Discussion Papers

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Farming under fire: The interplay of armed conflict and climate-induced weather disruptions in agricultural input use

2024Ayalew, Hailemariam; Berhane, Guush; Wondale, Meseret; Breisinger, Clemens

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Farming under fire: The interplay of armed conflict and climate-induced weather disruptions in agricultural input use

The recent surge in violent conflicts, intertwined with climate-induced drought risks, is jeopardizing decades of development progress in many low- and middle-income countries. This study investigates the compounded effects of armed conflicts and climate-induced disruptions on agricultural input use in Ethiopia, a country experiencing significant fragility due to both factors. Using a unique household- and plot-level panel dataset collected before (2019) and after (2023) the onset of a widespread conflict, we examine how these disruptions affect the use of key agricultural inputs, such as inorganic fertilizers, improved seeds, agrochemicals, compost, and manure. The analysis reveals that exposure to conflict significantly reduces the likelihood of using both inorganic and organic inputs. Conflict-affected households are 9 percentage points less likely to use both inorganic fertilizers and improved seeds, and 14 percentage points less likely to use organic fertilizers, such as compost and manure. Exposure to recurrent rainfall variability by inducing uncertainty of use of inputs further exacerbates these negative impacts, reducing fertilizer use by an additional 3 percent among drought-exposed households. These findings highlight the multifaceted challenges faced by smallholder farmers in fragile settings, where both conflict and environmental stressors undermine agricultural productivity and threaten food security. The study underscores the need for targeted anticipatory (pre-conflict) and resilience building (post-conflict) interventions to support resilience in agricultural practices within conflict-affected regions, particularly those facing climate-induced weather risks.

Year published

2024

Authors

Ayalew, Hailemariam; Berhane, Guush; Wondale, Meseret; Breisinger, Clemens

Citation

Ayalew, Hailemariam; Berhane, Guush; Wondale, Meseret; and Breisinger, Clemens. 2024. Farming under fire: The interplay of armed conflict and climate-induced weather disruptions in agricultural input use. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2307. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/168640

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Eastern Africa; Agriculture; Armed Conflicts; Climate Change; Weather Hazards; Inputs

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

National Policies and Strategies

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Promoting adoption of sustainable land management technologies by women and couples in Ethiopia: Evidence from a randomized trial

2024Leight, Jessica; Bahiru, Kibret Mamo; Buehren, Niklas; Getahun, Tigabu; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Mulford, Michael; Tambet, Heleene

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Promoting adoption of sustainable land management technologies by women and couples in Ethiopia: Evidence from a randomized trial

Sustainable land management (SLM) technologies including composting and agro-forestry are widely promoted as strategies to counter land degradation and enhance resilience against adverse weather shocks. Given that women are disproportionately vulnerable to such shocks, promoting their uptake of these technologies may be particularly important. We conducted a randomized trial in rural Ethiopia analyzing a bundled intervention providing training and inputs designed to encourage uptake of three interrelated SLM technologies: fruit tree planting, composting, and home gardening. The trial included 1900 extremely poor households in 95 subdistricts, randomly assigned to treatment arms in which women only or couples were included in the intervention. The findings one year post-baseline suggest a positive and large effect on take-up of all three technologies: the probability of reporting any trees increased by eight percentage points, and the probability of reporting a garden and/or composting increased by 20 to 30 percentage points, symmetrically across treatment arms. There are also significant reported increases in household vegetable production and consumption as well as in women’s dietary diversity. There is, however, some evidence that tree survival rates and tree health are weakly lower in intervention households compared to control households who spontaneously planted trees. Some positive effects on equitable intrahousehold decision-making and task-sharing are observed, especially in the couples’ training arm, but in general there is no robust evidence that either intervention significantly shifted intrahousehold gender dynamics.

Year published

2024

Authors

Leight, Jessica; Bahiru, Kibret Mamo; Buehren, Niklas; Getahun, Tigabu; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Mulford, Michael; Tambet, Heleene

Citation

Leight, Jessica; Bahiru, Kibret Mamo; Buehren, Niklas; Getahun, Tigabu; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Mulford, Michael; and Tambet, Heleene. 2024. Promoting adoption of sustainable land management technologies by women and couples in Ethiopia: Evidence from a randomized trial. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2309. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/168513

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Climate Change; Land Management; Gender; Social Protection; Sustainable Land Management

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Gender Equality

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Working Paper

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Working Paper

Do public works investments in watershed rehabilitation and small-scale irrigation improve nutrition and resilience? Evidence from bureau for humanitarian assistance interventions in support of Ethiopia’s productive safety net program

2024Balana, Bedru; Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Arega, Tiruwork; Ringler, Claudia; Bryan, Elizabeth; Yami, Mastewal; Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum; Wondwosen, Abenezer

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Do public works investments in watershed rehabilitation and small-scale irrigation improve nutrition and resilience? Evidence from bureau for humanitarian assistance interventions in support of Ethiopia’s productive safety net program

Between 2017 and 2021, the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) of the United States Agency for International Development supported public works in the areas of watershed rehabilitation and small-scale irrigation under Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP). The investments aimed to improve food security and nutrition and to increase the resilience capacities of households through improved natural resource systems and asset development. However, there is little evidence about how these water-related investments supported household food security, nutritional outcomes, and resilience. This study used a mixed-methods approach to fill some of these knowledge gaps. Econometric results show that households in BHA intervention areas had smaller food gaps, and this association is statistically significant. Similarly, households that adopted small-scale irrigation and water harvesting techniques on their own plots show significantly better nutritional outcomes than those that did not. The results further suggest that in general the households in BHA areas are more resilient than those in non-BHA woredas. However, higher resilience capacities are associated with agricultural water management on own plots rather than with public works in communal lands. Thus, if household security, nutrition and resilience are key goals of program interventions, then programs need to grow intentionality in developing assets, and particularly irrigation.

Year published

2024

Authors

Balana, Bedru; Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Arega, Tiruwork; Ringler, Claudia; Bryan, Elizabeth; Yami, Mastewal; Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum; Wondwosen, Abenezer

Citation

Balana, Bedru; Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Arega, Tiruwork; Ringler, Claudia; Bryan, Elizabeth; et al. 2024. Do public works investments in watershed rehabilitation and small-scale irrigation improve nutrition and resilience? Evidence from bureau for humanitarian assistance interventions in support of Ethiopia’s productive safety net program. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2308. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/168643

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Eastern Africa; Public Works; Public Investment; Watershed Management; Small-scale Irrigation; Nutrition; Resilience; Social Safety Nets; Food Security

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

NEXUS Gains

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Working Paper

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Working Paper

Catalyzing financial inclusion: Using incentives to promote mobile money use in Ethiopia

2024de Brauw, Alan; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Herskowitz, Sylvan; Roy, Shalini

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Catalyzing financial inclusion: Using incentives to promote mobile money use in Ethiopia

Mobile money can be a vehicle for improving financial access, particularly among disadvantaged populations. For mobile money systems to play this role, though, members of disadvantaged groups must both enroll in and begin to use mobile money systems. In this paper, we describe a randomized trial conducted in collaboration with a bank in Somali region, Ethiopia, that attempted to stimulate use among recent mobile money enrollees in areas near refugee camps. We provide one group with a small transfer to their mobile money account and another group is told they will receive a small transfer if they first make three transactions of any type within a promotional period. The unconditional transfer induces a 9.3 percentage point increase in customers making at least one transaction, while the conditional transfer has no significant effect. The effect is larger among men, but there is evidence that it also induces use among
women.

Year published

2024

Authors

de Brauw, Alan; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Herskowitz, Sylvan; Roy, Shalini

Citation

de Brauw, Alan; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Herskowitz, Sylvan; and Roy, Shalini. 2024. Catalyzing financial inclusion: Using incentives to promote mobile money use in Ethiopia. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2295. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/162765

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Africa; Access to Finance; Refugees; Gender; Digital Technology; Currencies; Finance; Mobile Phones

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

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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

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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. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/159546

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

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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. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/158351

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

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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. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/158200

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

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Working Paper

Modeling crop-livestock interactions in semi-subsistence economies

2024Aragie, Emerta A.; Thurlow, James

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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

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Working Paper

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

2024Nigus, Halefom Yigzaw; Abay, Kibrom A.

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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

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Working Paper

Estimating multidimensional development resilience

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

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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

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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. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148984

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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Working Paper

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

2023Leight, Jessica; Alderman, Harold; Gilligan, Daniel O.; 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 O.; 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

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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

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Brief

Risk-Contingent Credit (RCC): Assessing smallholders' agricultural credit needs and the feasibility of implementing RCC in Ethiopia

2023Timu, Anne G.; Shee, Apurba; Yilma, Marta; Bellisa, Temesgen; Kebede, Temesgen; You, Liangzhi

Details

Risk-Contingent Credit (RCC): Assessing smallholders' agricultural credit needs and the feasibility of implementing RCC in Ethiopia

Agricultural credit is an important instrument for improving farm productivity, the welfare of farm households, and their resilience to weather-related shocks. However, small-scale farmers’ access to credit is limited by demand- and supply-side constraints. Risk-contingent credit, which bundles credit with insurance against climate risks, is one promising solution. This study, conducted in three woredas in Ethiopia, implemented a game designed to increased farmers’ understanding of the product and finds that farmers recognize the potential of RCC.

Year published

2023

Authors

Timu, Anne G.; Shee, Apurba; Yilma, Marta; Bellisa, Temesgen; Kebede, Temesgen; You, Liangzhi

Citation

Timu, Anne G.; Shee, Apurba; Yilma, Marta; Bellisa, Temesgen; Kebede, Temesgen; and You, Liangzhi. 2023. Risk-Contingent Credit (RCC): Assessing smallholders' agricultural credit needs and the feasability of implementing RCC in Ethiopia. IFPRI Policy Brief July 2023. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/9780896294554.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Income; Agricultural Technology; Investment; Households; Employment; Welfare; Capacity Development; Agricultural Credit; Smallholders; Markets; Developing Countries; Food Security; Shocks; Credit; Resilience

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/9780896294554 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Brief

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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

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Working Paper

Getting ahead of the game: Experiential learning for groundwater governance in Ethiopia

2023ElDidi, Hagar; Zhang, Wei; Gelaw, Fekadu; Petris, Caterina de; Blackmore, Ivy; Teka, Natnael; Yimam, Seid; Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Ringler, Claudia; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.

Details

Getting ahead of the game: Experiential learning for groundwater governance in Ethiopia

The goal of this study is to assess the potential of game-based experiential learning in raising awareness and stimulating discussions about groundwater resource systems, the social dilemma in groundwater management, and the need for institutional arrangements (rules) governing this shared resource, as well as whether such awareness and community discussions lead to actual change in groundwater governance in Ethiopia. Groundwater management is highly complex, with many users sharing the same resource often without realizing their interconnectedness. Behavioral experiments (games) that simulate real-life common-pool resource use have shown promise as an experiential learning tool for improving resource governance. This study pilots an experiential learning intervention in Ethiopia using a groundwater gameto help raise awareness of groundwater over-extraction and improve understanding of the importance of collective action in governance. The Meki River catchment in rural Ethiopia is a unique context where small-scale irrigation is expanding, but overextraction and competition over groundwater have not yet reached alarming levels. The groundwater game, adapted from Meinzen-Dick et al. (2016 and 2018), was played in 15 villages, accompanied by community-wide debriefing discussions in each village after the game to reflect on the process and lessons learned, and to stimulate discussions around groundwater governance. We carried out participant surveys to capture individual mental models regarding groundwater use and management, as well as any immediate learning effects. Focus group discussions were held in each village prior to the intervention to establish a baseline and again six months after the intervention to assess possible lasting effects. The findings indicate cognitive, normative and relational learning, including increased understanding of groundwater dynamics (such as the joint effect of diverse water uses and users), the importance of collective action in resource management, and the benefits of communication. We find gendered differences in decision-making about resource extraction in the game and evolvement of group-level resource management across no-communication, communication, and rule-making rounds of the game. We discuss community-wide learning and institutions-building, and considerations for future intervention designs. We recommend embedding experiential learning, facilitated by local extension officers or other community engagement practitioners, in intervention packages that include both technical assistance on water-conserving technologies and management approaches and support in building communities’ institutional capacity.

Year published

2023

Authors

ElDidi, Hagar; Zhang, Wei; Gelaw, Fekadu; Petris, Caterina de; Blackmore, Ivy; Teka, Natnael; Yimam, Seid; Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Ringler, Claudia; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.

Citation

ElDidi, Hagar; Zhang, Wei; Gelaw, Fekadu; De Petris, Caterina; Blackmore, Ivy; Teka, Natnael; Yimam, Seid; Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Ringler, Claudia; and Meinzen-Dick, Ruth Suseela. 2023. Getting ahead of the game: Experiential learning for groundwater governance in Ethiopia. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2189. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136723.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Governance; Groundwater; Irrigation; Resources; Experiential Learning; Resource Management; Collective Action; Decision Making; Gender; Communication; Extension

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136723 Source record

Project

NEXUS Gains

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Food prices and the wages of the poor: A low-cost, high-value approach to high-frequency food security monitoring

2023Headey, Derek D.; Bachewe, Fantu Nisrane; Marshall, Quinn; Raghunathan, Kalyani; Mahrt, Kristi

Details

Food prices and the wages of the poor: A low-cost, high-value approach to high-frequency food security monitoring

International food prices have become increasingly volatile in recent decades, with “global food crises” in 2008, 2011 and most recently in 2022. The 2008 crisis prompted international agencies to ambitiously extend their monitoring of domestic food prices in developing countries to strengthen early warning systems and food and nutrition surveillance. However, food inflation by itself is not sufficient for measuring disposable income or food affordability; for that, one must measure either changes in income or changes in an income proxy. Here we propose the use of a low-cost income proxy that can be monitored at the same high frequency and spatial granularity as food prices: the wages of poor unskilled workers. While not all poor people are unskilled wage earners, changes in the real “reservation wages” of low skilled activities are likely to be highly predictive of changes in disposable income for poorer segments of society (Deaton and Dreze 2002). We demonstrate this by estimating changes in “food wages” – wages deflated food price indices – during well-documented food price crises in Ethiopia (2008, 2011 and 2022), Sri Lanka (2022) and Myanmar (2022). In all these instances, food wages declined by 20-30%, often in the space of a few months. Moreover, in Myanmar we use a household panel survey data to show that the decline in food wages over the course of 2022 closely matches estimate declines in household disposable income and proportional increases in income-based poverty. We argue that the affordability of nutritious food for “all people, at all times” is a critically important dimension of food security, and we advocate for monitoring the wages of the poor as a cheap and accurate means of capturing that dimension.

Year published

2023

Authors

Headey, Derek D.; Bachewe, Fantu Nisrane; Marshall, Quinn; Raghunathan, Kalyani; Mahrt, Kristi

Citation

Headey, Derek D.; Bachewe, Fantu Nisrane; Marshall, Quinn; Raghunathan, Kalyani; and Mahrt, Kristi. 2023. Food prices and the wages of the poor: A low-cost, high-value approach to high-frequency food security monitoring. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2174. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). . https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136614

Country/Region

Ethiopia; Myanmar; Sri Lanka

Keywords

Africa; Asia; Eastern Africa; South-eastern Asia; Southern Asia; Food Prices; Crises; Food Security; Nutrition; Wages; Diets; Monitoring; Inflation; Household Income; Early Warning Systems

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136614 Source record

Project

Fruit and Vegetables for Sustainable Healthy Diets

Record type

Working Paper

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Brief

Addressing Lake Beseka's challenges: Potential solutions

2023Hettiarachchi, Upeksha

Details

Addressing Lake Beseka's challenges: Potential solutions

Lake Beseka, a shallow saline lake in the East African Rift Valley of Ethiopia, has expanded considerably since the 1960s, inundating a large land area. The lake’s expansion is a result of groundwater discharge, inflow from hot springs, and excess irrigation water entering the lake through subsurface flows

Year published

2023

Authors

Hettiarachchi, Upeksha

Citation

Hettiarachchi, Upeksha. 2023. Addressing Lake Beseka's challenges: Potential solutions. IFPRI-REACH Project Note March 2023. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136611.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Canals; Lake Basins; Water Management; Groundwater; Irrigation; Water Quality; Saline Water; Lake Beseka

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136611 Source record

Record type

Brief

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Brief

Digital farmer registry and tailored extension and advisory services in Ethiopia: A process evaluation

2023Sebsibie, Samuel; Ketema, Dessalegn Molla; Abate, Gashaw T.

Details

Digital farmer registry and tailored extension and advisory services in Ethiopia: A process evaluation

Ethiopia hosts one of the largest extension systems in Africa, with approximately 43 development agents (DAs) per 10,000 farmers, more than 15,000 farmers training centers (FTCs) that serve as a focal point for agricultural development activities at the local level, and 25 Agricultural Technical Voca tional Education and Training (ATVET) institutes that prepare and update extension staff in both general and specialized fields of expertise (Berhane et al. 2018; ATA 2014; Davis et al. 2010). DAs report edly reach more than 75% of farm households in the country (CSA 2017), and every kebele hosts an average of three DAs, each with his or her own specialization. However, there are concerns about the quality of extension and advisory services DAs provide mainly because DAs are overburdened and under-resourced. DAs actively engage in activities that do not typically fall under the mandate of agricultural extension services, including the collection of taxes, loan repayments and mobilization of labor for public works. A related concern is the simple “technology-push” approach to agricultural intensification followed by most DAs since they do not have the time to closely know the farmers and provide a more “tailored and knowledge-driven” advisory that puts farmers’ priorities and technical capabilities at the center of DA’s effort (Berhane et al. 2018; Bachewe et al. 2017).

Year published

2023

Authors

Sebsibie, Samuel; Ketema, Dessalegn Molla; Abate, Gashaw T.

Citation

Sebsibie, Samuel; Ketema, Dessalegn Molla; and Abate, Gashaw Tadesse. 2023. Digital farmer registry and tailored extension and advisory services in Ethiopia: A process evaluation. IFPRI Project Note February 2023. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136603.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Extension; Development; Agricultural Extension; Farmers; Households; Technology; Intensification; Agricultural Development

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136603 Source record

Record type

Brief

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Working Paper

Role of agricultural commercialization in the agricultural transformation of Ethiopia: Trends, drivers, and impact on well-being

2022Minot, Nicholas; Warner, James; Aredo, Samson Dejene; Zewdie, Tadiwos

Details

Role of agricultural commercialization in the agricultural transformation of Ethiopia: Trends, drivers, and impact on well-being

Agricultural transformation refers to a series of changes in agriculture that both reflect and drive rising income and economic development more broadly. While the macroeconomic patterns of agricultural transformation are relatively well documented, less is known about how it is manifested at the household level. Ethiopia makes an excellent case study as it has had one of the fastest growing economies in the world. This paper focuses on one aspect of this process: agricultural commercialization, that is, the process through which an increasing share of agricultural output is sold on the market rather than being consumed at home. The analysis uses three nationally representative rural household surveys carried out in 2012, 2016, and 2019, including a panel of 1,900 households. The results show that the share of marketed agricultural output has increased significantly over the seven-year period. Somewhat surprisingly, this increase is not due to a shift in crop mix toward more commercial crops but rather an increase in the degree of commercialization of each crop. Using a correlated random effects model, we find marketed share to be significantly related to age of the head of household, farm size, wealth, distance to road, rainfall, rainfall variability, and region. Although endogeneity is a challenge, descriptive statistics and regression analysis further suggest that agricultural commercialization contributes to higher income, largely because commercial crops generate higher returns per hectare than staple grains. The results indicate that there is no clear line between “subsistence” and “commercial” farms. A large majority of farms have some crop sales, while virtually none of them sell all their output. Similarly, the contrast between subsistence crops and cash crops can be misleading. For example, the value of staple cereal sales in Ethiopia is almost three times greater than that of coffee, the main cash crop. We draw lessons from the results for the design of programs to raise rural incomes by facilitating market-oriented agricultural production.

Year published

2022

Authors

Minot, Nicholas; Warner, James; Aredo, Samson Dejene; Zewdie, Tadiwos

Citation

Minot, Nicholas; Warner, James; Aredo, Samson Dejene; and Zewdie, Tadiwos. 2022. Role of agricultural commercialization in the agricultural transformation of Ethiopia: Trends, drivers, and impact on well-being. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2156. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136521.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Income; Rain; Economic Analysis; Macroeconomic Analysis; Surveys; Households; Agricultural Transformation; Crop Yield; Agriculture; Input Output Analysis; Macroeconomics; Econometrics; Rainfall Patterns; Survey Methods; Commercialization; Cereal Crops; Statistics; Agricultural Trade

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136521 Source record

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Irrigation and agricultural transformation in Ethiopia

2022Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Abate, Gashaw T.; Yimam, Seid

Details

Irrigation and agricultural transformation in Ethiopia

Climate change forecasts for Ethiopia predict higher temperature and rainfall and increased variability in rainfall with periodic severe droughts and floods. The increased weather variability threatens the extent of Ethiopia’s agricultural transformation unless it is supported with improved agricultural water management such as irrigation to make smallholder farming resilient to adverse weather events. This study analyzes the role of irrigation on agricultural transformation in Ethiopia by systematically comparing households with irrigated and non-irrigated plots on key agricultural transformation and welfare indictors (i.e., intensification, commercialization, and consumption expenditures). The study used a representative data from the four main agriculturally important regions of the country and employed an endogenous switching regression approach that addresses potential biases from placement of irrigation schemes and the self-selection of farmers to adopt irrigation on their plots. This approach allows for counterfactual analysis on the effect of irrigation if it is adopted on plots or in households without current irrigation as well as the counterfactual realizations of outcome variables if irrigated plots were not irrigated or irrigating households were relying only on rainfed agriculture. The main results show a positive and significant effects of irrigation on intensification, commercialization, and household welfare. Specifically, the results show that farm households with irrigated plots (i) use more fertilizer and agrochemicals, (ii) sell sizable shares of their harvest, and (iii) spend more on food and non-food expenditures. The counterfactual analysis on what would have been the effect of irrigation on currently non-irrigated plots indicate a stronger result across our outcome indicators which further suggest the importance of expanding irrigation in accelerating agricultural transformation and welfare improvement in Ethiopia.

Year published

2022

Authors

Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Abate, Gashaw T.; Yimam, Seid

Citation

Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Abate, Gashaw Tadesse; and Yimam, Seid. 2022. Irrigation and agricultural transformation in Ethiopia. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2159. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136517.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Weather Hazards; Climate; Welfare; Capacity Development; Agriculture; Irrigation; Intensification; Commercialization; Climate Change

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136517 Source record

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Rural income diversification in Ethiopia: Patterns, trends, and welfare impacts

2022Abate, Gashaw T.; Bachewe, Fantu Nisrane; Regassa, Mekdim D.; Minot, Nicholas

Details

Rural income diversification in Ethiopia: Patterns, trends, and welfare impacts

Increased diversification of rural households into the rural non-farm economy is an important driver of economic growth and structural transformation in countries like Ethiopia where the vast majority of people live in rural areas and are largely dependent on seasonal agriculture. Some of the benefits of diversification include efficient utilization of asset endowments (e.g., labor during dry season) and reduction of risks. In this study we explore the: (i) patterns and trends of diversification, (ii) drivers of diversification including the association between rainfall risk/shocks and diversification, and (iii) welfare effects of diversification during the recent decade using three rounds of representative household data from the four main regions of Ethiopia. We used Cragg’s double-hurdle model, a method that considers the two-step decision making process in diversification (i.e., participation and extent of participation), to identify the determinants of diversification and a fixed-effect and instrumental variable (IV) approaches to understand the links between diversification and household welfare. The descriptive results show that rural households generally adopt a livelihood strategy dominated by farming and that the level of diversification has been stagnant over the period of analysis considered. More importantly, the vast majority of households continue to draw a substantial share of their income from crop production, followed by livestock. The income from non-farm activities accounts only between 17 percent and 23 percent of the total income. The econometrics results show that diversification is positively associated with credit access, membership in social insurance, ownership of mobile phone, relative measure of household wealth, and population density. Conversely, access to relatively large, fertile, and irrigable land discourages diversification into non-farm activities. The analysis on the association between rainfall risks and diversification indicates that rural households use income diversification both as risk mitigation and shock coping strategy. The results on the link between income diversification and household welfare indicate a positive association between diversification and household total consumption expenditure, dietary diversity score, and housing/roof quality. In sum, the results imply the need for a deliberate effort to expand the non-farm economy so as to tap its full potential for employment generation, income growth, and welfare improvements. A starting point could be for agricultural and rural development policies and investments to go beyond promotion of cereal crop production and facilitate participation in high value crop, livestock, aquaculture production. Incentivizing investments in value addition activities that can create and enrich upward and downward linkages in the midstream segment of agricultural value chains is another potential avenue to boost rural non-farm economy.

Year published

2022

Authors

Abate, Gashaw T.; Bachewe, Fantu Nisrane; Regassa, Mekdim D.; Minot, Nicholas

Citation

Abate, Gashaw Tadesse; Bachewe, Fantu Nisrane; Regassa, Mekdim D.; and Minot, Nicholas. 2022. Rural income diversification in Ethiopia: Patterns, trends, and welfare impacts. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2154. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136494. https://ssrn.com/abstract=4317044

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Income; Rural Areas; Welfare; Diversification; Risk; Shock; Nonfarm Income; Income Diversification; Capacity Development

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136494 Source record

Project

Rethinking Food Markets

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Gender implications of agricultural commercialization in Africa: Evidence from farm households in Ethiopia and Nigeria

2022Berhane, Guush; Abay, Mehari Hiluf; Seymour, Greg

Details

Gender implications of agricultural commercialization in Africa: Evidence from farm households in Ethiopia and Nigeria

Agricultural commercialization is often pursued as an important driver of agricultural transformation in low-income countries. However, the implications it can have on gendered outcomes are less understood. While agricultural commercialization creates opportunities to increase income, this may come at the expense of change in women’s decision-making agency and control over resources. Understanding the interactions between agricultural commercialization and gender outcomes is thus critical for policymakers aspiring to achieve agricultural transformation while promoting gender equity and the evidence on the links between the two in the context of Africa is scarce and mixed. We use three rounds of Ethiopia’s and Nigeria’s LSMS-ISA panel data to understand the implications of agricultural commercialization to gendered decision-making on crop harvest use, marketing, revenue control, asset ownership, and intrahousehold budget allocation. Results indicate commercialization is associated with decreases in women’s participation in decision-making related to use of harvest, crop marketing, and control over revenue in Ethiopia, but only on harvest use and control over revenue in Nigeria. The association with land ownership is mixed: positive in Ethiopia but negative in Nigeria. Moreover, commercialization is associated with decreases in women’s share of farm-workload but with increases in share of hired labor in Ethiopia. In Ethiopia we also find women’s control over revenue is positively associated with increases in per capita consumption expenditures and dietary diversity, but men’s control is negatively associated with increases in the share of expenditure on children’s shoes and clothes. In Nigeria, women’s control is positively associated with increases in the share of expenditure on women’s shoes and clothes, food gap, and dietary diversity. In sum, we find suggestive evidence that commercialization may further marginalize women’s decision-making agency in Ethiopia and Nigeria. However, conditional on women’s control over proceeds, commercialization tends to improve women’s as well as other members’ welfare. We provide some policy recommendations and directions for future research.

Year published

2022

Authors

Berhane, Guush; Abay, Mehari Hiluf; Seymour, Greg

Citation

Berhane, Guush; Abay, Mehari Hiluf; and Seymour, Greg. 2022. Gender implications of agricultural commercialization in Africa: Evidence from farm households in Ethiopia and Nigeria. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2151. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136492.

Country/Region

Ethiopia; Nigeria

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Western Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Income; Gender; Income Control; Farmers; Households; Agriculture; Commercialization; Women; Agricultural Trade

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136492 Source record

Project

Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Agricultural intensification in Ethiopia: Patterns, trends, and welfare impacts

2022Berhane, Guush; Abate, Gashaw T.; Wolle, Abdulazize

Details

Agricultural intensification in Ethiopia: Patterns, trends, and welfare impacts

Ethiopia has made substantial efforts in the last three decades to increase agricultural productivity through modern input intensification and stimulate overall economic growth. Despite the high growth rates in recent decade, Ethiopia’s overall intensification and yield levels remained below what is considered optimal. This study examines the patterns, trends, and drivers of agricultural intensification and productivity growth during the recent decade (2012 - 2019) using three rounds of representative household data collected from the four main agriculturally important regions of the country. The descriptive results indicate a positive trend in both the adoption rate and intensity of inputs and output, albeit from a low base compared to other contexts and with considerable heterogeneity by access to information, rainfall levels and variability, labor, soil quality, remoteness, among others. The econometric results show significant association between intensification, yield growth, household dietary diversity (a proxy measure for food and nutrition security), and consumer durables. However, the results on the association between current yield levels and per capita consumption expenditures are mixed (i.e., while an increase in cereal yield only improve food consumption expenditures, an increase in cash crops yield mainly improve non-food consumption expenditures). In sum, while the increasing input intensification and the resulting yield gains are associated with improvement in household diets and consumer durables, it falls short to have strong impact on incomes (as measured by total consumption expenditures), indicating that more efforts have to be made to see meaningful impacts on higher order outcomes. Additional welfare improving productivity gains through increased input intensifications may require investments to put in place appropriate fertilizer blends linked with localized soil nutrient requirements, investments to generate locally suited improved seeds and appropriate mechanisms to reach farmers, ways to mitigate production (rainfall) risk, and investments to remodel Ethiopia’s extension system to provided much needed technical support to farmers on production methods.

Year published

2022

Authors

Berhane, Guush; Abate, Gashaw T.; Wolle, Abdulazize

Citation

Berhane, Guush; Abate, Gashaw Tadesse; and Wolle, Abdulazize. 2022. Agricultural intensification in Ethiopia: Patterns, trends, and welfare impacts. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2150. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136483.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Income; Production; Soil; Farmers; Welfare; Welfare Economics; Labour; Agriculture; Farm Inputs; Consumption Patterns; Input Output Analysis; Econometrics; Productivity; Intensification; Rainfall Patterns; Cereal Crops; Yield Potential; Rain; Nutrition Security; Fertilizers; Seeds; Households; Fertilizer Formulations; Agricultural Transformation; Cash Crops; Nutrition; Soil Quality; Food Security; Growth; Yield Factors; Statistical Methods; Dietary Diversity

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136483 Source record

Record type

Working Paper

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Brief

Irrigation and agricultural transformation in Ethiopia

2022Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Abate, Gashaw T.; Yimam, Seid

Details

Irrigation and agricultural transformation in Ethiopia

Ethiopia’s rivers and streams (Figure 1) and its ground water potential of 2.6 billion m3 of groundwater potential (Awulachew et al., 2008) is estimated to have a potential to irrigate 5.3 million hectares of land. So far, less than 5 percent of the potentially irrigable land is currently irrigated, exposing the country’s agriculture to the vagaries of nature. The startling divergence between irrigation potential and utilization has been the subject of policy discussions in the recent decade, which results in a significant impetus towards irrigation development in the country both in expressed commitments and actual investments. For instance, the current 10-year development plan of the country placed irrigation as the main catalyst for accelerated agricultural transformation. In terms of investment, there are at least 13 ongoing large-scale irrigation development projects with a combined command area of more than 400,000 hectares (close to twice the current size of irrigated area by smallholder farmers). The government has also recently allowed duty-free imports of irrigation technologies to encourage small-scale irrigation development.

Year published

2022

Authors

Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Abate, Gashaw T.; Yimam, Seid

Citation

Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Abate, Gashaw Tadesse; and Yimam, Seid. 2022. Irrigation and agricultural transformation in Ethiopia. IFPRI Project Note October 2022. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136461.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Income; Irrigation Management; Imports; Fertilizers; Investment; Groundwater; Technology; Welfare; Water; Welfare Economics; Agricultural Transformation; Agriculture; Smallholders; Irrigation; Agrochemicals

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136461 Source record

Project

Rethinking Food Markets

Record type

Brief

Resource thumbnail

Brief

Agricultural intensification in Ethiopia: Patterns, trends, and welfare impacts

2022Berhane, Guush; Abate, Gashaw T.; Wolle, Abdulazize

Details

Agricultural intensification in Ethiopia: Patterns, trends, and welfare impacts

This study examined the patterns, trends, and drivers of agricultural intensification and productivity growth during the recent decade (2012 - 2019) using three rounds of household data collected from four agricultural regions of Ethiopia. The descriptive results indicate a positive trend both in adoption and intensity of inputs and outputs, albeit from a low base and with considerable heterogeneity by access to information, rainfall levels and variability, labor, soil quality, and remoteness, among others. The econometric results show significant association between intensification, yield growth, household dietary diversity, and consumer durables. The results on the association between current yield levels and per capita consumption expenditures are however mixed (i.e., while an increase in cereal yield improves food consumption expenditures, an increase in cash crop yield improves only non-food consumption expenditures). In sum, while the increasing input intensification and the resulting yield gains are associated with improvements in household diets and consumer durables, it falls short to have strong impact on incomes (as measured by total consumption expenditures), indicating that additional efforts must be made to see meaningful impacts on higher order outcomes. Additional welfare improv-ing productivity gains through increased input intensification may require investments in appropriate fer-tilizer blends; investments in improved seeds (to accelerate varietal turnover), ways to mitigate production (rainfall) risk, and investments to remodel Ethiopia’s extension system to provide much needed technical support to farmers on production methods.

Year published

2022

Authors

Berhane, Guush; Abate, Gashaw T.; Wolle, Abdulazize

Citation

Berhane, Guush; Abate, Gashaw Tadesse; and Wolle, Abdulazize. 2022. Agricultural intensification in Ethiopia: Patterns, trends, and welfare impacts. IFPRI Project Note October 2022. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136465.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Intensive Farming; Data Analysis; Fertilizers; Production; Households; Yield Increases; Data Collection; Labour; Input Output Analysis; Econometrics; Varieties; Productivity; Intensification; Soil Quality; Rainfall Patterns; Production Functions; Growth; Risk; Yield Factors

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136465 Source record

Project

Rethinking Food Markets

Record type

Brief

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Brief

Rural income diversification in Ethiopia: Patterns, trends, and welfare impacts

2022Abate, Gashaw T.; Bachewe, Fantu Nisrane; Regassa, Mekdim D.; Minot, Nicholas

Details

Rural income diversification in Ethiopia: Patterns, trends, and welfare impacts

Increased diversification of rural households into the rural non-farm economy is an important driver of economic growth and structural transformation in countries like Ethiopia where most people live in rural areas and are largely dependent on seasonal agriculture. In this study, we explore the patterns and trends of diversification and assess its drivers and welfare effects during the recent decade (2012 – 2019) using three rounds of representative household data collected from four major regions in Ethiopia. Our results show that sample households generally adopt a livelihood strategy dominated by farming and that the level of diversification has been stagnant over the period of analysis considered. More importantly, most households continue to draw a substantial share of their income from crop production, followed by livestock. The income from non-farm activities accounts only between 17-23% of the total household income. Upon exploring the link between diversification and welfare outcomes, we find that households with relatively diversified income sources have significantly higher consumption expenditure per capita, consume diverse diets, and live in house with better roof quality. Further analyses reveal that income diversification is positively associated with credit access, membership in social insurance, ownership of assets and wealth, and population density. Conversely, access to relatively large, fertile, and irrigable land discourages diversification. In sum, the results imply the need for a deliberate effort to expand the non-farm economy to tap its full potential for employment generation, income growth, and overall welfare improvements.

Year published

2022

Authors

Abate, Gashaw T.; Bachewe, Fantu Nisrane; Regassa, Mekdim D.; Minot, Nicholas

Citation

Abate, Gashaw Tadesse; Bachewe, Fantu Nisrane; Regassa, Mekdim; and Minot, Nicholas. 2022. Rural income diversification in Ethiopia: Patterns, trends, and welfare impacts. IFPRI Project Note October 2022. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136460.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Income; Rural Communities; Housing; Consumption; Households; Welfare; Welfare Economics; Farmland; Agriculture; Crop Production; Population Density; Economic Diversification; Assets; Social Security; Livestock; Diet Quality; Credit; Trends

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136460 Source record

Project

Rethinking Food Markets

Record type

Brief

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Working Paper

Income mobility of rural households: Are female headed households participating in Ethiopia’s economic growth?

2022Warner, James; Mekonnen, Yalew

Details

Income mobility of rural households: Are female headed households participating in Ethiopia’s economic growth?

Over the last decade, Ethiopia has had one of the fastest growing economies in the world with annual growth rates averaging approximately 9.2% and 5.3% for the overall economy and the agricultural sector, respectively. Concomitant with this growth has been falling poverty rates and slightly rising inequality. While average growth has been strong, relatively little research has been performed on mobility within income quartiles, particularly among rural households. Using a panel of 1,899 households, taken from three rural household surveys carried out between 2012-2019, this paper explores the overall levels and trends of recent income mobility in rural Ethiopia. We conclude that female headed households, at the lower asset quartiles, are earning less income, marketing a smaller share of cereal crops, and experiencing less growth which, unlike comparable male headed households in lower quartiles, is leading to relative stagnation, and rising inequality. The implications for policymakers are important for improved targeting for pro-poor growth strategies as well as a better understanding of the heterogenous economic status of female headed households in rural Ethiopia more generally.

Year published

2022

Authors

Warner, James; Mekonnen, Yalew

Citation

Warner, James; and Mekonnen, Yalew. 2022. Income mobility of rural households: Are female headed households participating in Ethiopia’s economic growth? IFPRI Discussion Paper 2138. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136403.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Income; Gender; Agricultural Sector; Growth Rate; Households; Modelling; Economics; Gross National Product; Female Headed Household

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136403 Source record

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Gender gaps in sustainable land management and implications for agricultural productivity: Evidence from Ethiopia

2022Kato, Edward; Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Ringler, Claudia

Details

Gender gaps in sustainable land management and implications for agricultural productivity: Evidence from Ethiopia

We investigate whether a large-scale watershed program promoting sustainable land management (SLM) in Ethiopia increases adoption of SLM and its benefits on plots owned by women in male-headed households compared to plots owned by their spouses, jointly owned plots as well as plots of female headed households (FHH). The analysis is based on a survey of 500 households and 2900 plots conducted in the Abbay basin of Ethiopia where the SLM program was implemented between 2012 and 2017. Our findings show that the SLM program significantly increased adoption of SLM practices (soil bunds, stone terraces, mulching) in male-headed households but that adoption was centered on jointly owned plots and male-owned plots, with no significant adoption on women-owned plots. The results also show that women in male-headed households are more constrained to participate in SLM programs compared to their counterparts in FHH. Results further show that although FHH were less likely than male-headed households to adopt SLM in watersheds with no SLM interventions, the SLM program significantly increased adoption of soil bunds on plots in FHH. SLM adoption and impacts can likely be further strengthened if a focus on removing women’s constraints is added.

Year published

2022

Authors

Kato, Edward; Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Ringler, Claudia

Citation

Kato, Edward; Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; and Ringler, Claudia. 2022. Gender gaps in sustainable land management and implications for agricultural productivity: Evidence from Ethiopia. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2136. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136361.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Land Management; Gender; Gender Equality; Women's Empowerment; Soil; Sustainability; Productivity; Women

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136361 Source record

Project

Water, Land and Ecosystems

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Key stakeholders and actions to address Lake Beseka’s challenges in Ethiopia: A social network approach

2022Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Tensay, Teferi M.; Yimam, Seid; Arega, Tiruwork; Beyene, Ephrem G.; Zhang, Wei; Ringler, Claudia

Details

Key stakeholders and actions to address Lake Beseka’s challenges in Ethiopia: A social network approach

Lake Beseka is a shallow, saline, endorheic lake in the East African Rift Valley of Ethiopia that has dramatically grown in size due to large-scale irrigation development in its catchment area. Recent artificial connections of the lake with the Awash River system to contain lake size have led to a series of changes and impacts on different water users, but are not reflected in lake and Awash River governance and institutions. Understanding who are the key actors affecting Lake Beseka and strengthening their linkages can help identify solutions that sustainably contain or reduce the lake’s size, improve its water quality, and address costs to nearby and downstream populations as well as the environment. Thus, this study analyzed qualitative data collected from net-mapping – a network analysis that identifies actors or stakeholders as well as linkages and relative power positions among stakeholders. The resulting network reflects the complexity of the water governance system including upstream actors who affect the size and quality of the lake as well as downstream actors who suffer from adverse consequences. The Awash Basin Development Authority, Metehara Sugar Factory, regional bureaus, and federal ministries were identified as the most influential actors affecting how Lake Beseka is used and managed. Actors most affected by the lake expansion and quality problems such as downstream communities currently have no role in the governance of the lake. Metehara Municipality, woreda offices, research institutes, and farmers were considered to have moderate influence. Stakeholders who participated in the net-mapping workshops identified flooding, salinity, water-related conflict, and health effects as the four main challenges of the lake. The study suggests that developing multi-stakeholder partnerships or platforms across most influential and most affected actors could support a more comprehensive understanding of the multiple challenges Lake Beseka is posing. It could also foster the development of more integrated solutions that support the different stakeholders in the lake catchment area and the Awash River Basin.

Year published

2022

Authors

Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Tensay, Teferi M.; Yimam, Seid; Arega, Tiruwork; Beyene, Ephrem G.; Zhang, Wei; Ringler, Claudia

Citation

Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Tensay, Teferi M.; Yimam, Seid; Arega, Tiruwork; Beyene, Eprem G.; Zhang, Wei and Ringler, Claudia. 2022. Key stakeholders and actions to address Lake Beseka’s challenges in Ethiopia: A social network approach. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2135. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136359.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Water; Awash Basin; Water Quality; Awash River; Water Governance; Lake Beseka; Governance

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136359 Source record

Project

Water, Land and Ecosystems

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Does the UN Joint Program for Rural Women’s Economic Empowerment (JP RWEE) deliver on its empowerment objectives?

2022Quisumbing, Agnes R.; Gerli, Beatrice; Faas, Simone; Heckert, Jessica; Malapit, Hazel J.; McCarron, Catherine; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.; Paz, Florencia

Details

Does the UN Joint Program for Rural Women’s Economic Empowerment (JP RWEE) deliver on its empowerment objectives?

This paper compares the empowerment impacts of the UN Joint Program for Rural Women’s Economic Empowerment (JP RWEE) in Ethiopia, Niger, Nepal, and Kyrgyzstan using the Abbreviated Women’s Empowerment in Agriculture Index (A-WEAI). We assess the extent of empowerment and gender parity, and decompose the sources of disempowerment, separately for men and women and for beneficiary and control groups. We then estimate program impacts on A-WEAI and its component indicators and assess whether estimated impacts are consistent with the activities implemented by the program. We interpret the quantitative results in the light of the qualitative studies undertaken as part of the impact evaluation. Despite the diversity in country and cultural contexts, in all four countries, women are more disempowered than men, although large proportions of men are themselves disempowered. Excessive workload is the most common major contributor to disempowerment, and so is lack of group membership. The program had positive impacts on aggregate empowerment measures for program participants in Niger, Nepal, and Kyrgyzstan. Nevertheless, gender parity improved only in Nepal. The group-based approach was a clear contributor to women’s empowerment in Ethiopia, Nepal, and Kyrgyzstan. In Kyrgyzstan, the GALS/BALI approach contributed to impacts across almost all indicators of empowerment. The positive impact of GALS and GALS/BALI on men and women alike in Kyrgyzstan is consistent with emerging evidence that involving both men and women in gender transformative approaches, rather than focusing on women alone, may be key to effective and sustainable programs. Although impacts on time use were insignificant in the quantitative study, the qualitative work pointed out negative impacts, emphasizing the unintended consequences of increased workload for women who participate in livelihood interventions.

Year published

2022

Authors

Quisumbing, Agnes R.; Gerli, Beatrice; Faas, Simone; Heckert, Jessica; Malapit, Hazel J.; McCarron, Catherine; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth S.; Paz, Florencia

Citation

Quisumbing, Agnes; Gerli, Beatrice; Faas, Simone; Heckert, Jessica; Malapit, Hazel J.; McCarron, Catherine; Meinzen-Dick, Ruth Suseela; and Paz, Florencia. 2022. Does the UN Joint Program for Rural Women’s Economic Empowerment (JP RWEE) deliver on its empowerment objectives? IFPRI Discussion Paper 2131. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136302.

Country/Region

Ethiopia; Niger; Nigeria; Nepal; Kyrgyzstan

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Western Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Southern Asia; Central Asia; Asia; Women's Empowerment; Gender; Programmes; Social Behaviour; Employment; Cultural Heritage; Labour; Agriculture; Livelihoods; Un; Gender Equity; Impact Assessment

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.136302 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Near-real-time welfare and livelihood impacts of an active civil war: Evidence from Ethiopia

2022Abay, Kibrom A.; Tafere, Kibrom; Berhane, Guush; Chamberlin, Jordan; Abay, Mehari Hiluf

Details

Near-real-time welfare and livelihood impacts of an active civil war: Evidence from Ethiopia

Ethiopia is currently embroiled in a large-scale civil war that has continued for more than a year. Using unique High-Frequency Phone Survey (HFPS) data, which spans several months before and after the outbreak of the war, this paper provides fresh evidence on the ex durante impacts of the conflict on the food security and livelihood activities of affected households. We use difference-in-differences estimation to compare trends in the outcomes of interest across affected and unaffected regions (households) and before and after the outbreak of the civil war. Seven months into the conflict, we find that the outbreak of the civil war increased the probability of moderate to severe food insecurity by 38 percentage points. Using the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) on households’ exposure to violent conflict, we show that exposure to one additional battle leads to 1 percentage point increase in the probability of moderate to severe food insecurity. The conflict has reduced households’ access to food through supply chain disruptions while also curtailing non-farm livelihood activities. Non-farm and wage related activities were the most affected by the conflict while farming activities were relatively more resilient. Similarly, economic activities in urban areas were much more affected than those in rural areas. These substantial impact estimates, which are likely to be underestimates of the true average effects on the population, constitute novel evidence on the near-real-time impacts of an on-going civil conflict, providing direct evidence on how violent conflict disrupts the functioning of market supply chains and livelihoods activities. Our work highlights the potential of HFPS to monitor active and large-scale conflicts, especially in contexts where conventional data sources are not immediately available.

Year published

2022

Authors

Abay, Kibrom A.; Tafere, Kibrom; Berhane, Guush; Chamberlin, Jordan; Abay, Mehari Hiluf

Citation

Abay, Kibrom A.; Tafere, Kibrom; Berhane, Guush; Chamberlin, Jordan; and Abay, Mehari Hiluf. 2022. Near-real-time welfare and livelihood impacts of an active civil war: Evidence from Ethiopia. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2108. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.135056.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Surveys; Households; Employment; Food Access; Labour; Market Access; Livelihoods; Food Security; Civil Conflict; Conflicts

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.135056 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Mismeasurement and efficiency estimates: Evidence from smallholder survey data in Africa

2022Abay, Kibrom A.; Wossen, Tesfamichael; Chamberlin, Jordan

Details

Mismeasurement and efficiency estimates: Evidence from smallholder survey data in Africa

Smallholder agriculture in sub-Saharan Africa is commonly characterized by high levels of technical inefficiency. However, much of this characterization relies on self-reported input and production data, which are prone to systematic measurement error. We theoretically show that non-classical measurement error introduces multiple identification challenges and sources of bias in estimating smallholders’ technical inefficiency. We then empirically examine the implications of measurement error for the estimation of technical inefficiency using smallholder farm survey data from Ethiopia, Malawi, Nigeria, and Tanzania. We find that measurement error in agricultural input and production data leads to a substantial upward bias in technical inefficiency estimates (by up to 85 percent for some farmers). Our results suggest that existing estimates of technical efficiency in sub-Saharan Africa may be severe underestimates of smallholders’ actual efficiency and what is commonly attributed to farmer inefficiency may be an artifact of mismeasurement in agricultural data. Our results raise questions about the received wisdom on African smallholders’ production efficiency and prior estimates of the productivity of agricultural inputs. Improving the measurement of agricultural data can improve our understanding of smallholders’ production efficiencies and improve the targeting of productivity-enhancing technologies.

Year published

2022

Authors

Abay, Kibrom A.; Wossen, Tesfamichael; Chamberlin, Jordan

Citation

Abay, Kibrom A.; Wossen, Tesfamicheal; and Chamberlin, Jordan. 2022. Mismeasurement and efficiency estimates: Evidence from smallholder survey data in Africa. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2105. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134983.

Country/Region

Ethiopia; Malawi; Nigeria

Keywords

Tanzania; Eastern Africa; Southern Africa; Western Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Efficiency; Data; Surveys; Dna Fingerprinting; Agricultural Products; Measurement; Field Size; Smallholders; Errors

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134983 Source record

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Return to quality in rural agricultural markets: Evidence from wheat markets in Ethiopia

2022Do Nascimento Miguel, Jérémy

Details

Return to quality in rural agricultural markets: Evidence from wheat markets in Ethiopia

In many Sub-Saharan countries, farmers cannot meet the growing urban demand for higher quality products, leading to increasing dependency on imports. While the literature has focused on production-side constraints to enhancing smallholder farmers’ output quality, there is scarce evidence of market-side constraints. Using a unique sample of 60 wheat markets in Ethiopia, I examine the relationship between the price obtained by farmers and the quality supplied. Using objective and precise measures of observable (impurity content) and unobservable (flour extraction rate and moisture level) quality attributes, no evidence was found of a strong correlation between the two, suggesting that observable attributes cannot serve as proxies for unobservable ones. Transaction prices further reflect this, indicating that, markets only reward quality attributes that are observable at no cost. However, these results hide cross-market heterogeneity. Observable quality attributes are better rewarded in larger and more competitive markets, while unobservable attributes are rewarded in the presence of grain millers and/or farmer cooperatives on the market site. Both regression and machine learning approaches support these findings.

Year published

2022

Authors

Do Nascimento Miguel, Jérémy

Citation

Do Nascimento Miguel, Jérémy. 2022. Return to quality in rural agricultural markets: Evidence from wheat markets in Ethiopia. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2101. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134984.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Models; Crops; Quality; Agriculture; Smallholders; Markets; Wheat; Rural Areas; Prices

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134984 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Predictors of discordance and concordance in reporting of intimate partner violence: Evidence from a large sample of rural Ethiopian couples

2022Leight, Jessica; Deyessa, Negussie; Sharma, Vandana

Details

Predictors of discordance and concordance in reporting of intimate partner violence: Evidence from a large sample of rural Ethiopian couples

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a major worldwide health challenge, and addressing this challenge requires high-quality data. This analysis uses a large-scale survey of 5,033 households in rural Ethiopia in which both men and women were surveyed about past-year IPV in order to quantify the degree of discordance, including both husband only reporting and wife only reporting, for multiple forms of IPV (emotional, physical and sexual). In addition, logistic regression is employed to analyze the effects of demographic characteristics and individual norms and behaviors on the probability of discordant reporting. The results suggest that almost half of households (44%) are characterized by discordant reporting in at least one dimension of IPV. Given the high level of discordance, 61.4% of households report any physical and/or sexual IPV using the household-level measure, compared to a rate of 41.9% from the women’s data only. In addition, men who report more gender-equitable attitudes and behaviors (failing to concur with justifications for IPV, reporting higher support for gender equitable norms, and reporting a higher level of female engagement in decision-making and intrahousehold task-sharing) are more likely to be members of wife only reporting households: i.e., they are less likely to report perpetration of IPV. Women who report more gender-equitable attitudes and behaviors, by contrast, are more likely to be members of husband only reporting households.

Year published

2022

Authors

Leight, Jessica; Deyessa, Negussie; Sharma, Vandana

Citation

Leight, Jessica; Deyessa, Negussie; and Sharma, Vandana. 2022. Predictors of discordance and concordance in reporting of intimate partner violence: Evidence from a large sample of rural Ethiopian couples. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2103. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134971.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Rural Communities; Gender; Measurement; Domestic Violence

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134971 Source record

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Measuring consumption over the phone: Evidence from a survey experiment in urban Ethiopia

2021Abate, Gashaw T.; de Brauw, Alan; Hirvonen, Kalle; Wolle, Abdulazize

Details

Measuring consumption over the phone: Evidence from a survey experiment in urban Ethiopia

The paucity of reliable and timely household consumption data in many low- and middle-income countries have made it practically impossible to assess how global poverty has evolved during the COVID-19 pandemic. Despite the burst of phone surveys, there has been few attempts to collect household consumption data. To test the feasibility of collecting consumption data over the phone, we conducted a survey experiment in urban Ethiopia, randomly assigning a balanced sample to either a phone or an in-person interview. The average value of per capita consumption is 23 percent lower, and the estimated poverty headcount is twice as high in the phone survey relative to the in-person survey. We see evidence of survey fatigue occurring early on in phone interviews but not in in-person interviews, and the bias is correlated with household characteristics. While the phone survey mode provides lower costs, it cannot replace in-person surveys for household consumption measurement.

Year published

2021

Authors

Abate, Gashaw T.; de Brauw, Alan; Hirvonen, Kalle; Wolle, Abdulazize

Citation

Abate, Gashaw Tadesse; de Brauw, Alan; Hirvonen, Kalle; and Wolle, Abdulazize. 2021. Measuring consumption over the phone: Evidence from a survey experiment in urban Ethiopia. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2087. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134939.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Eastern Africa; Surveys; Covid-19; Households; Urban Areas; Food Security; Food Consumption; Information and Communication Technologies; Survey Design; Poverty

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134939 Source record

Project

Agriculture for Nutrition and Health

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Digital tools and agricultural market transformation in Africa: Why are they not at scale yet, and what will it take to get there?

2021Abay, Kibrom A.; Abate, Gashaw T.; Chamberlin, Jordan; Kassim, Yumna; Spielman, David J.

Details

Digital tools and agricultural market transformation in Africa: Why are they not at scale yet, and what will it take to get there?

Despite enthusiasm on the potential of digital innovations to transform agricultural markets in Africa, progress made thus far has been limited to small-scale experiments that often fail to scale up. Realizing the full potential of digital innovations—tools, technologies, applications, and services—in Africa requires not just further development of these solutions at meaningful scales, but also more nuanced evidence from both successful and unsuccessful scaling efforts. This paper reviews the theoretical and empirical evidence on the transformative potential of digital innovations for African agricultural markets with an in-depth examination of solutions that have been rolled out to date in the continent. Specifically, the review addresses the following questions: (i) how can digital innovations improve the functioning of agricultural markets in Africa? (ii) what explains the apparent failure of most pilots to scale up? (iii) what is required to realize their full potential? and (iv) what are the emerging risks and opportunities associated with these digital innovations for agricultural marketing? Although our review of the landscape and literature on market-focused digital innovations in Africa identifies several reasons to remain optimistic, the prevailing disconnect between pilots and scale-ups merits further evaluation. In particular, there is a need for more systematic assessments of both successes and failures at different stages of piloting and scaling of digital solutions.

Year published

2021

Authors

Abay, Kibrom A.; Abate, Gashaw T.; Chamberlin, Jordan; Kassim, Yumna; Spielman, David J.

Citation

Abay, Kibrom A.; Abate, Gashaw Tadesse; Chamberlin, Jordan; Kassim, Yumna; and Spielman, David J. 2021. Digital tools and agricultural market transformation in Africa: Why are they not at scale yet, and what will it take to get there? IFPRI Discussion Paper 2092. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134957.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Eastern Africa; Innovation; Digital Divide; Market Information; Households; Welfare; Social Protection; Capacity Development; Agriculture; Markets; Food Security; Risk; Market Information Services; Social Safety Nets; Resilience; Digital Technology; Retail Markets

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134957 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Social protection and resilience: The case of the productive safety net program in Ethiopia

2021Abay, Kibrom A.; Abay, Mehari Hiluf; Berhane, Guush; Chamberlin, Jordan

Details

Social protection and resilience: The case of the productive safety net program in Ethiopia

Improving household resilience is becoming one of the key focus and target of social protection programs in Africa. However, there is surprisingly little direct evidence of the impacts of social protection programs on household resilience measures. We use five rounds of panel data to examine rural households’ resilience outcomes associated with participation in Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Nets Program (PSNP). Following Cissé and Barrett (2018), we employ a probabilistic moment-based approach for measuring resilience and evaluate the role of PSNP transfers and duration of participation on households’ resilience. We document four important findings. First, although PSNP transfers are positively associated with resilience, PSNP transfers below the median are less likely to generate meaningful improvements in resilience. Second, continuous participation in the PSNP participation is associated with higher resilience. Third, combining safety nets with income generating or asset building initiatives may be particularly efficacious at building poor households’ resilience. Fourth, our evaluation of both short-term welfare outcomes and longer-term resilience suggests that these outcomes are likely to be driven by different factors, suggesting that optimizing intervention designs for improving short term welfare impacts may not necessarily improve households’ resilience, and vice versa. Together, our findings imply that effectively boosting household resilience may require significant transfers over multiple years. National safety nets programs that transfer small amounts to beneficiaries over limited time horizons may not be very effective.

Year published

2021

Authors

Abay, Kibrom A.; Abay, Mehari Hiluf; Berhane, Guush; Chamberlin, Jordan

Citation

Abay, Kibrom A.; Abay, Mehari Hiluf; Berhane, Guush; and Chamberlin, Jordan. 2021. Social protection and resilience: The case of the productive safety net program in Ethiopia. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2086. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134935.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Eastern Africa; Households; Social Protection; Welfare; Food Security; Social Safety Nets; Resilience

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134935 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Using a list experiment to measure intimate partner violence: Cautionary evidence from Ethiopia

2021Gilligan, Daniel O.; Hidrobo, Melissa; Leight, Jessica; Tambet, Heleene

Details

Using a list experiment to measure intimate partner violence: Cautionary evidence from Ethiopia

While indirect methods are increasingly widely used to measure sensitive behaviors such as intimate partner violence in order to minimize social desirability biases in responses, in developing countries the use of more complex indirect questioning methods raises important questions around how individuals will react to the use of a more unusual and complex question structure. This paper presents evidence from a list experiment measuring multiple forms of intimate partner violence within an extremely poor sample of women in rural Ethiopia. We find that the list experiment does not generate estimates of intimate partner violence that are higher than direct response questions; rather, prevalence estimates using the list experiment are lower vis-à-vis prevalence estimates using the direct reports, and sometimes even negative. We interpret this finding as consistent with “fleeing” behavior by respondents who do not wish to be associated with statements associated with intimate partner violence.

Year published

2021

Authors

Gilligan, Daniel O.; Hidrobo, Melissa; Leight, Jessica; Tambet, Heleene

Citation

Gilligan, Daniel O.; Hidrobo, Melissa; Leight, Jessica; and Tambet, Heleene. 2021. Using a list experiment to measure intimate partner violence: Cautionary evidence from Ethiopia. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2094. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134961.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Eastern Africa; Rural Communities; Gender; Capacity Development; Measurement; Domestic Violence

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134961 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Agricultural mechanisation and child labour in developing countries

2021Vos, Rob; Takeshima, Hiroyuki

Details

Agricultural mechanisation and child labour in developing countries

Child labour in agriculture remains a global concern. Agriculture is the sector where most child labour is found. Employment of children mostly relates to farm household poverty in developing countries. This raises the question of the extent to which the modernisation of agriculture prevents the use of child labour while also leading to higher productivity. One of the central questions in this context is whether agricultural mechanisation helps limit children’s employment. Available studies have put forward opposing hypotheses, but rigorous empirical evidence is scant. The present study aims to fill some of this void by studying the evidence from comparable farm household survey data in seven developing countries, including three in Asia (India, Nepal, and Vietnam) and four in sub-Saharan Africa (Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, and Tanzania). Various key findings emerge. First, many children are found to engage in productive activities in studied countries. The prevalence is particularly high in African countries, such as in Ethiopia where more than one third of children aged 5-14 years engage in farm or off-farm work. Second, while the prevalence of child labour in agriculture (i.e., when productive engagement is detrimental to schooling and child growth) is much lower (at 10% or less in seven countries), they are still sizable in absolute terms; at least 6 million children in these countries partake in agricultural work at the expense of opportunities in adulthood. Third, agricultural mechanization, reflected in farm household’s use of machinery such as tractors, significantly reduces the likelihood of use of children’s labour and increases school attendance. Fourth, the measured impacts of mechanization are only modest, however, and likely indirect, that is, dependent on the extent to which mechanization helps improve household income and on local conditions (such as quality of rural infrastructure and accessibility of education and other social services). Overall, promotion of agricultural mechanization can help prevent use of child labour. To be truly impactful, however, related support measures should be embedded in broader strategies to enable agricultural productivity growth and improve livelihoods of poor rural households.

Year published

2021

Authors

Vos, Rob; Takeshima, Hiroyuki

Citation

Vos, Rob; and Takeshima, Hiroyuki. 2021. Agricultural mechanisation and child labour in developing countries. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2080. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134916.

Country/Region

India; Nepal; Vietnam; Ethiopia; Ghana; Nigeria

Keywords

Tanzania; Western Africa; South-eastern Asia; Southern Asia; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Eastern Africa; Asia; Child Labour; Employment; Households; Labour; Agriculture; Children; Agricultural Mechanization; Developing Countries; Farms

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134916 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

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Brief

Accelerating technical change through ICTs: Evidence from a video-mediated extension experiment in Ethiopia

2021Abate, Gashaw T.; Bernard, Tanguy; Makhija, Simrin; Spielman, David J.

Details

Accelerating technical change through ICTs: Evidence from a video-mediated extension experiment in Ethiopia

The use of information and communications technologies (ICTs) to address a wide array of development issues has gained considerable attention among governments, practitioners, and researchers in recent years (Lwoga and Sangeda 2019). While early studies focused on mobile phones and text messaging, attention is quickly shifting to other media, including video. Many studies on the use of video as a medium explore how increased access and consumption of information can lead to behavior changes that ultimately result in welfare-improving outcomes. This study explores whether video-mediated extension leads to the increased, sustained uptake of productivity-enhancing agricultural technologies and practices by small-scale farmers. Over the two-year period of 2017–2018, the Government of Ethiopia and Digital Green conducted the large-scale rollout of a video-mediated extension approach. We examine the impact of this rollout on a range of outcome indicators, including whether targeting the video-mediated approach to both spouses of a household was more effective than targeting the (typically male) household head alone. Our main outcomes of interest include farmer uptake of the subject technologies and the yield gains resulting from these technologies. Our study provides insights into the mechanisms behind the observed effects and an analysis of the approach’s cost effectiveness. Our results demonstrate that the video-mediated extension approach led to increases in farmer uptake of improved agricultural technologies and practices. In the first year of the experiment, we find an overall 6 percentage point increase in technology uptake, which translates into a 10 percent increase over the mean of the control group. An analysis of uptake by type of technology shows that the video-mediated approach resulted in an increase of 13, 20, and 15 percent over control group means for row planting, precise seeding rate, and urea top/side dressing, respectively. These results endure in the second year of the experiment, pointing to farmers’ effective uptake of the technology beyond a mere trial in one production season. Upon exploring the mechanisms that explain these adoption effects, we find that the video-mediated extension approach led to an increase in extension reach, with a 35 percent increase in farmers’ attendance at extension sessions (likely due to interest in the video medium). Among farmers assigned to the video-mediated extension approach, we also find a higher level of technical understanding of focal agricultural technologies and practices. While our results suggest greater participation and knowledge gains among (typically female) spouses who also participated in the video-mediated extension approach, we do not find clear evidence that targeting both spouses led to higher rates of technology uptake.

Year published

2021

Authors

Abate, Gashaw T.; Bernard, Tanguy; Makhija, Simrin; Spielman, David J.

Citation

Abate, Gashaw Tadesse; Bernard, Tanguy; Makhija, Simrin; and Spielman, David J. 2021. Accelerating technical change through ICTs: Evidence from a video-mediated extension experiment in Ethiopia. IFPRI Project December 2021. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134904. https://cropanalytics.net/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/State-of-the-Science-of-Ground-Truth-Training-Data-2021.pdf

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Eastern Africa; Extension; Agricultural Extension; Farmers; Technology; Capacity Development; Information and Communication Technologies

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134904 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Brief

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Working Paper

Labor-related knowledge transfers from Chinese foreign direct investment in Ethiopia and Tanzania

2021Ellis, Mia; McMillan, Margaret S.; Sovani, Manali

Details

Labor-related knowledge transfers from Chinese foreign direct investment in Ethiopia and Tanzania

We examine worker training by Chinese manufacturing firms using nationally representative firm-level data from both Ethiopia and Tanzania. While Chinese firms make up a relatively small portion of the manufacturing industry in both Ethiopia and Tanzania, at the firm-level they contribute significantly to both domestic employment and labor training. In both countries more than 85 percent of the workers employed by Chinese firms are local, and Chinese firms (and other foreign firms) are more likely to offer labor training than their domestic counterparts. However, we find evidence that Chinese firms underperform relative to other foreign firms in the share of local workers employed, and in Tanzania the difference is especially large for managerial positions.

Year published

2021

Authors

Ellis, Mia; McMillan, Margaret S.; Sovani, Manali

Citation

Ellis, Mia; McMillan, Margaret S.; and Sovani, Manali, 2021. Labor-related knowledge transfers from Chinese foreign direct investment in Ethiopia and Tanzania. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2078. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134908.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Tanzania; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Eastern Africa; Investment; Training; Labour; Manufacturing; Labour Training; Foreign Investment; Knowledge

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134908 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Evaluating the impact of multi-intervention development projects: The case of Ethiopia’s community-based integrated natural resources management project

2021Abate, Gashaw T.; de Brauw, Alan; Minot, Nicholas; Vos, Rob; Wassie, Solomon B.; Yang, Shijie; Warner, James

Details

Evaluating the impact of multi-intervention development projects: The case of Ethiopia’s community-based integrated natural resources management project

This paper provides a quantitative impact assessment of the community-based integrated natural resources management project (CBINReMP) in the Lake Tana region in Ethiopia during 2011-2019. By promoting greater community participation, the CBINReMP provided support to watershed communities for the restoration of degraded soils and water sources, rehabilitation of forests, as well as in obtaining access to secure land titles and practices for climate change adaptation. The project further provided support towards diversification of incomes in off-farm activities and incentives for women’s empowerment and youth employment. This way the project aimed to support rural livelihoods through improvements in household incomes, dietary diversity, agricultural productivity, and resilience to climatic shocks, among other livelihood objectives. To assess the project’s impacts, the study had to deal with numerous methodological complications owing to as the project’s nature and design. The lack of a proper baseline survey, incomplete information about targeted watershed communities and often lack of clear distinction lines between the project’s interventions and support provided to communities through other mechanisms made it hard to identify the true impact of the CBINReMP. Four additional challenges had to be faced: possible selection biases because of non-random placement (targeting) of the project; self-selection of beneficiaries into receiving the project; possible spatial spill-over effects of project benefits to non-treatment communities, and the project’s phased rollout. A propensity-score matching procedure was adopted to assess the CBINReMP’s impacts by comparing treatment (beneficiary) and control groups outcomes related to the livelihood indicators listed above. This paper discusses how the mentioned complications were addressed to provide a sound assessments of the project’s true impacts. While certain limitations remain, the key finding that can be drawn with confidence is that the CBINReMP had only very limited, quantitatively verifiable impact on rural livelihoods. It seems to have contributed to higher household incomes and some greater dietary diversity, but only where the project managed greater community participation. However, even for those beneficiaries, livelihood conditions had not become significantly more productive, diversified, resilient, or sustainable than those of the comparison group. The paper ends with recommendations on how to avoid methodological obstacles through better design of the M&E framework for multi-intervention, community-based projects.

Year published

2021

Authors

Abate, Gashaw T.; de Brauw, Alan; Minot, Nicholas; Vos, Rob; Wassie, Solomon B.; Yang, Shijie; Warner, James

Citation

Abate, Gashaw Tadesse; de Brauw, Alan; Minot, Nicholas; Vos, Rob; Warner, James M.; Wassie, Solomon B.; and Yang, Shijie. 2021. Evaluating the impact of multi-intervention development projects: The case of Ethiopia’s community-based integrated natural resources management project. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2069. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134856.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Eastern Africa; Development Projects; Capacity Development; Evaluation; Natural Resources Management; Monitoring and Evaluation; Watershed Management; Impact Assessment

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134856 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Aspiring to more? New evidence on the effect of a light-touch aspirations intervention in rural Ethiopia

2021Leight, Jessica; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Mulford, Michael; Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum; Tambet, Heleene

Details

Aspiring to more? New evidence on the effect of a light-touch aspirations intervention in rural Ethiopia

A growing literature in economics has analyzed the effects of psychological interventions designed to boost individual aspirations as a strategy to increase investments with long-term returns and thus reduce poverty. This paper reports on a randomized controlled trial evaluating a short video-based intervention designed to increase aspirations of adults in poor rural Ethiopian households, all of whom are beneficiaries of the Productive Safety Net Program, the main government safety net program in Ethiopia. Evidence from a sample of 5258 adults from 3220 households is consistent with the hypothesis that there is no evidence that the aspirations treatment had any significant effects on self-reported aspirations for the household, educational investment in children, or savings nine months post-treatment, suggesting that the effect of light-touch aspirations treatments for extremely poor adults may be limited in this context.

Year published

2021

Authors

Leight, Jessica; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Mulford, Michael; Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum; Tambet, Heleene

Citation

Leight, Jessica; Gilligan, Daniel O.; Mulford, Michael; Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum; and Tambet, Heleene. 2021. Aspiring to more? New evidence on the effect of a light-touch aspirations intervention in rural Ethiopia. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2070. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134858.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Eastern Africa; Education; Investment; Poverty Alleviation; Capacity Development; Aspirations; Social Safety Nets; Rural Areas

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134858 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Agricultural mechanization and gendered labor activities across sectors: Micro-evidence from multi-country farm household data

2021Takeshima, Hiroyuki; Diao, Xinshen

Details

Agricultural mechanization and gendered labor activities across sectors: Micro-evidence from multi-country farm household data

Gender differences in the engagement of work activities across sectors are important elements of gender inequality in rural livelihoods and welfare in developing countries. The role of production technologies, including agricultural mechanization, in addressing gender inequality, is increasingly explored. Knowledge gaps remain, however, including, how agricultural mechanization differentially affect labor engagements across sectors. This study aims to partly fill these knowledge gaps through micro-evidence from 8 countries (Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, India, Nepal, Tajikistan and Vietnam), using several nationally representative panel data and supplementary data, and applying Correlated-Random-Effects Double-Hurdle models with Instrumental-Variables. We find that the use of tractors and/or combine harvesters by the household induces greater shift from farm activities to non-farm activities by female members than by male members. While statistical significance varies, these patterns generally hold consistently across all 8 countries studied. These patterns also seem to hold across different farm sizes. While these are short-term relations, agricultural mechanization proxied by tractor and/or combine harvesters is one of the important contributors to gendered rural livelihood. Future studies should more closely investigate underlying mechanisms and implications of these patterns.

Year published

2021

Authors

Takeshima, Hiroyuki; Diao, Xinshen

Citation

Takeshima, Hiroyuki; and Diao, Xinshen. 2021. Agricultural mechanization and gendered labor activities across sectors: Micro-evidence from multi-country farm household data. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2066. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134849.

Country/Region

Ethiopia; Ghana; Nigeria; India; Nepal; Tajikistan; Vietnam

Keywords

Tanzania; Western Africa; South-eastern Asia; Southern Asia; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Eastern Africa; Asia; Central Asia; Models; Tractors; Gender; Data; Labour; Combine Harvesters; Agricultural Mechanization

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134849 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Public-sector maize research locations and spatial heterogeneity in maize productivity: Insights from four African countries on the roles of agroclimatic similarity

2021Takeshima, Hiroyuki

Details

Public-sector maize research locations and spatial heterogeneity in maize productivity: Insights from four African countries on the roles of agroclimatic similarity

Agricultural research and development (R&D) is one component of public investments in the agricultural sector toward food system transformation. Enhancing the effectiveness of agricultural R&D remains critical, given increasingly scarce public resources. Exploring spatial spillover potentials has been one way to enhance the effectiveness of agricultural R&D. Geographical locations of National Agricultural Research Systems (NARS) research activities are recognized as an important factor affecting such spatial spillover potentials. However, evidence is generally limited in Africa south of Sahara (SSA) as to the spillover potentials of NARS-developed technologies. This paper partly aims to fill this knowledge gap by obtaining insights for maize, one of the most commonly grown crops in SSA, using nationally representative farm household data for Ethiopia, Ghana, Nigeria, and Uganda, and spatial agroclimatic data. Building on recent literature, this study proxies spillover potentials by “agroclimatic similarity” (AS) indicators between locations where agricultural R&D for maize is conducted by NARS (research locations) and where each farm household is located (farm locations). Results of the analyses suggest that an indicator of the total factor productivity of maize growing farm households, the land productivity of maize, and the use of improved maize varieties are generally higher in farm locations that share similar agroclimatic conditions with maize research locations of NARS. These patterns hold for all four countries studied, even after controlling for the physical proximity to maize research stations and other farm household characteristics. The findings contribute to better understanding of how geographic locations of public investments affect their overall effectiveness as well as returns in maize production and the agricultural sector in general.

Year published

2021

Authors

Takeshima, Hiroyuki

Citation

Takeshima, Hiroyuki. 2021. Public-sector maize research locations and spatial heterogeneity in maize productivity: Insights from four African countries on the roles of agroclimatic similarity. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2064. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134843.

Country/Region

Ethiopia; Ghana; Nigeria; Uganda

Keywords

Western Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Eastern Africa; Public Sector; Agricultural Research; Maize; Research; Agricultural Productivity

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134843 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

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Brief

Sustainable land management, gender, and agricultural productivity: Evidence from Ethiopia's fragile watershed observatory

2021Kato, Edward; Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Tiruneh, Solomon; Ringler, Claudia

Details

Sustainable land management, gender, and agricultural productivity: Evidence from Ethiopia's fragile watershed observatory

Land degradation is a pressing global challenge, with three billion people residing in degraded landscapes. The global cost of land degradation is estimated to be about $300 billion per year, with Africa south of the Sahara accounting for 26 percent of the total global costs due to land-use and land-cover changes. In Ethiopia, it is estimated that more than 85 percent of land is moderately to severely degraded due to changes in land use and cover, costing the country an estimated US$4.3 billion annually. In order to halt further degradation and support essential restoration through sustainable land management (SLM) and related investments, the Water and Land Resource Center (WLRC) and its consortium of development partners established six learning watersheds in Central and North-Western Ethiopia with the ultimate goal of improving water security and crop and livestock productivity.

Year published

2021

Authors

Kato, Edward; Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Tiruneh, Solomon; Ringler, Claudia

Citation

Kato, Edward; Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Tiruneh, Solomon; and Ringler, Claudia. 2021. Sustainable land management, gender, and agricultural productivity: Evidence from Ethiopia's fragile watershed observatory. IFPRI-REACH Project November 2021. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134870. https://mediaspace.msu.edu/playlist/dedicated/1_8eb2d2e3/1_0sfl3clj

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Eastern Africa; Land Management; Gender; Sustainable Land Management; Sustainability; Watersheds; Agricultural Productivity

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134870 Source record

Project

Water, Land and Ecosystems

Record type

Brief

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Working Paper

Geographic prioritization of agricultural investments

2021Maruyama, Eduardo; Scollard, Phoebe

Details

Geographic prioritization of agricultural investments

Through the Notification of Funding Opportunity (NOFO) for the project “Advisory Services – Program Management for Development and Implementation within the Agricultural Sector” (DCO-PR-18-0293) issued a to the International Food Research Institute (IFPRI), the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) described a series of information needs and how IFPRI could provide research and analysis that would help the MCC maximize the effectiveness of their agricultural interventions. This report focuses on how agricultural investment should be prioritized across territories within countries to maximize economic returns. With this purpose in mind, we develop a spatial and economic tool for strategic analysis and visioning to help understand where the best opportunities for investments in agriculture, with specific examples for investments in irrigation and roads in Ethiopia and Malawi. For such investments to be effective for poverty alleviation, it is necessary that they lead to farm-level increases in productivity and are translated into higher incomes and better livelihoods for rural households. Our proposed approach utilizes stochastic frontier analysis (SFA) to estimate smallholders’ agricultural potential under optimal conditions and compare it with their current performance to assess their efficiency levels. SFA allows the econometric exploration of the notion that, given fixed local agroecological and economic conditions in a region and the occurrence of random shocks that affect agricultural production, the decisions farmers and policymakers make translate into higher or lower production and profits. Inefficiency is then defined as the loss incurred by operating away from an ideal production frontier, and by estimating where this frontier lies, and how far each producer is from it, SFA helps to identify local potential and efficiency levels to construct the typology. For this report, we show how this approach can allow us to compare estimated agricultural potential and efficiency levels under current conditions and hypothetical investment scenarios and calculate what are the agricultural profit gains linked to each case. We can then extrapolate these results at the regional level for the whole country and combine them with GIS data on local agroecological conditions, water availability, topography, and road infrastructure to construct our typology. In particular, we use our typology results to assess where investments in agriculture would be more effective in bringing rural households out of poverty (closing the poverty gap), and how two different types of investments can increase rural households’ incomes through an increase in the profitability of smallholder agriculture. The first scenario looks at the impact of an increase in access to irrigation through river diversion methods, while the second scenario looks at the impact of an increase in market access, which we simulate by analyzing what would be the impact of reducing travel time to the nearest market (city of least 25,000 inhabitants) from any farm in the country by 50%. For Ethiopia, we find pockets of considerable unattained farm profits located throughout the central and western parts of the country, where opportunities for investments to close efficiency gaps in agricultural production and marketing can yield high returns. Low potential in the eastern lowlands limit opportunities for gains from efficiency-oriented investments, and development efforts in these regions should be focused in long-term, large scale interventions that shift the agricultural frontier. With respect to poverty alleviation, our results show that for many regions in the country, especially in the high central plateau, investing in increasing the efficiency of smallholders would be enough to close the poverty gap. In contrast, many areas in the Somali, Tigray, Afar, Oromia, and SNNP regions would require unrealistically high shifts in their agricultural potential due to its current low level combined in many cases with higher than average poverty gaps. The results from the improved irrigation access scenario are heavily constrained by the surface water availability constraint and show that the largest impacts would be observed in Somali and Afar, while in the case of the improved market access scenario, these benefits would extend to Tigray as well. For Malawi, our maps show higher agricultural potential in the Northern and Central regions of the country, consistent with the higher precipitation levels and the agroecological suitability for horticulture in the Kasungu Lilongwe Plain (central), and the staple crop producing areas in the north (such as Chipita). The southern region suffers from lower potential due to poorer general weather conditions and lower rainfall levels. The unattained potential map shows that despite high levels of efficiency, potential in the north is high enough for the remaining gap to be significant, and that the levels of efficiency in the southern tip of the country are low enough to offer some opportunities for efficiency enhancing investments in those areas as well. The poverty analysis shows that the incidence and depth of poverty are higher in the Southern Region of Malawi, but that the poverty gap in all districts of the country could be closed by investing in efficiency enhancing interventions in agriculture without depending on investments that shift the agricultural profit frontier. The results from the improved irrigation access scenario show a larger impact in the Central Region of the country, particularly the districts of Kasungu, Dowa, and Salima, while the improved market access scenario benefits are more evenly spread out across the country.

Year published

2021

Authors

Maruyama, Eduardo; Scollard, Phoebe

Citation

Maruyama, Eduardo; and Schollard, Phoebe. 2021. Geographic prioritization of agricultural investments. IFPRI – MCC Technical Paper Series: Prioritizing Agricultural Investments for Income, Poverty Reduction, and Nutrition 5. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI); and Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). https://purl.umn.edu/315292.

Country/Region

Ethiopia; Malawi

Keywords

Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Eastern Africa; Southern Africa; Models; Investment; Agriculture; Poverty

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Prioritization of types of investments: Operational tools for MCC agricultural investments

2021Laborde Debucquet, David; Parent, Marie; Piñeiro, Valeria

Details

Prioritization of types of investments: Operational tools for MCC agricultural investments

This report answers the question: “What guidelines can be used to identify the types of agricultural investments that have the highest economic return, where “agriculture” is broadly defined to include primary production, handling, storage, transportation, distribution, processing, and retailing?” Using the literature and MCC’s ERR analyses, we explain how agricultural investments fit in a wider development context, identify information useful to MCC’s decision making that is not provided by the ERR analyses, and suggest IFPRI tools for exploratory and ex-ante evaluative analysis that MCC can use in their decision-making process.

Year published

2021

Authors

Laborde Debucquet, David; Parent, Marie; Piñeiro, Valeria

Citation

Laborde Debucquet, David; Parent, Marie; and Piñeiro, Valeria. 2021. Prioritization of types of investments: Operational tools for MCC agricultural investments. IFPRI – MCC Technical Paper Series: Prioritizing Agricultural Investments for Income, Poverty Reduction, and Nutrition 4. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI); and Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134794.

Country/Region

Ethiopia; Malawi

Keywords

Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Eastern Africa; Southern Africa; Income; Models; Policies; Investment; Agriculture; Poverty

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134794 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Video-based behavioral change communication to change consumption patterns: Experimental evidence from urban Ethiopia

2021Abate, Gashaw T.; Baye, Kaleab; de Brauw, Alan; Hirvonen, Kalle; Wolle, Abdulazize

Details

Video-based behavioral change communication to change consumption patterns: Experimental evidence from urban Ethiopia

Poor diet quality has been widely identified as a primary reason for malnutrition and the increasing burden of non-communicable diseases in low- and middle-income countries. Low consumption of fruits and vegetables contributes to poor diet quality, and one factor leading to low fruit and vegetable consumption is limited consumer awareness of the health and nutrition benefits of consumption. In this study, we experimentally assess a method of increasing consumer awareness, specifically, through showing households two different versions of a video embedded with messages about increasing fruit and vegetable consumption. The first video included just the basic recommended consumption behavior messages, while the second video also explained why and how fruit and vegetable consumption could improve health and nutrition outcomes. Even four months after viewing the video, average household consumption of fruits and vegetables increased by about 10 percent in both treatment groups relative to the control group, both in kilocalorie and consumption expenditure terms. The videos were developed to eventually show on national TV, suggesting that embedding dietary BCC messages in popular media can have positive impacts on diet quality at scale.

Year published

2021

Authors

Abate, Gashaw T.; Baye, Kaleab; de Brauw, Alan; Hirvonen, Kalle; Wolle, Abdulazize

Citation

Abate, Gashaw Tadesse; Baye, Kaleab; de Brauw, Alan; Hirvonen, Kalle; and Wolle, Abdulazize. 2021. Video-based behavioral change communication to change consumption patterns: Experimental evidence from urban Ethiopia. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2052. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134725.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Eastern Africa; Consumer Education; Urban Areas; Vegetables; Nutrition Education; Malnutrition; Fruits; Diet Quality; Behaviour; Diet; Video Recorders

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134725 Source record

Project

Agriculture for Nutrition and Health

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Did a microfinance ‘plus’ programme empower female farmers and pastoralists and improve intrahousehold equality in rural Ethiopia? Evidence from an impact evaluation using a Project-Women’s Empowerment in Agricultural Index (pro-WEAI) survey tool

2021Hillesland, Marya; Kaaria, Susan; Mane, Erdgin; Alemu, Mihret; Slavchevska, Vanya

Details

Did a microfinance ‘plus’ programme empower female farmers and pastoralists and improve intrahousehold equality in rural Ethiopia? Evidence from an impact evaluation using a Project-Women’s Empowerment in Agricultural Index (pro-WEAI) survey tool

Using the project-Women’s Empowerment in Agricultural Index (pro-WEAI) survey tool developed by GAAP2, this study aims to estimate the impact of a microfinance ‘plus’ programme on women’s economic empowerment in communities in Oromia and Afar, Ethiopia. The programme incorporates multiple interventions, which are implemented through women-run rural savings and credit cooperatives (RUSACCOs), with the intention of improving beneficiary women’s decision-making over productive assets, control over income, and leadership in rural institutions. A major component of the programme is aimed at rural women’s greater access to credit, but interventions also include agricultural livestock and technology transfers, business training, as well as a community gender awareness component. A difference-in-difference estimator with Inverse Probability Weighting (IPW) is used to evaluate the impact of the programme on women’s empowerment in Oromia. Because of conflict in the area, baseline data collection was delayed and data was collected after some interventions had already begun in Oromia. As such, nearly all beneficiaries already had access to credit through the RUSACCOs at baseline, and both women and men were already empowered in a number of dimensions at baseline. Among households with beneficiaries who continued in good standing between baseline and midline, the programme positively contributed to both women’s and men’s empowerment with regards to respect among household members. It did not lead to additional impacts in terms of overall empowerment and gender parity within the household or across the other pro-WEAI indicators. However, it appears that, by maintaining good standing in the RUSACCOs, female participants were able to maintain high levels of empowerment across the other indicators. A second group of beneficiary women, who either chose to leave the RUSACCO or did not maintain good standing as a member, were also highly empowered across many dimensions at baseline but experienced large average decreases in empowerment across a number of indicators by midline. In Afar, using the midline data only, a single-difference estimator with Inverse Probability Weighting is used to evaluate the impact of the programme. In Afar, the programme had a significant impact on women’s overall empowerment. As we expected, given the nature of the programme, there were significant positive results in terms of access to and decisions on financial services, group membership, and membership in influential groups. There were also positive impacts on control over the use of income, suggesting that the programme contributed to greater control over the use of the output from agricultural activities and control over income from agricultural and non-agricultural activities. On the other hand, the programme also appears to have resulted in reduced empowerment on average with regards to autonomy in income.

Year published

2021

Authors

Hillesland, Marya; Kaaria, Susan; Mane, Erdgin; Alemu, Mihret; Slavchevska, Vanya

Citation

Hillesland, Marya; Kaaria, Susan; Mane, Erdgin; Alemu, Mihret; and Slavchevska, Vanya. 2021. Did a microfinance ‘plus’ programme empower female farmers and pastoralists and improve intrahousehold equality in rural Ethiopia? Evidence from an impact evaluation using a Project-Women’s Empowerment in Agricultural Index (pro-WEAI) survey tool. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2037. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134482.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Eastern Africa; Microfinance; Rural Population; Gender; Women's Empowerment; Programmes; Methods; Farmers; Capacity Development; Pastoralists; Gender Equity; Equality; Women; Women Farmers; Impact Assessment

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134482 Source record

Project

Agriculture for Nutrition and Health

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Mismatch between soil nutrient requirements and fertilizer applications: Implications for yield responses in Ethiopia

2021Abay, Kibrom A.; Abay, Mehari Hiluf; Amare, M.; Berhane, Guush; Aynekulu, E.

Details

Mismatch between soil nutrient requirements and fertilizer applications: Implications for yield responses in Ethiopia

Lack of accurate information about soil nutrient requirements coupled with limited access to appropriate fertilizers could lead to mismatch between soil nutrient requirements and fertilizer applications. Such anomalies and mismatches are likely to have important implications for agricultural productivity. In this paper we use experimental (spectral soil analysis) data from Ethiopia to examine farmers’ response to soil nutrient deficiencies and its implications for yield responses. We find that farmers’ response to macronutrient (nitrogen and phosphorus) deficiencies is not always consistent with agronomic recommendations. For instance, we find that farmers in our sample are applying nitrogen fertilizers to soils lacking phosphorus, potentially due to lack of information on soil nutrient deficiencies or lack of access to appropriate fertilizers in rural markets. On the other hand, farmers respond to perceivably poor-quality soils and acidic soils by applying higher amount of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers per unit of land. We further show that such mismatches between fertilizer applications and soil macronutrient requirements are potentially yield-reducing. Those farmers matching their soil nutrient requirements and fertilizer application are likely to enjoy additional yield gains and the vice versa. Marginal yield responses associated with nitrogen (phosphorus) application increases with soil nitrogen (phosphorus) deficiency. Similarly, we find that farmers’ response to acidic soils is not yield-enhancing. These findings suggest that such mismatches may explain heterogeneities in marginal returns to chemical fertilizers and the observed low adoption rates of chemical fertilizers in sub-Saharan Africa. As such, these findings have important implications for improving input management practices and fertilizer diffusion strategies.

Year published

2021

Authors

Abay, Kibrom A.; Abay, Mehari Hiluf; Amare, M.; Berhane, Guush; Aynekulu, E.

Citation

Abay, K. A.; Abay, M. H.; Amare, M.; Berhane, G.; Aynekulu, E. 2021. Mismatch between soil nutrient requirements and fertilizer applications: Implications for yield responses in Ethiopia. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2031. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). . https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134449

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Nutrient Deficiencies; Fertilizers; Fertilizer Application; Soil Deficiencies; Soil; Yields; Soil Analysis

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-NC-ND

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134449 Source record

Project

Water, Land and Ecosystems

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Improving coffee productivity in Ethiopia: The impact of a coffee tree rejuvenation training program on stumping

2021Abate, Gashaw T.; Bernard, Tanguy; Regassa, Mekdim D.; Minten, Bart

Details

Improving coffee productivity in Ethiopia: The impact of a coffee tree rejuvenation training program on stumping

Coffee is Ethiopia’s most important export commodity, cultivated by over 6 million smallholder farmers in the country, and accounting for about one-third of the country’s commodity exports. While coffee production has increased over the last decade, coffee yields are low and several constraints to improved productivity remain. With two-three decades old and low-yielding coffee trees in particular, the sector cannot attain its full potential. In this paper, we assess the short-term impact of a coffee tree rejuvenation training program in Sidama on adoption rate and intensity of stumping – currently the best practice to revitalize ageing coffee trees and substantially improve their productivity. Using baseline and follow-up data and a difference-in-difference approach, we find that the adoption rate and intensity of stumping has increased by about threefold during the first year of the rejuvenation training intervention.

Year published

2021

Authors

Abate, Gashaw T.; Bernard, Tanguy; Regassa, Mekdim D.; Minten, Bart

Citation

Abate, Gashaw Tadesse; Bernard, Tanguy; Regassa, Mekdim D.; and Minten, Bart. 2021. Improving coffee productivity in Ethiopia: The impact of a coffee tree rejuvenation training program on stumping. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2023. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134408.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Eastern Africa; Coffee Industry; Commodities; Coffee; Plant Rejuvenation; Agricultural Productivity

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134408 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Africa’s manufacturing puzzle: Evidence from Tanzanian and Ethiopian firms

2021Diao, Xinshen; Ellis, Mia; McMillan, Margaret S.; Rodrik, Dani

Details

Africa’s manufacturing puzzle: Evidence from Tanzanian and Ethiopian firms

Recent growth accelerations in Africa are characterized by increasing productivity in agriculture, a declining share of the labor force employed in agriculture and declining productivity in modern sectors such as manufacturing. To shed light on this puzzle, we disaggregate firms in the manufacturing sector by size using two newly created panels of manufacturing firms, one for Tanzania covering 2008-2016 and one for Ethiopia covering 1996-2017. Our analysis reveals a dichotomy between larger firms that exhibit superior productivity performance but do not expand employment much, and small firms that absorb employment but do not experience any productivity growth. We suggest the poor employment performance of large firms is related to use of capital-intensive techniques associated with global trends in technology.

Year published

2021

Authors

Diao, Xinshen; Ellis, Mia; McMillan, Margaret S.; Rodrik, Dani

Citation

Diao, Xinshen; Ellis, Mia; McMillan, Margaret S.; and Rodrik, Dani. 2021. Africa’s manufacturing puzzle: Evidence from Tanzanian and Ethiopian firms. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2020. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134392.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Tanzania; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Eastern Africa; Innovation; Structural Transformation; Technology; Enterprises; Labour; Labour Productivity; Productivity; Manufacturing; Growth

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134392 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Effective food systems innovations: An inventory of evidence from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Viet Nam, and other low-and middle-income countries

2021Lecoutere, Els; Van den Berg, Marrit; de Brauw, Alan

Details

Effective food systems innovations: An inventory of evidence from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Viet Nam, and other low-and middle-income countries

To address malnutrition in low- and middle income countries (LMICs), more evidence is needed about the potential of food system innovations to help guide the transformation towards healthier, more sustainable, and equitable food systems. This paper reviews the literature on food system innovations in the food environment and addressing consumer behavior on diet and nutrition-related outcomes in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Viet Nam, and other LMICs, then highlights promising innovations and demonstrates gaps in the literature. In the food environment, promising innovations include nutrition-relevant multi-sectoral national backed by effective implementation; institutional purchasing offering healthy meals in school or factory environments; compulsory nutrition labelling; and fortified foods, if these can be durably offered or viably commercialised. Promising innovations influencing consumer behavior include unhealthy food taxes; large-scale information campaigns raising awareness about specific unhealthy food items; and campaigns that provide information and/or fortified food (supplements) to address nutrition of infants and young children. Promoting women’s empowerment and targeting women with nutrition information could be effective food system innovations addressing consumer behavior, but deliberation is needed about risks of emphasizing the instrumental role of gender equity and women’s empowerment for nutrition or reinforcing gender roles and increasing women’s responsibilities. That said, our review also demonstrates a general lack of evidence on most types of food system innovations in the four primary countries of study. More evidence is needed on several types of food systems innovations before definitive advice can be given on guiding food systems transformations towards healthier diet outcomes. This review therefore acts as a starting point for addressing country-specific food system challenges and identifies needs for further research.

Year published

2021

Authors

Lecoutere, Els; Van den Berg, Marrit; de Brauw, Alan

Citation

Lecoutere, Els; Van den berg, Marrit; and de Brauw, Alan. 2021. Effective food systems innovations: An inventory of evidence from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Viet Nam, and other low-and middle-income countries. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2022. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134401.

Country/Region

Bangladesh; Ethiopia; Nigeria; Vietnam

Keywords

Western Africa; South-eastern Asia; Southern Asia; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Eastern Africa; Asia; Innovation; Food Environment; Gender; Child Nutrition; Policies; Consumer Behaviour; Technology; Institutions; Nutrition; Literature Reviews; Food Systems

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134401 Source record

Project

Agriculture for Nutrition and Health

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Assessing response fatigue in phone surveys: Experimental evidence on dietary diversity in Ethiopia

2021Abay, Kibrom A.; Berhane, Guush; Hoddinott, John F.; Tafere, Kibrom

Details

Assessing response fatigue in phone surveys: Experimental evidence on dietary diversity in Ethiopia

The COVID-19 pandemic has spurred interest in the use of remote data collection techniques, including phone surveys, in developing country contexts. This interest has sparked new methodological work focusing on the advantages and disadvantages of different forms of remote data collection, the use of incentives to increase response rates and how to address sample representativeness. By contrast, attention given to associated response fatigue and its implications remains limited. To assess this, we designed and implemented an experiment that randomized the placement of a survey module on women’s dietary diversity in the survey instrument. We also examine potential differential vulnerabilities to fatigue across food groups and respondents. We find that delaying the timing of mothers’ food consumption module by 15 minutes leads to 8-17 percent decrease in the dietary diversity score and a 28 percent decrease in the number of mothers who consumed a minimum of four dietary groups. This is driven by underreporting of infrequently consumed foods; the experimentally induced delay in the timing of mothers’ food consumption module led to a 40 and 11 percent decrease in the reporting of consumption of animal source foods, and fruits and vegetables, respectively. Our results are robust to changes in model specification and pass falsification tests. Responses by older and less educated mothers and those from larger households are more vulnerable to measurement error due to fatigue.

Year published

2021

Authors

Abay, Kibrom A.; Berhane, Guush; Hoddinott, John F.; Tafere, Kibrom

Citation

Abay, Kibrom A.; Berhane, Guush; Hoddinott, John F.; and Tafere, Kibrom. 2021. Assessing response fatigue in phone surveys: Experimental evidence on dietary diversity in Ethiopia. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2017. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134381.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Eastern Africa; Data; Surveys; Covid-19; Capacity Development; Diet; Dietary Diversity

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134381 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Linked Economic and Animal Systems (LEAS) Model: Technical documentation

2021Aragie, Emerta; Beyene, Seneshaw Tamiru; Legesse, Ermias; Thurlow, James

Details

Linked Economic and Animal Systems (LEAS) Model: Technical documentation

The herd dynamics model (HDM) component of the Linked Economic and Animal Systems (LEAS) model specifically documented here is developed in the context of the Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Livestock Systems financed by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and managed by the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Animal Sciences. The main objective of this project is to develop a comprehensive analytical approach or systems model capable of assessing (i) how animal herd or flock sizes change over time and in response to on-farm policies; (ii) how alternative national trends and policies affect future development of the livestock system as a whole; (iii) how changes in livestock policies affect people working throughout the livestock system; and (iv) how changes in animal-source food (ASF) production and prices affect the real incomes and consumption patterns of different population groups. The HDM developed provides a highly detailed description of the cattle sector while laying a framework that can be easily adapted to other types of livestock. The model allows one to closely examine the performance of the livestock sector disaggregated by agroecology zones or regions. The HDM is linked both ways with a core economywide model through economic variables such as relative prices of livestock activities, prices and availability of intermediate inputs including feed, and changes in supply of livestock capital in the meat and milk production sectors. Given the complex interplay in the livestock sector such as offtake decisions, death rates, milk and meat yield, and feeding practices (through quality indexed feed demand), the HDM developed under this project is a fully dynamic livestock sector model that provides several avenues for analysis on livestock management, the sector’s future trajectory, and its dynamics, given risks and opportunities within the sector and beyond.

Year published

2021

Authors

Aragie, Emerta; Beyene, Seneshaw Tamiru; Legesse, Ermias; Thurlow, James

Citation

Aragie, Emerta; Beyene, Seneshaw Tamiru; Legesse, Ermias; and Thurlow, James. 2021. Linked Economic and Animal Systems (LEAS) Model: Technical documentation. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2011. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134330.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Eastern Africa; Models; Demographic Transition; Policies; Modelling; Capacity Development; Livestock Systems; Demography

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134330 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

The impact of Ethiopia’s direct seed marketing approach on smallholders’ access to seeds, productivity, and commercialization

2021Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Abate, Gashaw T.; Yimam, Seid; Benfica, Rui; Spielman, David J.; Place, Frank

Details

The impact of Ethiopia’s direct seed marketing approach on smallholders’ access to seeds, productivity, and commercialization

Several factors contribute to the low level of improved variety use in Ethiopia. Among those, on the supply side, is the limited availability of seed in the volumes, quality, and timeliness required by farmers, which is partly a result of limited public and private investment in the sector. Beginning in 2011, the Government of Ethiopia introduced a novel experiment-the Direct Seed Marketing (DSM) approach-to reduce some of the centralized, state-run attributes of the country’s seed market and rationalize the use of public resources. DSM was designed to incentivize private and public seed producers to sell seed directly to farmers rather than through the state apparatus. This study is the first quantitative evaluation of DSM’s impact on indicators of a healthy seed system: access to quality seeds, on-farm productivity, and market participation of smallholders. Using a quasi-experimental difference-in-differences approach, the study finds that DSM led to a 26 percent increase in maize yields and a 5 percent increase in the share of maize harvest sold. DSM also led to improvements in seed availability for all three of Ethiopia’s major cereals: maize, wheat, and teff. However, DSM’s effects on yields and share of harvest sold are not statistically significant for wheat and teff. These crop-specific differences in performance are likely explainable by biological differences between hybrid maize and openly pollinated varieties of wheat and teff that incentivize private sector participation in maize seed markets over wheat and teff seed markets. These differences demand different policies and perhaps even institutional approaches to accelerating adoption between hybrids and OPVs.

Year published

2021

Authors

Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Abate, Gashaw T.; Yimam, Seid; Benfica, Rui; Spielman, David J.; Place, Frank

Citation

Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Abate, Gashaw Tadesse; Yimam, Seid; Benfica, Rui; Spielman, David J.; and Place, Frank. 2021. The impact of Ethiopia’s direct seed marketing approach on smallholders’ access to seeds, productivity, and commercialization. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1998. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134247.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Eastern Africa; Seed Systems; Seed Quality; Seeds; Direct Marketing; Crops; Maize; Crop Production; Smallholders; Marketing; Seed Production; Productivity; Commercialization

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134247 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Bringing power to the people or the well-connected? Evidence from Ethiopia on the gendered effects of decentralizing service delivery

2020Kosec, Katrina; Song, Jie; Zhao, Hongdi

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Bringing power to the people or the well-connected? Evidence from Ethiopia on the gendered effects of decentralizing service delivery

Decentralization, or devolution of authority to lower levels of government, is often motivated by its potential to make service delivery more responsive to citizens’ preferences. However, women’s ability to influence policy outcomes may vary across levels of government. This paper considers how decentralization affects both women’s and men’s access to government-provided services and their level of political engagement. We exploit the partial roll-out of decentralization in Ethiopia during 2000–01 and use a spatial regression discontinuity design to identify its impacts. Decentralization improves access to public services for both women and men, but the benefits for men are greater, widening the gender gap in access. We find no evidence that this is due to women’s lower likelihood of participating in local elections; indeed, decentralization increases women’s but not men’s participation. However, decentralization disproportionately increases men’s interactions with local government officials and influential civil society leaders—who wield more power under decentralization. The results are consistent with non-electoral channels of political influence at the local level, dominated by men, contributing to policy outcomes favoring men. They shed light on potential pitfalls of decentralized service delivery from a gender equality perspective, and provide policy recommendations for ensuring women’s equitable access to services.

Year published

2020

Authors

Kosec, Katrina; Song, Jie; Zhao, Hongdi

Citation

Kosec, Katrina; Song, Jie; and Zhao, Hongdi. 2020. Bringing power to the people or the well-connected? Evidence from Ethiopia on the gendered effects of decentralizing service delivery. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1992. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134228.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Expenditure; Gender; Public Goods; Local Government; Policies; Government; Decentralization; Men; Federalism; Public Services; Women

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134228 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Telescoping causes overstatement in recalled food consumption: Evidence from a survey experiment in Ethiopia

2020Abate, Gashaw T.; de Brauw, Alan; Gibson, John; Hirvonen, Kalle; Wolle, Abdulazize

Details

Telescoping causes overstatement in recalled food consumption: Evidence from a survey experiment in Ethiopia

Telescoping errors occur if survey respondents misdate consumption or expenditure episodes by including events from outside the reference period in their recall. Concern about telescoping influenced the design of early Living Standards Measurement Study (LSMS) surveys, which used a two-visit interview format to allow a bounded recall. This design fell out of favor although not for evidence-based reasons. Recent guidelines to harmonize food data collection in low- and middle-income countries by using one-week recall increase the relevance of telescoping because errors spread over a shorter period will loom larger. To provide evidence on telescoping, we conducted a survey experiment in Ethiopia, randomly assigning a balanced sample – either a two-visit bounded recall or a single visit unbounded recall. The average value of reported food consumption is 16 percent higher in the unbounded single visit recall relative to the two-visit bounded recall. Put differently, in this experiment, telescoping errors amount, on average, to an entire extra day worth of consumption being included in the report for the last seven days. Most of the error is explained by difference in reporting of spending on less frequently consumed, protein-rich foods, so apparent diet diversity and dietary quality indicators are likely to be overstated when using unbounded recall.

Year published

2020

Authors

Abate, Gashaw T.; de Brauw, Alan; Gibson, John; Hirvonen, Kalle; Wolle, Abdulazize

Citation

Abate, Gashaw Tadesse; de Brauw, Alan; Gibson, John; Hirvonen, Kalle; and Wolle, Abdulazize. 2020. Telescoping causes overstatement in recalled food consumption: Evidence from a survey experiment in Ethiopia. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1976. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134161.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Surveys; Households; Living Standards; Diet Quality; Food Consumption; Diet

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134161 Source record

Project

Agriculture for Nutrition and Health

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

COVID-19 and food security in Ethiopia: Do social protection programs protect?

2020Abay, Kibrom A.; Berhane, Guush; Hoddinott, John F.; Tafere, Kibrom

Details

COVID-19 and food security in Ethiopia: Do social protection programs protect?

We assess the impact of Ethiopia’s flagship social protection program, the Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP) on the adverse impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on food and nutrition security of households, mothers, and children. We use both pre-pandemic in-person household survey data and a post-pandemic phone survey. Two thirds of our respondents reported that their incomes had fallen after the pandemic began and almost half reported that their ability to satisfy their food needs had worsened. Employing a household fixed effects difference-in-difference approach, we find that the household food insecurity increased by 11.7 percentage points and the size of the food gap by 0.47 months in the aftermath of the onset of the pandemic. Participation in the PSNP offsets virtually all of this adverse change; the likelihood of becoming food insecure increased by only 2.4 percentage points for PSNP households and the duration of the food gap increased by only 0.13 months. The protective role of PSNP is greater for poorer households and those living in remote areas. Results are robust to definitions of PSNP participation, different estimators and how we account for the non-randomness of mobile phone ownership. PSNP households were less likely to reduce expenditures on health and education by 7.7 percentage points and were less likely to reduce expenditures on agricultural inputs by 13 percentage points. By contrast, mothers’ and children’s diets changed little, despite some changes in the composition of diets with consumption of animal source foods declining significantly.

Year published

2020

Authors

Abay, Kibrom A.; Berhane, Guush; Hoddinott, John F.; Tafere, Kibrom

Citation

Abay, Kibrom A.; Berhane, Guush; Hoddinott, John F.; and Tafere, Kibrom. 2020. COVID-19 and food security in Ethiopia: Do social protection programs protect? IFPRI Discussion Paper 1972. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134146.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Income; Nutrition Security; Programmes; Covid-19; Households; Social Protection; Capacity Development; Food Security; Social Safety Nets; Dietary Diversity

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134146 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Direct and spillover effects of land rights formalization in Africa: A case study of the Second-Level Land Certification (SLLC) in Ethiopia

2020Ghebru, Hosaena; Girmachew, Fikirte

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Direct and spillover effects of land rights formalization in Africa: A case study of the Second-Level Land Certification (SLLC) in Ethiopia

The study investigates the overall impacts of a second level land certification (SLLC) program in Ethiopia using a three-wave panel data set 3092 households collected in 2013, 2015 and 2018. The fact that the first-round survey was administered just before the SLLC program was launched in 2013/14 provides a unique opportunity to evaluate the impacts of the program using data before and after the program was launched. After controlling for potential selection bias, overall results show no evidence of diminishing returns to the first level land certification (FLLC) as SLLC program participation shows no statistically significant effect on household perceived tenure security. A more gender disaggregated investigation indicates a relatively favorable outcome on married women’s perceived tenure security compared to their male counterparts. Empirical results also reveal a market stimulant effect of the SLLC program on land rental market participation with a more direct effect on beneficiary households’ likelihood of renting out land (becoming a landlord) and a spillover benefit to non-beneficiary households’ likelihood of renting-in land (becoming a tenant). Finally, our analysis shows a negative and statistically significant impact on access to and/or control over land by women and youth. Such evidence demands the need for future designing and implementation of similar programs to integrate a more gender and age sensitive parameters so that program outcomes remain desirable/favorable for such vulnerable groups.

Year published

2020

Authors

Ghebru, Hosaena; Girmachew, Fikirte

Citation

Ghebru, Hosaena; and Girmachew, Fikirte. 2020. Direct and spillover effects of land rights formalization in Africa: A case study of the Second-Level Land Certification (SLLC) in Ethiopia. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1968. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134083.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Gender; Land Tenure; Land Markets; Capacity Development; Legal Rights; Property Rights; Land Registration; Land Administration; Land Rights; Land Titling

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134083 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Are smallholder farmers credit constrained? evidence on demand and supply constraints of credit in Ethiopia and Tanzania

2020Balana, Bedru B.; Mekonnen, D.; Haile, B.; Hagos, Fitsum; Yimam, S.; Ringler, Claudia

Details

Are smallholder farmers credit constrained? evidence on demand and supply constraints of credit in Ethiopia and Tanzania

Credit constraint is considered by many as one of the key barriers to adoption of modern agricultural technologies, such as chemical fertilizer, improved seeds, and irrigation technologies, among smallholders. Past research and much policy discourse associates agricultural credit constraints with supply-side factors, such as limited access to credit sources or high costs of borrowing. However, demand-side factors, such as risk-aversion and financial illiteracy among borrowers, as well as high transaction costs, can also play important roles in credit-rationing for smallholders. Using primary survey data from Ethiopia and Tanzania, this study examines the nature of credit constraints facing smallholders and the factors that affect credit constraints. In addition, we assess whether credit constraints are gender-differentiated. Results show that demand-side credit constraints are at least as important as supply-side factors in both countries. Women are more likely to be credit constrained (from both the supply and demand sides) than men. Based on these findings, we suggest that policies should focus on addressing both supply- and demand-side credit constraints, including through targeted interventions to reduce risk, such as crop insurance and gender-sensitive policies to improve women’s access to credit.

Year published

2020

Authors

Balana, Bedru B.; Mekonnen, D.; Haile, B.; Hagos, Fitsum; Yimam, S.; Ringler, Claudia

Citation

Balana, Bedru; Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Haile, Beliyou; Hagos, Fitsum; Yiman, Seid; and Ringler, Claudia. 2020. Are smallholder farmers credit constrained? Evidence on demand and supply constraints of credit in Ethiopia and Tanzania. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1974. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134152.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Tanzania; Eastern Africa; Financial Institutions; Microfinance; Gender; Policies; Farmers; Constraints; Socioeconomic Environment; Agricultural Credit; Agriculture; Smallholders; Adoption; Irrigation; Small Scale Systems; Econometric Models; Small-scale Aquaculture; Credit; Risk Factors; Loans; Supply Balance; Agricultural Technology; Technology Transfer; Households; Technology; Women

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134152 Source record

Project

Water, Land and Ecosystems

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Food consumption and food security during the COVID-19 pandemic in Addis Ababa

2020Hirvonen, Kalle; de Brauw, Alan; Abate, Gashaw T.

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Food consumption and food security during the COVID-19 pandemic in Addis Ababa

International humanitarian organizations have expressed substantial concern about the potential for increases in food insecurity resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic. In this paper, we use a unique panel survey of a representative distribution of households in Addis Ababa to study both food security and food consumption. In contrast to some other countries in the region, Ethiopia never went into a full lockdown severely restricting movement. Despite subjective income measures suggesting a large proportion of households have been exposed to job loss or reduced incomes, we find that relative to a survey conducted in August and September of 2019, food consumption and household dietary diversity are largely unchanged or slightly increased by August 2020. We find some changes in the composition of food consumption, but they are not related to shocks found in previous phone surveys conducted with the same households. The results therefore suggest the types of subjective questions about income typically being asked in COVID-19 phone surveys may not appropriately reflect the magnitude of such shocks. They also imply, at least indirectly, that in the aggregate food value chains have been resilient to the shock associated with the pandemic.

Year published

2020

Authors

Hirvonen, Kalle; de Brauw, Alan; Abate, Gashaw T.

Citation

Hirvonen, Kalle; de Brauw, Alan; and Abate, Gashaw T. 2020. Food consumption and food security during the COVID-19 pandemic in Addis Ababa. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1964. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134018.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Income; Nutrition Security; Covid-19; Households; Food Security; Food Consumption; Pandemics

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.134018 Source record

Project

Agriculture for Nutrition and Health

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

The diffusion of small-scale irrigation technologies in Ethiopia: stakeholder analysis using Net-Map

2020Bryan, Elizabeth; Hagos, Fitsum; Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Gemeda, Demie Abera; Yimam, Seid

Details

The diffusion of small-scale irrigation technologies in Ethiopia: stakeholder analysis using Net-Map

Small-scale irrigation (SSI) provides great benefits to farmers in terms of increased yields and profits, better food and nutrition security and greater resilience to climate shocks. Ethiopia has high potential for expanding SSI and has invested considerably in this area in recent years. Despite these investments, several challenges to further expansion of irrigation technologies remain. Different stakeholders in the country play important roles in overcoming these barriers to further scale technologies for SSI. This paper explores institutional arrangements for the diffusion of small-scale irrigation technologies by mapping the landscape of key actors involved, their interconnections, and their influence. This paper draws on an analysis of stakeholder data collected through two participatory workshops in Ethiopia, one at the national level and one at the Oromia regional level, using the Net-Map approach. Results show the dominance of government actors in the diffusion of SSI at both the national and regional levels, while most private sector and NGO actors remain in the periphery. Participants in both workshops highlighted the need for increased financing services to support the adoption of SSI and measures aimed at increasing the supply of high-quality irrigation equipment, such as modern water lifting technologies. One notable difference between the national and regional results was that at the regional level, farmers, and to some extent traders and input suppliers, were considered to be more influential in the diffusion of irrigation technologies, while they were considered marginal actors at the national level.

Year published

2020

Authors

Bryan, Elizabeth; Hagos, Fitsum; Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Gemeda, Demie Abera; Yimam, Seid

Citation

Bryan, Elizabeth; Hagos, Fitsum; Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Gemeda, Demie Abera; and Yimam, Seid. 2020. The diffusion of small-scale irrigation technologies in Ethiopia: Stakeholder analysis using Net-Map. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1950. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.133847.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Funding; Nongovernmental Organizations; Participatory Approaches; Scaling Up; Policies; Technology; Stakeholders; Farmers; International Organizations; Institutions; Smallholders; Irrigation; Small Scale Systems; Private Sector; Financing; Donors; Small-scale Aquaculture; Resilience; Government Agencies

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.133847 Source record

Project

Water, Land and Ecosystems

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

GM maize in Ethiopia: An ex ante economic assessment of TELA, a drought tolerant and insect resistant maize

2020Yirga, Chilot; Nin-Pratt, Alejandro; Zambrano, Patricia; Wood-Sichra, Ulrike; Habte, Endeshaw; Kato, Edward; Komen, John; Falck-Zepeda, José B.; Chambers, Judith A.

Details

GM maize in Ethiopia: An ex ante economic assessment of TELA, a drought tolerant and insect resistant maize

Ethiopian economy has grown at an average rate that surpasses that of almost any other economy in the region over the last two decades. At the center of this development is the high priority placed on accelerating agricultural growth and achieving food security and poverty alleviation. Over the years, maize has become a main food security crop, widely produced and consumed by smallholder farmers, second only to teff in terms of area. Despite the sustained growth of maize production over the years, its yields continue to be lower than the world’s average. Of the many abiotic and biotic constraints that maize faces, insect attacks and droughts are two critical ones. The genetically modified TELA maize can help address these constraints. This paper estimates the economic benefits of adopting this new technology and the opportunity cost that Ethiopia will incur if its adoption is delayed. The analysis is conducted using an economic surplus partial equilibrium model run with the newly developed DREAMpy software, data drawn from the Ethiopia Socioeconomic Survey, Wave 3 2015-2016, econometric estimations using these survey data, and other local data and sources. The estimations show that if the drought tolerant and insect resistant TELA maize is planted in 2023 the net present-value of benefits for producers and consumers would be around $850 million. Producers from the mid-altitude maize zone will be the main beneficiaries, given the targeted area of TELA maize. Consumers from all areas will benefit from the projected reduction in price. If the adoption of this new technology is delayed by 5 years, the estimated net present value of benefits will fall by 30 percent. These costs underscore the importance of having a regulatory system that is efficient, predictable, and transparent and ensures that the projected economic benefits are realized.

Year published

2020

Authors

Yirga, Chilot; Nin-Pratt, Alejandro; Zambrano, Patricia; Wood-Sichra, Ulrike; Habte, Endeshaw; Kato, Edward; Komen, John; Falck-Zepeda, José B.; Chambers, Judith A.

Citation

Yirga, Chilot; Nin-Pratt, Alejandro; Zambrano, Patricia; Wood-Sichra, Ulrike; Habte, Endeshaw; Kato, Edward; Komen, John; Falck-Zepeda, José Benjamin; and Chambers, Judith A. 2020. GM maize in Ethiopia: An ex ante economic assessment of TELA, a drought tolerant and insect resistant maize. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1926. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.133714.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Models; Pest Resistance; Ex Ante Impact Assessment; Crops; Maize; Surpluses; Assessment; Drought Tolerance; Genetically Modified Organisms

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.133714 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Informing policy with agricultural R&D evidence: An ASTI pilot project in Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Tanzania

2019Carden, Fred; Beintema, Nienke M.; Admassie, Assefa; Katera, Lucas; Mboghoina, Thadeus; Onyekwena, Chukwuka

Details

Informing policy with agricultural R&D evidence: An ASTI pilot project in Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Tanzania

Despite Agricultural Science and Technology Indicators’ (ASTI) global and regional visibility-and the use of its data for institutional decision-making by various national agricultural research institutes-the incorporation of ASTI evidence into national policymaking remains mostly ad hoc and is often indirect. Moreover, interventions to influence the uptake of ASTI data for this purpose have been limited. Given agricultural research’s important role in increasing agricultural productivity, economic growth, and poverty reduction, ASTI initiated a pilot study in three African countries (Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Tanzania) to develop a clearer understanding of how to promote the uptake of agricultural research evidence. The study focused on how evidence in general, and ASTI evidence in particular, could be more effectively integrated at the national level, particularly to promote the allocation of sustainable resources to agricultural research. The study was conducted in two stages: (1) the mapping of each country’s agricultural research interests and issues; and (2) identifying initial activities through which those interests offered opportunities both to fill research gaps and enhance the utility of agricultural research. Findings from the pilot studies point to opportunities for improving the availability, accessibility, appropriateness, and ownership of ASTI evidence to ensure that it contributes more effectively as a valuable resource for decision-making. Strong relationships and networks are needed to increase awareness of ASTI evidence and to institute linkages with official national data systems. Outcomes indicated both interest in the evidence and recognition of its merit. Greater outreach and connectivity with local institutions may be useful next steps. These findings lead to some general recommendations for improving the use of evidence, along with specific recommendations for the ASTI network approach moving forward. Shifting ownership of the data and systems to the regional and national levels-a key objective of the network approach-is a long-term undertaking. A transition period is needed, accompanied by a strategic plan to shift responsibility and action, first to the regional level and then to the national level where feasible.

Year published

2019

Authors

Carden, Fred; Beintema, Nienke M.; Admassie, Assefa; Katera, Lucas; Mboghoina, Thadeus; Onyekwena, Chukwuka

Citation

Carden, Fred; Beintema, Nienke M.; Admassie, Assefa; Katera, Lucas; Mboghoina, Thadeus; and Onyekwena, Chukwuka. 2019. Informing policy with agricultural R&D evidence: An ASTI pilot project in Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Tanzania. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1860. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://hdl.handle.net/10568/147270

Country/Region

Nigeria; Ethiopia

Keywords

Tanzania; Eastern Africa; Africa; Western Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Agricultural Research; Technology; Agricultural Policies; Indicators; Capacity Development; Sciences; Agriculture; Governance

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.133373 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Accelerating technical change through video-mediated agricultural extension: Evidence from Ethiopia

2019Abate, Gashaw T.; Bernard, Tanguy; Makhija, Simrin; Spielman, David J.

Details

Accelerating technical change through video-mediated agricultural extension: Evidence from Ethiopia

Despite a rapidly growing enthusiasm around applications of information and communications technologies (ICTs) to smallholder agriculture in developing countries, there are still many questions on the effectiveness of ICT-based approaches. This study assesses the effects of videomediated agricultural extension service provision on farmers’ knowledge and adoption of improved agricultural technologies and practices in Ethiopia. The study focuses on a program piloted by the Government of Ethiopia and Digital Green and poses three questions. First, to what extent does video-mediated extension lead to increased uptake of improved agricultural technologies and practices by smallholder farmers? Second, is video-mediated extension targeted at both spouses of the household more effective than when only targeted at the (typically male) household head? Third, how cost-effective is a video-mediated approach to extension provision? The study explores these questions with a randomized controlled trial designed to evaluate the video-mediated approach as applied to three priority crops (teff, wheat, maize) and three technologies (row planting, precise seeding rates, and urea dressing). The trial was implemented in 347 kebeles (village clusters) during the 2017 meher (rainy) season in Ethiopia’s four most agriculturally important regional states. Analysis of data from our surveys of 2,422 households and 896 extension agents indicates that the video-mediated approach is more effective than the conventional approach in achieving several key outcomes. Specifically, we find that videomediated extension reaches a wider audience than the conventional approach and leads to higher levels of agricultural knowledge and uptake of technologies in those kebeles randomly assigned to the program. While our results do point to greater participation and greater knowledge of female spouses in kebeles where both male and female spouses were targeted by the program, we do not find clear evidence that the more inclusive approach translated into higher uptake of the subject technologies and practices. Finally, we find that the video-mediated approach becomes less costly as the scale of operation increases.

Year published

2019

Authors

Abate, Gashaw T.; Bernard, Tanguy; Makhija, Simrin; Spielman, David J.

Citation

Abate, Gashaw T.; Bernard, Tanguy; Makhija, Simrin; and Spielman, David J. 2019. Accelerating technical change through video-mediated agricultural extension: Evidence from Ethiopia. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1851. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://hdl.handle.net/10568/146854

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Crop Management; Knowledge Sharing; Agricultural Extension; Farmers; Capacity Development; Smallholders; Educational Resources; Information and Communication Technologies; Audiovisual Aids; Information Transfer

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.133323 Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Irrigation and women’s diet in Ethiopia: A longitudinal study

2019Baye, Kaleab; Choufani, Jowel; Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Bryan, Elizabeth; Ringler, Claudia; Griffiths, Jeffrey K.; Davies, Emma

Details

Irrigation and women’s diet in Ethiopia: A longitudinal study

Some agricultural practices, such as irrigation, have the potential to buffer seasonal dietary gaps and thus improve diets, particularly for subsistence farmers but also for rural and urban households that purchase irrigated produce from local markets. While the seasonality of households and children’s diets is well documented, little is known about the seasonality of women’s diets and the influence of irrigation. Using longitudinal data from Ethiopia, this study characterized women’s diet over time and evaluated the potential implications of seasonality and irrigation on women’s diet. Women’s dietary diversity was low (3-4 out of 10 food groups) and exhibited high seasonal variability (P<0.05). Diets were predominantly plant-based, with little consumption of nutrientdense foods, such as fruits and animal source foods. High seasonal variability in energy, protein, vitamin C, calcium, iron, and zinc intakes were observed (P<0.01). Irrigators were more likely to meet the minimum dietary diversity for women (MDDW), had higher energy and calcium intake, and lower prevalence of anemia, than women from non-irrigating households (P< 0.05). No cases of malaria were reported from the three rounds of screening. Our preliminary findings suggest that there is high seasonal variation in women’s diet, but this can be partly offset by irrigation practices.

Year published

2019

Authors

Baye, Kaleab; Choufani, Jowel; Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Bryan, Elizabeth; Ringler, Claudia; Griffiths, Jeffrey K.; Davies, Emma

Citation

Baye, Kaleab; Choufani, Jowel; Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Bryan, Elizabeth; Ringler, Claudia; Griffiths, Jeffrey K.; Davies, Emma. 2019. Irrigation and women’s diet in Ethiopia: A longitudinal study. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1864. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.133399.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Technology; Diet; Diversification; Seasonality; Women; Gender; Sustainable Intensification; Irrigation; Intensification; Dietary Diversity

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.133399 Source record

Project

Water, Land and Ecosystems

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Sustainable land management and its effects on water security and poverty: Evidence from a watershed intervention program in Ethiopia

2019Kato, Edward; Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Tiruneh, Solomon; Ringler, Claudia

Details

Sustainable land management and its effects on water security and poverty: Evidence from a watershed intervention program in Ethiopia

This paper investigates the impacts of sustainable land management (SLM) on water security and poverty based on an evaluation of a watershed level SLM program promoted in Amhara regional state of Ethiopia. A household survey was conducted in two WLRC watersheds with SLM programming as well as complementary support and two adjacent watersheds without such programming. Our findings show that the SLM program significantly increased plot-level adoption of SLM practices, particularly of soil bunds and stone terraces. We also find that SLM contributes to water security for both crop and livestock production. Households in SLM-supported learning watersheds have more access to groundwater for irrigation and have higher crop yields for maize, mango and millet; have experienced improving water availability for livestock production in the past five years; and have higher income from livestock products than households in control watersheds. The positive impacts of SLM and complementary interventions on livestock income is attributed to the improved water security conditions in the learning watersheds, access to better animal forage planted along the SLM constructed structures, and animal vaccination and artificial insemination services that were part of the broader set of interventions. These findings further show that although SLM impacts were limited, the potential to improve welfare of smallholders across several livelihoods is enhanced when SLM is combined with other multifaceted complimentary interventions.

Year published

2019

Authors

Kato, Edward; Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Tiruneh, Solomon; Ringler, Claudia

Citation

Kato, Edward; Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Tiruneh, Solomon; and Ringler, Claudia. 2019. Sustainable land management and its effects on water security and poverty: Evidence from a watershed intervention program in Ethiopia. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1811. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.133144.

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Eastern Africa; Sustainability; Land Management; Water Conservation; Water Management; Capacity Development; Watershed Management; Land Degradation; Poverty

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/p15738coll2.133144 Source record

Project

Water, Land and Ecosystems

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Food systems for healthier diets in Ethiopia: Toward a research agenda

2018

Gebru, Mestawet; Remans, Roseline; Brouwer, Inge D.; Baye, Kaleab; Melesse, Mequanint B.; Covic, Namukolo M.; Habtamu, Fekadu; Abay, Alem Hadera; Hailu, Tesfaye; Hirvonen, Kalle
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Kassaye, Tarik; Kennedy, Gina; Lachat, Carl; Lemma, Ferew; McDermott, John; Minten, Bart; Moges, Tibebu; Reta, Fidaku; Tadesse, Eneye; Taye, Tamene; Truebswasser, Ursula; Vandenberg, Marrit

Details

Food systems for healthier diets in Ethiopia: Toward a research agenda

While dietary energy supply has improved, diets in Ethiopia remain low in diversity and provide insufficient amounts of protein, vitamin A, and zinc. Poor dietary quality contributes to the multiple burden of malnutrition in the country, with 38% stunting among children under five years and 24% anemia and 8% overweight among adult women.
Recent Ethiopian government policies and programs call for sustainable food systems approaches aimed at achieving better nutrition for all. Such food systems approaches imply actions that include but also go beyond agriculture to consider the many processes and actors involved in food production, processing, storage, transportation, trade, transformation, retailing, and consumption.
In this paper, we identify research streams to support the operationalizing of such food systems approaches in Ethiopia. To this end, we engaged with stakeholders, reviewed the literature, and applied a food systems framework to research priorities in the Ethiopian context. We develop an initial food systems profile of Ethiopia and identify 25 priority research questions, categorized into three main areas.
A first area focuses on diagnosis and foresight research, for example, to further characterize dietary gaps and transitions in the context of the variety of Ethiopian settings, and to understand and anticipate which food system dynamics contribute positively or negatively to those trends. A second area includes implementation research and focuses on building a base of evidence on the dietary impact of combined demand-, market-, and supply-side interventions/innovations that focus on nonstaples; potential trade-offs in terms of economic, social, and environmental outcomes; and interactions between food system actors.
A third area focuses on institutional and policy processes and explores enabling factors and private or public anchors that can take food systems approaches for healthier diets to a regional or national scale. The paper contextualizes the case of Ethiopia within global food systems thinking and thereby aims to stimulate in- and cross-country learning.

Year published

2018

Authors

Gebru, Mestawet; Remans, Roseline; Brouwer, Inge D.; Baye, Kaleab; Melesse, Mequanint B.; Covic, Namukolo M.; Habtamu, Fekadu; Abay, Alem Hadera; Hailu, Tesfaye; Hirvonen, Kalle; Kassaye, Tarik; Kennedy, Gina; Lachat, Carl; Lemma, Ferew; McDermott, John; Minten, Bart; Moges, Tibebu; Reta, Fidaku; Tadesse, Eneye; Taye, Tamene; Truebswasser, Ursula; Vandenberg, Marrit

Citation

Gebru, M.; Remans, R.; Brouwer, I.; Baye, K.; Melesse, M.B.; Covic, N.; Habtamu, F.; Abay, A.H.; Hailu, T.; Hirvonen, K.; Kassaye, T.; Kennedy, G.; Lachat, C.; Lemma, F.; McDermott, J.; Minten, B.; Moges, T.; Reta, F.; Tadesse, E.; Taye, T.; Truebswasser, U.; Vandenberg, M. 2018. Food systems for healthier diets in Ethiopia: Toward a research agenda. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1720. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://hdl.handle.net/10568/98257

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Nutrition; Diet; Policies; Sustainability; Agricultural Research; Agroindustrial Sector; Food Systems; Dietary Diversity

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/1032568455 Source record

Project

Agriculture for Nutrition and Health

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Correlated non-classical measurement errors, ‘second best’ policy inference and the inverse size-productivity relationship in agriculture

2018Abay, Kibrom A.; Abate, Gashaw T.; Barrett, Christopher B.; Bernard, Tanguy

Details

Correlated non-classical measurement errors, ‘second best’ policy inference and the inverse size-productivity relationship in agriculture

We show analytically and empirically that non-classical measurement errors in the two key variables in a hypothesized relationship can bias the estimated relationship between them in any direction. Furthermore, if these measurement errors are correlated, correcting for either one alone can aggravate bias in the parameter estimate of interest relative to ignoring mismeasurement in both variables, a ‘second best’ result with implications for a broad class of economic phenomena of policy interest. We illustrate these results empirically by demonstrating the implications of mismeasured agricultural output and plot size for the long-debated (inverse) relationship between size and productivity.

Year published

2018

Authors

Abay, Kibrom A.; Abate, Gashaw T.; Barrett, Christopher B.; Bernard, Tanguy

Citation

Abay, Kibrom A.; Abate, Gashaw T.; Barrett, Christopher B.; and Bernard, Tanguy. 2018. Correlated non-classical measurement errors, ‘second best’ policy inference and the inverse size-productivity relationship in agriculture. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1710. Washington, D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://hdl.handle.net/10568/146659

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Eastern Africa; Household Surveys; Accuracy; Measurement; Field Size; Smallholders; Productivity; Agricultural Development; Wheat; Errors

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.2499/1024320684 Source record

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Farmers’ quality assessment of their crops and its impact on commercialization behavior: A field experiment in Ethiopia

2017Abate, Gashaw T.; Bernard, Tanguy

Details

Farmers’ quality assessment of their crops and its impact on commercialization behavior: A field experiment in Ethiopia

Adoption of quality-enhancing technologies is often driven largely by farmers’ expected returns from these technologies. Without proper grades, standards, and certification systems, however, farmers may remain uncertain about the actual financial return associated with their quality-enhancing investments. This report summarizes the outcomes of a short video-based randomized training intervention on wheat quality measurement and collective marketing among 15,000 wheat farmers in Ethiopia. Our results suggest that the intervention led to significant changes in farmers’ commercialization behaviors—namely, it prompted farmers to adopt behaviors geared toward assessing their wheat’s quality using easily implementable test-weight measures, assessing the accuracy of the equipment used by buyers in their kebeles (scales, in particular), and contacting more than one buyer before concluding a sale. The training also led to improvements in share of output sold, price received, and collective marketing, albeit with important limitations. First, farmers who measured their wheat quality received a higher price, but only if their wheat was of higher quality. Second, farmers who found that their wheat was of higher quality were more reluctant to aggregate their wheat (that is, sell their products through local cooperatives) than those who found that their wheat was of lower quality. Lastly, the training intervention led to better use of fertilizer in the following season. Our discovery that a short training intervention can significantly change farmers’ marketing and production behavior should encourage the development of further interventions aimed at enhancing farmers’ adoption of improved technologies and commercialization.

Year published

2017

Authors

Abate, Gashaw T.; Bernard, Tanguy

Citation

Abate, Gashaw T. and Bernard, Tanguy. 2017. Farmers’ quality assessment of their crops and its impact on commercialization behavior: A field experiment in Ethiopia. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1624. Washington, D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://hdl.handle.net/10568/147618

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Impact; Technology; Quality; Randomized Controlled Trial; Quality Assurance; Wheat; Commercialization

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Addressing transboundary cooperation in the Eastern Nile through the Water-Energy-Food Nexus: Insights from an E-survey and key informant interviews

2017Berga, Helen; Ringler, Claudia; Bryan, Elizabeth; ElDidi, Hagar; Elnasikh, Sara

Details

Addressing transboundary cooperation in the Eastern Nile through the Water-Energy-Food Nexus: Insights from an E-survey and key informant interviews

The Nile is the lifeblood of northeastern Africa, and its roles for and interdependency with the national economies it traverses and binds together grow as it moves from source to sea. With rapid economic development—population growth, irrigation development, rural electrification, and overall economic growth—pressures on the Nile’s water resources are growing to unprecedented levels. These drivers of change have already contributed to stark changes in the hydropolitical regime, and new forms of cooperation and cross-sectoral collaboration are needed, particularly in the Eastern Nile Basin countries of Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan, and South Sudan. As direct sharing of water resources is hampered by unilateral developments, the need has increased for broader, cross-sectoral collaboration around the water, energy, and food sectors. This study is conducted to assess and understand the challenges of and opportunities for cooperation across the water-energy-food nexus nationally in Egypt, Ethiopia, and Sudan, as well as regionally across the Eastern Nile. To gather data, the paper uses an e-survey supplemented with key informant interviews geared toward national-level water, energy, and agriculture stakeholders, chiefly government staff and researchers. Findings from the survey tools suggest that most respondents strongly agree that collaboration across the water, energy, and agriculture sectors is essential to improve resource management in the region. At the same time, there is ample scope for improvement in collaboration across the water, energy, and food sectors nationally. Ministries of water, energy, and food were identified as the key nexus actors at national levels; these would also need to be engaged in regional cross-sectoral collaboration. Respondents also identified a wide range of desirable cross-sectoral actions and investments—both national and regional—chiefly, joint planning and operation of multipurpose infrastructure; investment in enhanced irrigation efficiency; joint rehabilitation of upstream catchments to reduce sedimentation and degradation; and investment in alternative renewable energy projects, such as wind and solar energy.

Year published

2017

Authors

Berga, Helen; Ringler, Claudia; Bryan, Elizabeth; ElDidi, Hagar; Elnasikh, Sara

Citation

Berga, Helen; Ringler, Claudia; Bryan, Elizabeth; ElDidi, Hagar; Elnasikh, Sara. 2017. Addressing transboundary cooperation in the Eastern Nile through the Water-Energy-Food Nexus: Insights from an E-survey and key informant interviews. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1655. Washington, D.C. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/146245

Country/Region

Egypt; Sudan; Ethiopia

Keywords

Northern Africa; Eastern Africa; Africa; Middle East; Sub-saharan Africa; Foods; Nile River; Surveys; Stakeholders; Water; Resilience; Energy; Cooperation

Language

English

Source

Source record

Project

Water, Land and Ecosystems

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

The impact of Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme on the nutritional status of children: 2008–2012

2017Berhane, Guush; Hoddinott, John F.; Kumar, Neha

Details

The impact of Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme on the nutritional status of children: 2008–2012

Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP) is a large-scale social protection intervention aimed at improving food security and stabilizing asset levels. The PSNP contains a mix of public works employment and unconditional transfers. It is a well-targeted program; however, several years passed before payment levels reached the intended amounts. The PSNP has been successful in improving household food security. However, children’s nutritional status in the localities where the PSNP operates is poor, with 48 percent of children stunted in 2012. This leads to the question of whether the PSNP could improve child nutrition. In this paper, we examine the impact of the PSNP on children’s nutritional status over the period 2008–2012. Doing so requires paying particular attention to the targeting of the PSNP and how payment levels have evolved over time. Using inverse-probability-weighted regression-adjustment estimators, we find no evidence that the PSNP reduces either chronic undernutrition (height-for-age z-scores, stunting) or acute undernutrition (weight-for-height z-scores, wasting). While we cannot definitively identify the reason for this nonresult, we note that child diet quality is poor. We find no evidence that the PSNP improves child consumption of pulses, oils, fruits, vegetables, dairy products, or animal-source proteins. Most mothers have not had contact with health extension workers nor have they received information on good feeding practices. Water practices, as captured by the likelihood that mothers boil drinking water, are poor. These findings, along with work by other researchers, have informed revisions to the PSNP. Future research will assess whether these revisions have led to improvements in the diets and anthropometric status of preschool children in Ethiopia.

Year published

2017

Authors

Berhane, Guush; Hoddinott, John F.; Kumar, Neha

Citation

Berhane, Guush; Hoddinott, John F.; and Kumar, Neha. 2017. The impact of Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme on the nutritional status of children: 2008–2012. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1604. Washington, D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148447

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Nutritional Status; Child Development; Health; Households; Social Protection; Stunting; Socioeconomic Development; Schoolchildren; Nutrition; Human Nutrition; Child Feeding; Mothers; Children; Food Security; Diet

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

Agriculture for Nutrition and Health

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

The effect of land inheritance on youth employment and migration decisions: Evidence from rural Ethiopia

2016Kosec, Katrina; Ghebru, Hosaena; Holtemeyer, Brian; Mueller, Valerie; Schmidt, Emily

Details

The effect of land inheritance on youth employment and migration decisions: Evidence from rural Ethiopia

How does the amount of land youth expect to inherit affect their migration and employment decisions? This paper explores this question in the context of rural Ethiopia using panel data from 2010 and 2014. We estimate a household fixed-effects model and exploit exogenous variation in the timing of land redistributions to overcome endogenous household decisions about how much land to bequeath to descendants. We find that larger expected land inheritances significantly lower the likelihood of long-distance permanent migration and of permanent migration to urban areas during this time. Inheriting more land is also associated with a significantly higher likelihood of employment in agriculture and a lower likelihood of employment in the nonagricultural sector. Conversely, the decision to attend school is unaffected. These results appear to be most heavily driven by males and by the older half of our youth sample. We also find several mediating factors matter. Land inheritance plays a much more pronounced role in predicting rural-to-urban permanent migration and nonagricultural-sector employment in areas with less vibrant land markets and in relatively remote areas (those far from major urban centers). Overall, the results suggest that inheritance strongly influences the spatial location and strategic employment decisions of youth.

Year published

2016

Authors

Kosec, Katrina; Ghebru, Hosaena; Holtemeyer, Brian; Mueller, Valerie; Schmidt, Emily

Citation

Kosec, Katrina; Ghebru, Hosaena; Holtemeyer, Brian; Mueller, Valerie; and Schmidt, Emily. 2016. The effect of land inheritance on youth employment and migration decisions: Evidence from rural Ethiopia. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1594. Washington, D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://hdl.handle.net/10568/148411

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Land Inheritance Rights; Employment; Youth; Agriculture; Migration

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

The impact of the use of new technologies on farmers’ wheat yield in Ethiopia: Evidence from a randomized controlled trial

2015Abate, Gashaw T.; de Brauw, Alan; Minot, Nicholas; Bernard, Tanguy

Details

The impact of the use of new technologies on farmers’ wheat yield in Ethiopia: Evidence from a randomized controlled trial

This study examines the impact of the Wheat Initiative technology package promoted by the research and extension systems in Ethiopia on wheat growers in the highlands of the country. The package includes improved wheat seed, a lower seeding density, row planting, fertilizer recommendations, and marketing assistance. The sample of 482 wheat growers was randomly assigned to one of three groups: the full-package intervention group, a marketing-assistance-only group, and a control group. The results suggest that the full-package farmers had 12–13 percent higher yields after controlling for the type of farmer and household characteristics. Implementation of the Wheat Initiative was successful in terms of the distribution of improved seed and fertilizer, though only 61 percent of the intervention group adopted row planting and few farmers received marketing assistance. The measured yield difference may underestimate the true yield difference associated with the technology because of incomplete adoption of the recommended practices by intervention farmers and adoption of some practices by control farmers.

Year published

2015

Authors

Abate, Gashaw T.; de Brauw, Alan; Minot, Nicholas; Bernard, Tanguy

Citation

Abate, Gashaw T.; de Brauw, Alan; Minot, Nicholas; and Bernard, Tanguy. 2015. The impact of the use of new technologies on farmers’ wheat yield in Ethiopia: Evidence from a randomized controlled trial. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1462. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/150380

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Hybrids; Randomized Controlled Trial; Varieties; Yields; Wheat

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Institutions and market integration: The case of coffee in the Ethiopian commodity exchange

2015Hernandez, Manuel A.; Rashid, Shahidur; Lemma, Solomon; Kuma, Tadesse

Details

Institutions and market integration: The case of coffee in the Ethiopian commodity exchange

While the Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) is widely credited to be a successful on several accounts, there has been little rigorous empirical investigation. This paper attempts to fill that gap by analyzing how ECX has influenced the international-domestic price relationships of coffee—the largest traded commodity on its floor. We examine three aspects of price dynamics—market interdependence, volatility transmission, and structural breaks—using a spatially disaggregated prices of five coffee varieties. The results indicate that contrary to popular media stories, ECX’s success in improving coffee price relationships has been limited. The results appear to be robust under all three sets of analysis.

Year published

2015

Authors

Hernandez, Manuel A.; Rashid, Shahidur; Lemma, Solomon; Kuma, Tadesse

Citation

Hernandez, Manuel A.; Rashid, Shahidur; Lemma, Solomon and Kuma, Tadesse. 2015. Institutions and market integration: The case of coffee in the Ethiopian commodity exchange. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1464. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/149640

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Market Economies; Markets; Coffee; Price Volatility; Prices; Commodity Markets; Governance

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Time allocation to energy resource collection in rural Ethiopia: Gender-disaggregated household responses to changes in firewood availability

2015Scheurlen, Elena

Details

Time allocation to energy resource collection in rural Ethiopia: Gender-disaggregated household responses to changes in firewood availability

This paper presents evidence on rural Ethiopian households’ time allocation to different activities, especially fuel collection work, and examines the effect of changes in the availability of firewood resources on households’ time allocation to fuel collection and on- and off-farm income generation. Based on firsthand insights from focus group discussions conducted with farmers in three rural villages of Ethiopia and data from an IFPRI-CIMMYT (International Food Policy Research Institute/International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center) household survey implemented by the Association of Ethiopian Microfinance Institutions, the results show that women are involved in more time-consuming and simultaneous work activities than men and hold the primary responsibility for fuel collection

Year published

2015

Authors

Scheurlen, Elena

Citation

Scheurlen, Elena. 2015. Time allocation to energy resource collection in rural Ethiopia: Gender-disaggregated household responses to changes in firewood availability. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1419. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/150467

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Gender; Agricultural Production; Households; Productivity; Fuelwood; Poverty; Rural Areas; Household Consumption; Women; Energy

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Water, Land and Ecosystems

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Climate, change adaptation assets and group-based approaches: Gendered perceptions from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Mali, and Kenya

2015

Aberman, Noora-Lisa; Ali, Snigdha; Behrman, Julia A.; Bryan, Elizabeth; Davis, Peter; Donnelly, Aiveen; Gathaara, Violet; Koné, Daouda; Nganga, Teresiah; Ngugi, Jane
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Okoba, Barrack; Roncoli, Carla

Details

Climate, change adaptation assets and group-based approaches: Gendered perceptions from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Mali, and Kenya

Using a participatory rural appraisal approach, a series of qualitative studies were conducted in four countries facing negative impacts of climate change—Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Kenya and Mali—in order to determine men’s and women’s perceptions of climate change, adaptive approaches, and the degree to which assets and group participation play a role in adaptation strategies. Similarities were found across countries in terms of perceptions of climate change, impacts, and strategies for adaptation. Farmers and pastoralists, groups heavily dependent on natural resources, are starkly aware of and impacted by subtle climatic changes, and those with a stronger asset base were better able to adapt to changes and shocks.

Year published

2015

Authors

Aberman, Noora-Lisa; Ali, Snigdha; Behrman, Julia A.; Bryan, Elizabeth; Davis, Peter; Donnelly, Aiveen; Gathaara, Violet; Koné, Daouda; Nganga, Teresiah; Ngugi, Jane; Okoba, Barrack; Roncoli, Carla

Citation

Aberman, Noora-Lisa; Ali, Snigdha; Behrman, Julia A.; Bryan, Elizabeth; Davis, Peter; Donnelly, Aliveen; Gathaara, Violet; Koné, Daouda; Nganga, Teresiah; Ngugi, Jane; Okoba, Barrack and Roncoli, Carla. 2015. Climate, change adaptation assets and group-based approaches: Gendered perceptions from Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Mali, and Kenya. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1412. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/151222

Country/Region

Kenya; Bangladesh; Mali; Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Southern Asia; Africa; Western Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Asia; Gender; Shock; Group Approaches; Smallholders; Assets; Climate Change Adaptation; Risk; Rural Areas; Women; Climate Change

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Understanding the policy landscape for climate change adaptation: A cross-country comparison using the Net-map method

2015Aberman, Noora-Lisa; Birner, Regina; Haglund, Eric; Ngigi, Marther; Ali, Snigdha; Okoba, Barrack; Koné, Daouda; Alemu, Tekie

Details

Understanding the policy landscape for climate change adaptation: A cross-country comparison using the Net-map method

In the context of increasing vulnerability to climate change for people dependent on natural resources for their livelihoods, the International Food Policy Research Institute and partner organizations in Ethiopia, Kenya, Mali, and Bangladesh undertook a project broadly aiming to create knowledge that will help policymakers and development agencies to strengthen the capacity of male and female smallholder farmers and livestock keepers to manage climate-related risks. This study—one component of the project—examines the networks and power dynamics of stakeholders in the four target countries so as to (1) identify potential partners in the research process, (2) find out which organizations could make use of the research findings in their activities, and (3) inform the communication and outreach strategy of the research project. This paper describes the network structures for climate change policy, the actors in the networks with high centrality and influence scores, and the implications of these results for outreach and dissemination.

Year published

2015

Authors

Aberman, Noora-Lisa; Birner, Regina; Haglund, Eric; Ngigi, Marther; Ali, Snigdha; Okoba, Barrack; Koné, Daouda; Alemu, Tekie

Citation

Aberman, Noora-Lisa; Birner, Regina; Haglund, Eric; Ngigi, Marther; Ali, Snigdha; Okoba, Barrack; Koné, Daouda and Alemu, Takei 2014. Understanding the policy landscape for climate change adaptation: A cross-country comparison using the Net-map method. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1408. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/150518

Country/Region

Kenya; Bangladesh; Mali; Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Southern Asia; Africa; Western Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Asia; Gender; Social Networks; Methods; Policies; Stakeholders; Agricultural Research; Agricultural Policies; Smallholders; Policy Impact; Climate Change Adaptation; Livestock; Social Network Analysis; Climate Change; Women

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

The economywide effects of teff, wheat, and maize production increases in Ethiopia: Results of economywide modeling

2014Benson, Todd; Engida, Ermias; Thurlow, James

Details

The economywide effects of teff, wheat, and maize production increases in Ethiopia: Results of economywide modeling

The government of Ethiopia is investing significant public resources to increase overall national production of teff, wheat, and maize. To better understand the likely economywide effects of increases of between 12 and 14 percent in the national production of these cereals, a set of production increase scenarios for each crop were run using a computable general equilibrium model of the Ethiopian economy. The analyses were extended to also consider the effects of several international wheat price and wheat import scenarios, a wheat subsidy program, and maize exports. Among the effects considered are changes in economic growth, prices, total household consumption, cereal and calorie consumption levels, and poverty measures.

Year published

2014

Authors

Benson, Todd; Engida, Ermias; Thurlow, James

Citation

Benson, Todd; Engida, Ermias and Thurlow, James. 2014. The economywide effects of teff, wheat, and maize production increases in Ethiopia: Results of economywide modeling. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1366. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). . https://hdl.handle.net/10568/150325

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Economic Growth; Teff; Cereals; Agricultural Growth; Maize; Econometric Models; Wheat

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Direct seed marketing program in Ethiopia in 2013: An operational evaluation to guide seed-sector reform

2014Benson, Todd; Spielman, David J.; Kasa, Leulsegged

Details

Direct seed marketing program in Ethiopia in 2013: An operational evaluation to guide seed-sector reform

In 2013 the Bureaus of Agriculture in the regional states of Amhara, Oromia, and Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples of Ethiopia supported a program of direct marketing of certified seed by seed producers to farmers across 31 woredas (districts). This program stands in contrast to the dominant procedure for supplying such seed in which farmers register with local agricultural offices or extension agents to purchase seed for the coming cropping season and then receive seed either directly from these local offices or through local cooperatives. The evaluation shows that competition between entrepreneurial seed producers to capture a substantial portion of the market of farmer-customers for their seed to enable their firms to remain in business will propel wider and more effective distribution of new and improved hybrid maize to more and more farmers.

Year published

2014

Authors

Benson, Todd; Spielman, David J.; Kasa, Leulsegged

Citation

Benson, Todd; Spielman, David J. and Kasa, Leulsegged. 2014. Direct seed marketing program in Ethiopia in 2013: An operational evaluation to guide seed-sector reform. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1350. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) . . https://hdl.handle.net/10568/151335

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Seeds; Hybrids; Hybridization; Maize; Evaluation; Smallholders; Markets; Private Sector; Seed Sector

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Land rights knowledge and conservation in rural Ethiopia: Mind the gender gap

2014Quisumbing, Agnes R.; Kumar, Neha

Details

Land rights knowledge and conservation in rural Ethiopia: Mind the gender gap

Using the 2009 round of the Ethiopian Rural Household Survey, this paper examines the medium-term impact of the land registration on investment behavior by households, particularly the adoption of soil conservation techniques and tree planting. It investigates whether men’s and women’s knowledge of their property rights under the land registration (as measured by answers to a list of questions regarding the provisions of the registration, covering such areas as tenure security, land transfer rights, and rights related to gender equity and inheritance) has an impact on these investments.

Year published

2014

Authors

Quisumbing, Agnes R.; Kumar, Neha

Citation

Quisumbing, Agnes R.; Kumar, Neha. 2014. Land rights knowledge and conservation in rural Ethiopia: Mind the gender gap. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1386. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). . https://hdl.handle.net/10568/149731

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Gender; Households; Conservation Agriculture; Land Ownership; Soil Conservation; Assets; Land Rights; Land Degradation; Women

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Efficiency and productivity differential effects of land certification program in Ethiopia: Quasi-experimental evidence from Tigray

2013Ghebru, Hosaena H.; Holden, Stein

Details

Efficiency and productivity differential effects of land certification program in Ethiopia: Quasi-experimental evidence from Tigray

Taking advantage of a unique quasi-experimental survey design, this study analyzes the productivity impacts of the Ethiopian land certification program by identifying how the investment effects (technological gains) would measure up against the benefits from any improvements in input use intensity (technical efficiency). For this purpose, we adopted a data envelopment analysis–based Malmquist-type productivity index to decompose productivity differences into (1) within-group farm efficiency differences, reflecting the technical efficiency effect, and (2) differences in the group production frontier, reflecting the long-term investment (technological) effects.

Year published

2013

Authors

Ghebru, Hosaena H.; Holden, Stein

Citation

Ghebru, Hosaena and Holden, Stein. 2013. Efficiency and productivity differential effects of land certification program in Ethiopia: Quasi-experimental evidence from Tigray. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1295. Washington, D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://hdl.handle.net/10568/153622

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Land Tenure; Productivity; Land Productivity; Land Registration; Data Envelopment Analysis

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Organizational and institutional issues in climate change adaptation and risk management: Insights from practitioners’ survey in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Mali

2013Ragasa, Catherine; Sun, Yan; Bryan, Elizabeth; Abate, Caroline; Atlaw, Alumu; Keita, Mahamadou Namori

Details

Organizational and institutional issues in climate change adaptation and risk management: Insights from practitioners’ survey in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Mali

This report provides some reflections and insights on the level of awareness, practices, and organizational and institutional issues being faced by countries as they adapt to climate change, based on interviews with 87 practitioners working in government agencies, local organizations, international organizations, and think thanks reporting involvement in climate change adaptation. Data were collected in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Mali using both an e-survey platform and face-to-face interviews.

Year published

2013

Authors

Ragasa, Catherine; Sun, Yan; Bryan, Elizabeth; Abate, Caroline; Atlaw, Alumu; Keita, Mahamadou Namori

Citation

Ragasa, Catherine; Sun, Yan; Bryan, Elizabeth; Abate, Caroline; Atlaw, Alumu and Keita, Mahamadou Namori. 2013. Organizational and institutional issues in climate change adaptation and risk management: Insights from practitioners’ survey in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Kenya, and Mali. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1279. Washington, D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) . . https://hdl.handle.net/10568/153555

Country/Region

Bangladesh; Ethiopia; Kenya; Mali

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Western Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Southern Asia; Africa; Asia; Climate Change; Analysis; Gender; Women; Risk; Resilience

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Reverse-share-tenancy and Marshallian Inefficiency: Landowners’ bargaining power and sharecroppers’ productivity

2013Ghebru, Hosaena H.; Holden, Stein

Details

Reverse-share-tenancy and Marshallian Inefficiency: Landowners’ bargaining power and sharecroppers’ productivity

While there are ample empirical studies that claim the potential disincentive effects of sharecropping arrangements, the existing literature is shallow in explaining why share tenancy contracts are prevalent and diffusing in many developing countries. Using a unique tenant-landlord matched dataset from the Tigray region of Ethiopia, we are able to show how the tenants’ strategic response to the varying economic and tenure-security status of the landlords can explain sharecroppers’ productivity differentials.

Year published

2013

Authors

Ghebru, Hosaena H.; Holden, Stein

Citation

Hagos, Hosaena Gebru and Holden, Stein T. 2013. Reverse-share-tenancy and Marshallian Inefficiency: Landowners’ bargaining power and sharecroppers’ productivity. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1270. Washington, D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute. . https://hdl.handle.net/10568/153518

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Tenure; Tenants; Sharecropping; Land Tenure; Land Ownership; Agricultural Productivity; Smallholders; Families

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Fertilizer in Ethiopia: An assessment of policies, value chain, and profitability

2013Rashid, Shahidur; Tefera, Nigussie; Minot, Nicholas; Ayele, Gezahegn

Details

Fertilizer in Ethiopia: An assessment of policies, value chain, and profitability

The study involved interviewing a large number of stakeholders in fertilizer value chain, collection of data on costs and margins from the key actors in the value chain, as well as household survey data. In this paper, we present the key findings from that study. In particular, the paper presents estimates of detail costs and margins in the value chain, econometrically derived profitability and yield responses, and the costs of government’s fertilizer promotion policies. Based the estimates of the costs and margins in the fertilizer value chain, the study argues that the current value chain will not be sustainable unless the scale of operation, as well institutional capacity, of the primary cooperatives goes up.

Year published

2013

Authors

Rashid, Shahidur; Tefera, Nigussie; Minot, Nicholas; Ayele, Gezahegn

Citation

Rashid, Shahidur; Tefera, Nigussie; Minot, Nicholas and Ayele, Gezahegn. 2013. Fertilizer in Ethiopia: An assessment of policies, value chain, and profitability. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1304. Washington, D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). . https://hdl.handle.net/10568/153700

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Fertilizers; Yields; Yield Response Factors; Subsidies; Markets; Agricultural Policies; Value Chains

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Land constraints and agricultural intensification in Ethiopia: A village-level analysis of high-potential areas

2013Headey, Derek D.; Dereje, Mekdim; Ricker-Gilbert, Jacob; Josephson, Anna; Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum

Details

Land constraints and agricultural intensification in Ethiopia: A village-level analysis of high-potential areas

Highland Ethiopia is one of the most densely populated regions of Africa and has long been associated with both Malthusian disasters and Boserupian agricultural intensification. This paper explores the race between these two countervailing forces, with the goal of informing two important policy questions. First, how do rural Ethiopians adapt to land constraints? And second, do land constraints significantly influence welfare outcomes in rural Ethiopia?

Year published

2013

Authors

Headey, Derek D.; Dereje, Mekdim; Ricker-Gilbert, Jacob; Josephson, Anna; Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum

Citation

Headey, Derek D.; Dereje, Mekdim; Ricker-Gilbert, Jacob; Josephson, Anna and Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum. 2013. Land constraints and agricultural intensification in Ethiopia: A village-level analysis of high-potential areas. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1290. Washington, D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) . . https://hdl.handle.net/10568/153600

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Smallholders; Population Density; Farm Size; Intensification; Agricultural Productivity; Land Use; Land Allocation; Land Management

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Links between tenure security and food security: Evidence from Ethiopia

2013Ghebru, Hosaena H.; Holden, Stein

Details

Links between tenure security and food security: Evidence from Ethiopia

This study, thus, uses five rounds of household panel data from Tigray, Ethiopia, collected in the period 1998–2010 to assess the impacts of a land registration and certification program that aimed to strengthen tenure security and how it has contributed to increased food availability and thus food security in this food-deficit region.

Year published

2013

Authors

Ghebru, Hosaena H.; Holden, Stein

Citation

Ghebru, Hosaena and Holden, Stein. 2013. Links between tenure security and food security: Evidence from Ethiopia. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1288. Washington, D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) . . https://hdl.handle.net/10568/153598

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Land Tenure; Food Security; Reforms; Certification; Basic Needs; Gender; Women; Household Surveys; Land Registration

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Policies, Institutions, and Markets

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

The formation of job referral networks: Experimental evidence from urban Ethiopia

2013Caria, Antonia Stefano; Hassen, Ibrahim Worku

Details

The formation of job referral networks: Experimental evidence from urban Ethiopia

In this study we focus on exclusion from job contact networks, which constitutes a major disadvantage for labor market participants in settings where referral hiring is common and information about jobs hard to obtain. In a mid-size town in northern Ethiopia, where these mechanisms are at work, we observe that many individuals do not access local job contact networks. Models of strategic network formation and behavioral decision theory suggest that given the right incentives, job contact networks should be more inclusive. On these grounds we hypothesize that workers would link to peripheral peers when this maximizes their chances of referral and when self-regarding concerns are absent due to social preferences.

Year published

2013

Authors

Caria, Antonia Stefano; Hassen, Ibrahim Worku

Citation

Caria, Antonia Stefano and Hassen, Ibrahim Worku. 2013. The formation of job referral networks: Experimental evidence from urban Ethiopia. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1282. Washington, D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) . . https://hdl.handle.net/10568/153565

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Social Networks; Labour Market; Field Experimentation

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Measuring aspirations: discussion and example from Ethiopia

2012Bernard, Tanguy; Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum

Details

Measuring aspirations: discussion and example from Ethiopia

Individuals’ aspirations and their consequences for future-oriented behavior have received increased attention in development economics literature in recent years. At this stage, however, each study relies on ad hoc empirical instruments to measure aspirations, thereby limiting comparability of the results obtained. This paper proposes a simple measurement instrument that spans several dimensions aggregated via individual-specific weights. We use a purposefully collected data set to test for the usability, reliability, and validity of the instrument. In addition to standard test-retest procedures, our innovation lies in the use of several randomized tests introduced within the questionnaires themselves, in the enumerators’ qualifications, and in the information set available to respondents. Overall results show strong support for the proposed instrument, with the caveat that collection of such attitudinal data requires experienced enumerators capable of adequately probing respondents.

Year published

2012

Authors

Bernard, Tanguy; Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum

Citation

Bernard, Tanguy; Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum. 2012. Measuring aspirations: discussion and example from Ethiopia. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1190. Washington, D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). . https://hdl.handle.net/10568/153895

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Eastern Africa; Poverty; Surveys; Methodology; Sampling; Microeconomic Analysis; Microeconomics

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

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Working Paper

Nonlinear dynamics of livestock assets: Evidence from Ethiopia

2012Van Campenhout, Bjorn; Dercon, Stefan

Details

Nonlinear dynamics of livestock assets: Evidence from Ethiopia

Recent research on the intertemporal dynamics of poverty using microeconomic data often hints at the existence of poverty traps, where some find themselves trapped at a low-level stable equilibrium while others enjoy a higher stable equilibrium. Without a sizable positive shock to well-being, those trapped at the low equilibrium will not automatically outgrow destitution, but merely fluctuate around that low-level equilibrium. Given the dramatic policy consequences implied by such a theory, knowledge about the location of the different equilibria would be extremely helpful. In this paper, we explore the possibilities of threshold-type models to identify those crucial parameters. We illustrate the method by searching for traps in the dynamics of livestock asset holdings in rural Ethiopia. We find evidence of distribution-dependent dynamics and multiple equilibria for tropical livestock units.

Year published

2012

Authors

Van Campenhout, Bjorn; Dercon, Stefan

Citation

Van Campenhout, Bjorn; Dercon, Stefan. 2012. Nonlinear dynamics of livestock assets: Evidence from Ethiopia. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1215. Washington, D.C.: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). . https://hdl.handle.net/10568/154020

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Microeconomics; Data; Livestock; Assets; Poverty; Supply Balance; Rural Areas

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

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