The flagship journal of the International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE), Agricultural Economics, released a Special Issue on Input Subsidy Programs (ISPs) in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The main motivation for the special issue is to provide African policy makers and development partners with evidence and insight from high-quality research on the impact of Input Subsidy Programs (ISP) in Africa. This research is especially timely given that ten African governments spend an estimated US$1.05 billion annually annually—an average of 30 percent of their agriculture budgets—on ISPs.
While spending on ISPs has increased in recent years, there has been little research and evidence that shows that these programs have been effective. To shed light on these knowledge gaps, researchers answer four core policy questions in this special issue:
1. What impact do ISPs have on the purchase of inputs, crop yields, and food price levels?
2. Are subsidized inputs targeted to farmers who would not otherwise buy them?
3. Do ISPs handicap or encourage development of commercial input distribution?
4. Are ISPs a cost-effective way to promote agricultural development and reduce poverty relative to other public investments?
The special issue contains 12 papers, which includes country-level studies from Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria, and Zambia—all countries with prominent ISP programs. Read more at IFPRI's blog where this article was originally published.