathaniel; Heckert, Jessica; Malapit, Hazel J.; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.; Quisumbing, Agnes R.; van Biljon, Chloe; Gender Agriculture Assets Project Phase 2 Study Team

Citation

Seymour, Greg; Faas, Simone; Ferguson, Nathaniel; Heckert, Jessica; Malapit, Hazel J.; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth; Quisumbing, Agnes R.; van Biljon, Chloe; and Gender Agriculture Assets Project Phase 2 Study Team. 2023. A multi-country validation and sensitivity analysis of the project level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (Pro-WEAI). IFPRI Discussion Paper 2201. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136974

Keywords

Southern Asia; Western Africa; Eastern Africa; Asia; Africa; Women’s Empowerment; Gender Equality; Gender; Agricultural Development; Impact Assessment

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136974 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Can a light-touch graduation model enhance livelihood outcomes? Evidence from Ethiopia

2023Leight, Jessica; Alderman, Harold; Gilligan, Daniel; Hidrobo, Melissa; Mulford, Michael
Details

Can a light-touch graduation model enhance livelihood outcomes? Evidence from Ethiopia

In recent years, a growing literature has examined the potential of multifaceted, intensive “graduation model” interventions that simultaneously address multiple barriers constraining households’ exit from poverty. In this paper, we present new evidence from a randomized trial of a lighter-touch graduation model implemented in rural Ethiopia. The primary experimental arms are a bundled intervention including a productive transfer valued at $374 (randomly assigned to be cash or an equivalent value in poultry), training, and savings groups; a simpler intervention including training and savings groups only; and a control arm. We find that three years post-baseline, the intervention inclusive of the transfer leads to some increases in assets, savings, and cash income from livestock, though there is no shift in consumption or household food security; these effects are consistent regardless of the modality of the transfer (cash versus poultry). The effects of training and savings groups alone are minimal.

Year published

2023

Authors

Leight, Jessica; Alderman, Harold; Gilligan, Daniel; Hidrobo, Melissa; Mulford, Michael

Citation

Leight, Jessica; Alderman, Harold; Gilligan, Daniel; Hidrobo, Melissa; and Mulford, Michael. 2023. Can a light-touch graduation model enhance livelihood outcomes? Evidence from Ethiopia. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2203. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136972

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Poverty; Cash Transfers; Poultry; Livelihoods; Food Security; Livestock; Savings Group

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136972 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Spatial market integration of food markets during a shock: Evidence from food markets in Nigeria

2023Amare, Mulubrhan; Abay, Kibrom A.; Hatzenbuehler, Patrick L.
Details

Spatial market integration of food markets during a shock: Evidence from food markets in Nigeria

This paper uses comprehensive and long time series monthly food price data and a panel dyadic regression framework to evaluate the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and associated policy responses on spatial market integration across a diverse set of food items in Nigeria. The empirical results reveal several important insights. First, we show that a significant slowdown in the speed of adjustment and price transmission occurred during the pandemic. For some food items, the speed of adjustment and, by implication, spatial market integration weakened by two- to-threefold after the pandemic outbreak. The effect was especially pronounced for perishable food items. Second, lockdown measures and the spread of the pandemic triggered additional dispersion in market prices across markets. For example, lockdown measures were associated with a 5–10 percent reduction in the speed of readjustment toward long-term equilibrium. Third, additional underlying attributes of markets, including lack of access to digital infrastructure and distance between markets, exacerbated impacts associated with the pandemic. For instance, access to Internet service reduced the slowdown in the speed of adjustment caused by the pandemic, but longer distances between market pairs induced greater slowdown in the speed of price transmission. Our findings offer important insights for revitalizing the efficiency of food markets affected by the pandemic. The heterogenous impacts of the pandemic across value chains and markets reinforce the need to properly target post-pandemic recovery interventions and investments. Finally, we offer some insights to reduce the vulnerability of food and market systems to disruptions in future pandemics or similar phenomena that inhibit food marketing and trade.

Year published

2023

Authors

Amare, Mulubrhan; Abay, Kibrom A.; Hatzenbuehler, Patrick L.

Citation

Amare, Mulubrhan; Abay, Kibrom A.; and Hatzenbuehler, Patrick L. 2023. Spatial market integration of food markets during a shock: Evidence from food markets in Nigeria. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2202. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136963

Country/Region

Nigeria

Keywords

Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Western Africa; Food Prices; Covid-19; Markets; Infrastructure; Digital Technology; Regression Analysis; Coronavirus; Coronavirinae; Coronavirus Disease

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136963 Source record

Project

National Policies and Strategies

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Mapping the design and implementation of seed sector regulation: The case of Uganda

2023Kuhlmann, Katrin; Nalinya, Adron Naggayi; Francis, Tara; Spielman, David J.
Details

Mapping the design and implementation of seed sector regulation: The case of Uganda

An enabling environment with clear, inclusive, and transparent seed laws, policies, regulations, and guidelines is the foundation for an efficient and effective seed sector. If well designed and implemented, the legal and regulatory framework can facilitate market diversification, supervision and quality control of seed and other forms of planting material, promotion of private sector participation, farmer access to improved seed varieties, reduced barriers for the movement of seeds across borders, and food security. This study uses Regulatory Systems Maps (RSMs), a mapping tool for legal and regulatory processes and procedures, as a primary comparative method to assess the progress and dynamics in Uganda’s seed system along four key dimensions of the seed systems regulatory value chain: (i) early generation seed (EGS) production and distribution, (ii) varietal registration and release processes, (iii) seed quality assurance systems, and (iv) seed trade. The RSMs document and illustrate the processes and procedures contained in Uganda’s seed legal and regulatory systems, analytically isolating intervention points, proposed legal and regulatory changes, good practices and legal innovations, and systemic shifts over time, while also integrating important dimensions such as gender, inclusion, and flexibility that can address farmers’ needs, reduce costs, and increase participation in seed systems. The data and information used to compile the Uganda RSMs were developed and validated through a series of consultations with an array of stakeholders spanning both the public and private sectors. The findings of the RSMs showed that, despite the comprehensive nature of Uganda’s seed rules and regulations and some notable innovations, implementation is a persistent challenge, and regulatory gaps and inconsistencies continue to exist. The RSMs indicate the need to take various measures to improve the enabling environment for seed trade in Uganda, including reviewing the current seed law, which is largely outdated; updating the existing seed regulations; adopting plant variety protection (PVP) regulations to implement the PVP Act; developing guidelines on agricultural research; and building capacity in both the public and private sectors.

Year published

2023

Authors

Kuhlmann, Katrin; Nalinya, Adron Naggayi; Francis, Tara; Spielman, David J.

Citation

Kuhlmann, Katrin; Nalinya, Adron Naggayi; Francis, Tara; and Spielman, David J. 2023. Mapping the design and implementation of seed sector regulation: The case of Uganda. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2200. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136948

Country/Region

Uganda

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Agriculture; Diversification; Seeds; Seed Production; Value Chains

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136948 Source record

Project

Seed Equal

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Adoption and impacts of agricultural technologies and sustainable natural resource management practices in fragile and conflict affected settings: A review and meta-analysis

2023Nshakira-Rukundo, Emmanuel; Tabe-Ojong, Martin Paul Jr.; Gebrekidan, Bisrat Haile; Agaba, Monica; Surendran-Padmaja, Subash; Dhebibi, Boubaker
Details

Adoption and impacts of agricultural technologies and sustainable natural resource management practices in fragile and conflict affected settings: A review and meta-analysis

Climate change and conflicts co-exist in many countries with significant welfare and socio-environmental implications. Different approaches are being promoted to adapt and build resilience to these fragilities including the adoption of sustainable farm practices that have the potential to increase agricultural productivity and maintain environmental sustainability. We undertake a systematic review and perform a meta-analysis to understand and synthesize the adoption and impacts of agricultural technologies and natural resource management practices with a special attention to fragile and conflict affected settings. We employ state of the art machine learning methods to enable process and selection of appropriate papers from a universe of over 78,000 papers from leading academic databases. We find that studies on adoption and impact of agricultural technologies and natural resource management practices are highly clustered around Ethiopia and Nigeria. We do not find any studies on Small Island States. We observe a wide array of characteristics that influence adoption of these technologies. Of the over 1400 estimates of determinants collected, majority predict input technologies while very few studies and estimates are found in relation to risk management and mechanisation technologies. Our meta-analysis shows an average effect size of 7 – 9% for the different technologies and practices. For the outcomes: land productivity, food security and household welfare, we obtain effect sizes of 6, 8 and 9% respectively. We do not observe much in terms of publication bias. Both climate and conflict vulnerability not only cause far more food insecurity, poverty, and degradation of the environment on their own but also reinforce each other through the climate change – conflict linkage. For these detrimental effects to be curtailed, utilisation of climate-smart agricultural technologies and natural resource management practices need to be encouraged. We thus lend credence to the development, dissemination and upscaling of these sustainable practices. We observe a lot of space for growth and adoption of these technologies.

Year published

2023

Authors

Nshakira-Rukundo, Emmanuel; Tabe-Ojong, Martin Paul Jr.; Gebrekidan, Bisrat Haile; Agaba, Monica; Surendran-Padmaja, Subash; Dhebibi, Boubaker

Citation

Nshakira-Rukundo, Emmanuel; Tabe-Ojong, Martin Paul Jr.; Gebrekidan, Bisrat Haile; Agaba, Monica; Surendran-Padmaja, Subash; and Dhebibi, Boubaker. 2023. Adoption and impacts of agricultural technologies and sustainable natural resource management practices in fragile and conflict affected settings: A review and meta-analysis. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2199. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136912

Keywords

Technology Adoption; Natural Resources Management; Fragility; Conflicts; Climate Change; Impact; Resilience; Agricultural Technology; Mechanization; Food Security; Poverty

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136912 Source record

Project

Fragility to Resilience in Central and West Asia and North Africa

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

The (perceived) quality of agricultural technology and its adoption: Experimental evidence from Uganda

2023Miehe, Caroline; Sparrow, Robert; Spielman, David J.; Van Campenhout, Bjorn
Details

The (perceived) quality of agricultural technology and its adoption: Experimental evidence from Uganda

Recently, issues related to the (perceived) quality of inputs and technologies have been proposed as an important constraint to their adoption by smallholder farmers in low income countries. Taking maize seed embodying genetic gain as a case, we train random agro-dealers to test whether under-adoption by farmers is caused by low quality due to sellers’ lack of knowledge about proper storage and handling. In a second hypothesis, we randomly introduce an information clearinghouse similar to popular crowd-sourced review platforms such as yelp.com or trustpilot.com to test whether information asymmetries crowd out quality seed. We find that the information clearinghouse treatment improves outcomes for both agro-dealers and farmers, with agro-dealers receiving more customers and reporting higher revenues from maize seed sales, and farmers reporting significantly higher use of improved maize seed varieties obtained from agro-dealers, leading to higher maize productivity after two seasons. The primary mechanisms behind this impact appear to be an increased effort to signal quality by agro-dealers and a general restoration of trust in the market for improved seed. The agro-dealer training does not have a clear impact on agro-dealers, nor on farmers in associated catchment areas. However, we do find that the information clearinghouse increases agro-dealer knowledge about proper seed storage and handling. Upon exploring interaction effects between the training and the clearinghouse treatment, we also find that the training becomes effective for agro-dealers that are also in the clearinghouse treatment group. This underscores the importance of incentives to make supply side interventions such as trainings effective.

Year published

2023

Authors

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

Citation

Miehe, Caroline; Sparrow, Robert; Spielman, David J.; and Van Campenhout, Bjorn. 2023. The (perceived) quality of agricultural technology and its adoption: Experimental evidence from Uganda. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2198. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136903

Country/Region

Uganda

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Agricultural Technology; Technology Adoption; Farm Inputs; Knowledge; Information Transfer; Information Infrastructure; Smallholders

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136903 Source record

Project

Market Intelligence

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Mitigating greenhouse gas emissions in Kenya’s food system: Economic interdependencies and policy opportunities

2023Nin-Pratt, Alejandro
Details

Mitigating greenhouse gas emissions in Kenya’s food system: Economic interdependencies and policy opportunities

Low- and middle-income countries worldwide share the common challenge of achieving sustainable economic development while reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. This challenge is complex due to the interconnectedness of economic activities, where policies targeting one industry can have ripple effects on others. Therefore, it is crucial to understand integrated GHG emissions and their relationships across industries within an economy to inform effective policy formulation. Kenya, as a middle-income country experiencing rapid economic growth, faces an urgent need to address this challenge. This study analyzes the economic relationships between agricultural production, the food industry, and other sectors of the economy in Kenya to identify key drivers of national GHG emissions from the food system. To accomplish this, an environmentally extended input-output (EEIO) table is employed to calculate both direct and indirect emissions for 38 activities of Kenya’s economy, as well as emissions embodied in final goods. Direct emissions refer to those generated during the production process of an activity, while indirect emissions are produced by other activities that provide inputs to the activity of interest. The findings reveal that agriculture is the largest contributor to GHG emissions in Kenya, with the majority of emissions stemming from direct sources such as enteric fermentation and manure management in livestock production. Additionally, the study finds that total emission intensity in the manufacturing sector is considerably higher than in most agricultural activities, except for livestock production, primarily due to the significant level of indirect emissions associated with manufacturing processes. Within the agricultural sector, cereals and livestock production exhibit high levels of direct emissions, while export crops like coffee and tea, as well as vegetable cultivation, show relatively higher indirect emissions. Addressing GHG emissions from the livestock sector emerges as a crucial step in significantly reducing agricultural emissions in Kenya. The dairy sub-sector presents an opportunity for intensification and technological advancements, as climate-smart technologies have already demonstrated their potential to enhance productivity while reducing emissions. Conversely, mitigating GHG emissions in beef production, which is primarily concentrated in ecologically fragile areas, will require institutional innovations focusing on rangeland management, disease control, and scaling up livestock marketing efforts. While the intensification of dairy production can contribute to agricultural growth and development in Kenya, its impact on mitigating GHG emissions is expected to be limited at the national scale.

Year published

2023

Authors

Nin-Pratt, Alejandro

Citation

Nin-Pratt, Alejandro. 2023. Mitigating greenhouse gas emissions in Kenya’s food system: Economic interdependencies and policy opportunities. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2197. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136873

Country/Region

Kenya

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Economic Development; Food Systems; Greenhouse Gas Emissions; Input Output Analysis; Sustainable Development; Policies; Agricultural Production; Livestock Production

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136873 Source record

Project

Low-Emission Food Systems

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

The digital divide in rural Ethiopia: Determinants and implications of sex-disaggregated mobile phone ownership and use

2023Warner, James M.; Mekonnen, Yalew; Habte, Yetimwork
Details

The digital divide in rural Ethiopia: Determinants and implications of sex-disaggregated mobile phone ownership and use

Mobile phones are rapidly being adopted in less developed countries, with widely acknowledged commensurate socio-economic benefits, including United Nations SDGs advocating for increased ownership of mobile phones to promote women’s empowerment. While overall mobile phone ownership is rising quickly in Ethiopia, it is lagging for rural women, particularly married rural women. Overall, we find that married men are approximately five times more likely to own a phone than their wives even though married women with phones are more active in agricultural decision making. This lack of female mobile phone ownership should be considered within the broader context of several recent Ethiopian digital initiatives, including mobile banking and mobile payments. These initiatives are likely to provide greater benefits to those individuals that own a mobile phone. By applying gender analysis to phone ownership, we believe that we can anticipate some potentially unexpected negative consequences for women created by these mobile phone initiatives. This paper outlines current rural sex-disaggregated phone ownership trends, determinants of phone ownership, and related impacts on intrahousehold decision making. We believe that by identifying these gender differences in mobile phone ownership, policymakers can better target their digital economy initiatives.

Year published

2023

Authors

Warner, James M.; Mekonnen, Yalew; Habte, Yetimwork

Citation

Warner, James; Mekonnen, Yalew; and Habte, Yetimwork. 2023. The digital divide in rural Ethiopia: Determinants and implications of sex-disaggregated mobile phone ownership and use. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2196. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136868

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Innovation; Women’s Empowerment; Gender; Sustainable Development Goals; Households; Socioeconomic Development; Agriculture; Developing Countries; Marriage; Decision Making; Rural Areas; Women

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136868 Source record

Project

Agriculture for Nutrition and Health

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Disclosure of violence against women and girls in Senegal

2023Peterman, Amber; Dione, Malick; Le Port, Agnès; Briaux, Justine; Lamesse, Fatma; Hidrobo, Melissa
Details

Disclosure of violence against women and girls in Senegal

Measures of violence against women and girls (VAWG) are widely collected in surveys, yet estimates are acknowledged to be lower-bounds of the true prevalence. Disclosure may be affected by numerous factors, including shame and stigma, fear of retaliation, distrust of interviewers or desire to keep the perpetrator’s identity confidential. We conduct a survey experiment randomly assigning approximately 3,400 women and girls aged 15 to 35 to either face-to-face interviews or audio computer-assisted self interviews (ACASI). Results show participants in the ACASI group report higher prevalence of lifetime intimate partner violence by 4 to 7 percentage points compared to face-to-face interviews. Differences in reporting for non-partner VAWG are even larger, ranging from 6 to 12 percentage points for physical violence and sexual harassment, respectively. We test for correlates of characteristics which might lead toincreased disclosure, however, we find few notable patterns. Our results suggest that ACASI surveys are a promising way to encourage disclosure, but acknowledge trade-offs that include limits in the complexity of questions that can be asked and higher time costs associated with development and implementation of surveys.

Year published

2023

Authors

Peterman, Amber; Dione, Malick; Le Port, Agnès; Briaux, Justine; Lamesse, Fatma; Hidrobo, Melissa

Citation

Peterman, Amber; Dione, Malick; Le Port, Agnès; Briaux, Justine; Lamesse, Fatma; and Hidrobo, Melissa. 2023. Disclosure of violence against women and girls in Senegal. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2195. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136775

Country/Region

Senegal

Keywords

Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Western Africa; Surveys; Behaviour; Gender-based Violence; Gender; Women; Girls; Domestic Violence; Measurement

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136775 Source record

Project

Gender

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Accounting for dietary deprivations in rural Africa: Poor households, poor farms or poor food environments?

2023Block, Steven; Ecker, Olivier; Headey, Derek D.; Comstock, Andrew R.
Details

Accounting for dietary deprivations in rural Africa: Poor households, poor farms or poor food environments?

Agricultural and food policies are increasingly asked to do more to improve the dietary quality of populations in lower and middle income countries (LMICs), especially severely malnourished rural populations. However, the appropriate strategy for improving diet quality remains an open question. Agriculture has traditionally focused on food security and poverty reduction, mostly through investments in staple crops, while social protection programs have also sought to improve diets through poverty reduction. Nutrition-sensitive agriculture programs traditionally emphasize farm-level diversification into nutrient-dense crops and/or livestock, combined with nutrition education. More recently, some researchers have moved beyond the farm to assessthe role of market access and local food environments more generally, though little research has focused on food environments in rural Africa. In this study we explore the determinants of a new and improved measure of household diet deprivation(s) that measure consumption gaps for diets as a whole as well as gaps for individual food groups. Using national datasets for rural Nigeria, Ethiopia and Tanzania, we conduct a “racehorse” regression analysis that reveals strong support for the role of wealth in reducing dietary deprivation, evidence that livestock diversification is important but not crop diversification, and indications that local farming systems are also strongly associated with dietary outcomes, but market access indicators are not. While more research is needed, we conclude that the evidence supports strategies that combine income/wealth enhancement objectives with livestock diversification where possible. Evidence on the linkages between food environments and diet quality in rural areas of LMICs is currently too limited and warrants further research of the observational and experimental variety.

Year published

2023

Authors

Block, Steven; Ecker, Olivier; Headey, Derek D.; Comstock, Andrew R.

Citation

Block, Steven; Ecker, Olivier; Headey, Derek D.; and Comstock, Andrew R. 2023. Accounting for dietary deprivations in rural Africa: Poor households, poor farms or poor food environments? IFPRI Discussion Paper 2194. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136770

Country/Region

Ethiopia; Niger

Keywords

Tanzania; Africa; Eastern Africa; Western Africa; Agriculture; Agricultural Policies; Food Policies; Diet; Food Security; Poverty Reduction; Crops; Social Welfare; Nutrition; Market Access; Diversification; Farming Systems; Food Markets

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136770 Source record

Project

Climate Resilience

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

Constraints facing rural poultry production in PNG: The role of input suppliers

2023Fang, Peixun; Benny, Dickson; Ovah, Raywin; Roberts, Arthur; Schmidt, Emily; Solomon, Elly
Details

Constraints facing rural poultry production in PNG: The role of input suppliers

Context: The average consumption of protein foods in Papua New Guinea (PNG) remains insufficient to meet nutritious diet guidelines, especially in rural areas. While an expanding literature has demonstrated that poultry is a cost-efficient animal source food to increase protein intake, rural households in PNG face high prices at the market for poultry meat. Similarly, the high price of poultry production inputs constrains greater uptake of rural poultry production. PNG’s heavy reliance on feed (and feed input) imports, as well as high transportation costs and insufficient rural manufacturing and processing infrastructure creates limited opportunities for rural subsistence and commercial poultry production growth. Objective: There is a lack of value chain studies to understand the feasibility of expanding the local mini livestock feed mill model in PNG to increase poultry feed supply in underserved areas. This study builds from earlier work on rural livestock feed infrastructure programs, and aims to fill the knowledge gap on the opportunities and constraints for expanding domestic livestock feed production and distribution via rural mini feed mills. Method: The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the National Agriculture Research Institute (NARI) conducted in-depth qualitative interviews with 8 mini mills and 13 poultry farmers across 4 highland provinces during October and November 2022. We synthesize the interview transcriptions of the qualitative interviews in tandem with quantitative analysis of food consumption and agri-food trade data, as well as the authors’ own field observations in this paper. Results: The in-depth interviews showed that the poultry farmers who purchased from local mini feed mills substantially lowered their feed costs, resulting in greater gross profits compared to rural poultry farmers that only sourced feed from commercial feed suppliers. However, the mini feed mills that we interviewed outlined a series of challenges in sustaining rural feed mills in PNG. The main challenges of running a successful mill included feed mill equipment procurement, electricity reliability, reliable raw ingredient supply, mini mill retailing to secure a client base, and adequate information about feed formulation. We identified two potential approaches that have overcome many of the identified challenges, that could be replicated and adapted to expand mini feed mill operations in the Highlands. The first approach is a farmer cooperative model that incorporates credit and feed delivery services to cooperative farmers. In doing so, they are able to better estimate volume demand for processed feed and accommodate feed production accordingly. The second approach follows a lead firm model, whereby a local farm supply retail outlet is expanding its business to include livestock feed production and supply, overcoming equipment procurement constraints given their previously developed business model focused on farm implement supply. Our evaluation provides detailed costs and benefits of both approaches for potential expansion of these livestock feed producer and distributor models.

Year published

2023

Authors

Fang, Peixun; Benny, Dickson; Ovah, Raywin; Roberts, Arthur; Schmidt, Emily; Solomon, Elly

Citation

Fang, Peixun; Benny, Dickson; Ovah, Raywin; Roberts, Arthur; Schmidt, Emily; and Solomon, Elly. 2023. Constraints facing rural poultry production in PNG: The role of input suppliers. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2193. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136756

Country/Region

Papua New Guinea

Keywords

Oceania; Melanesia; Value Chains; Poultry; Foods; Production; Inputs; Equipment; Interviews; Nutrition; Proteins; Infrastructure; Livestock; Rural Areas; Prices; Food Supply Chains; Food Processing

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136756 Source record

Record type

Working Paper

Working Paper

What are you talking about? Applying cognitive interviewing to improve survey questions on women’s economic empowerment for market inclusion

2023
Myers, Emily; Heckert, Jessica; Salazar, Elizabeth; Kalagho, Kenan; Salamba, Flora; Mzungu, Diston; Mswero, Grace; Adegbola, Patrice Ygué; Crinot, Geraud Fabrice; Kouton-Bognon, Baudelaire
…more Pereira, Audrey; Rubin, Deborah; Malapit, Hazel J.; Seymour, Greg
Details

What are you talking about? Applying cognitive interviewing to improve survey questions on women’s economic empowerment for market inclusion

Monitoring progress toward women’s empowerment requires tools that reflect its underlying concepts. Cognitive interviewing is a qualitative approach for identifying sources of error in how respondents respond to survey items. This study identifies cognitive errors in survey modules included in the project level Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index for Market Inclusion (pro-WEAI+MI) in Benin and Malawi. Comprehension, retrieval, judgment, and response errors were all found to different degrees in the nine modules comprising the survey instrument. There are variations in findings by country context and, to a lesser extent, gender. The findings of this study informed revisions to the pro-WEAI+MI survey instrument and offer insights into how best to design survey modules used for monitoring progress toward gender equality in agricultural value chains and development efforts.

Year published

2023

Authors

Myers, Emily; Heckert, Jessica; Salazar, Elizabeth; Kalagho, Kenan; Salamba, Flora; Mzungu, Diston; Mswero, Grace; Adegbola, Patrice Ygué; Crinot, Geraud Fabrice; Kouton-Bognon, Baudelaire; Pereira, Audrey; Rubin, Deborah; Malapit, Hazel J.; Seymour, Greg

Citation

Myers, Emily; Heckert, Jessica; Salazar, Elizabeth; Kalagho, Kenan; Salamba, Flora; Mzungu, Diston et al. 2023. What are you talking about? Applying cognitive interviewing to improve survey questions on women’s economic empowerment for market inclusion. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2192. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136726

Country/Region

Benin; Malawi

Keywords

Western Africa; Southern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Eastern Africa; Value Chains; Development; Gender; Gender Equality; Women’s Empowerment; Methods; Surveys; Gender-based Violence; Capacity Development; Agriculture; Market Access; Errors; Women

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136726 Source record

Project

Agriculture for Nutrition and Health

Record type

Working Paper

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