Alemayehu Seyoum Taffesse

The Impact of Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Programme and its Linkages

This paper assesses the impact of Ethiopias Productive Safety Nets Programme (PSNP), the largest social protection program in sub-Saharan Africa outside of South Africa. Using Propensity Score Matching techniques, we find that the programme has little impact on participants on average, due in part to transfer levels that fell far below program targets. Beneficiary households that received at least half of the intended transfers experienced a significant improvement in food security by some measures. However, participants with access to both the PSNP and packages of agricultural support are more likely to be food secure, to borrow for productive purposes, use improved agricultural technologies, and operate non-farm own business activities. For these households, there is no evidence of disincentive effects in terms of labour supply or private transfers. However, beneficiaries did not experience faster asset growth.

Gender Differences in Access to Extension Services and Agricultural Productivity

Abstract Purpose: This article contributes new empirical evidence and nuanced analysis on the gender difference in access to extension services and how this translates to observed differences in technology adoption and agricultural productivity. Approach: It looks at the case of Ethiopia, where substantial investments in the extension system have been made, but the coverage and effect of these investments on female and male producers are not well-understood. This article employs a cross-sectional instrumental-variable regression method using a regionally representative data set of more than 7500 households in four major regions in Ethiopia during the 2010 main season. Findings: Female heads of households and plot-managers are less likely to get extension services through various channels and less likely to access quality services than their male counterparts after controlling for other factors. Receiving advice from extension agents is positively related to adoption of improved seed and fertiliser for both female and male, as hypothesised. However, beyond their influence through fertiliser and improved seed use, visits by or advice from agents are not significant or negatively significant in all productivity models estimated for females and males, which is in contrast to past studies. In some crop-productivity models estimated, it is the perceived quality of agents’ visits and access to radio that appear to be positively significant factors in explaining productivity levels for both females and males. Practical implications: Results highlight the need for stratified productivity models by gender and crop in future research. In terms of policy implication, results highlight the need to focus on quality of service and alternative channels of information, such as radio, to improve productivity. Originality/value: This article utilises a large-sample data set; uses the instrumental-variable regression method to address selection bias and endogeneity issues in productivity models; and stratifies the analyses to account for differentiated production functions by gender and crop.

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 inform 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? To answer these questions we use a recent household survey of high-potential areas. We first show that farm sizes are generally very small in the Ethiopian highlands and declining over time, with young rural households facing particularly severe land constraints. We then ask whether smaller and declining farm sizes are inducing agricultural intensification, and if so, how. We find strong evidence in favor of the Boserupian hypothesis that land-constrained villages typically use significantly more purchased input costs per hectare and more family labor, and achieve higher maize and teff yields and higher gross income per hectare. However, although these higher inputs raise gross revenue, we find no substantial impact of greater land constraints on net farm income per hectare once family labor costs are accounted for. Moreover, farm sizes are strongly positively correlated with net farm income, suggesting that land constraints are an important cause of rural poverty. We conclude with some broad policy implications of our results.

Can Social Protection Work in Africa? The Impact of Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme

This study evaluates a large social protection program in rural Ethiopia, the Productive Safety Net Programme (PSNP). The effectiveness of the PSNP is of interest because the program was implemented at scale in one of Africa’s poorest countries, which has limited physical and communications infrastructure and scarce administrative resources. Using longitudinal survey data collected in 2006, 2008, and 2010 at the household and locality levels, we employ an extension of the propensity score matching method to continuous treatments to estimate the impact of transfers from the PSNP and a separate program on household food security. Against the formidable background of rising food prices and widespread drought, participation in the Public Works component of the PSNP has modest effects. The PSNP reduced the length of the last hungry season by 1.29 months among households that received transfers for 5 years compared to eligible households that received almost nothing. Five years of participation raises livestock holdings by 0.38 tropical livestock units relative to receipt of payments in only 1 year. There is no evidence that the PSNP crowds out private transfers. The joint impact of access to the PSNP along with a program that helps households to increase agricultural income and build assets is even higher. Having both of these programs reduced the length of the last hungry season by 1.5 months per year and increased livestock holdings by 0.99 tropical livestock units.

The Impact of Ethiopia's Productive Safety Net Program on Schooling and Child Labor

We investigate the impact of participation in the Public Works component of Ethiopias Productive Safety Net Program, the largest social protection program in Sub-Saharan Africa outside of South Africa, on schooling and child labor. Income from Public Works should reduce demand for child labor and increase schooling. However, Public Works labor requirements may induce a substitution of child labor for adult labor at home and in income-generating activities, possibly reducing schooling. Using matching estimators to identify program impacts, we find evidence of both processes at work. Results are presented by gender and by age cohorts because returns to schooling may differ by gender and the opportunity cost of schooling varies by gender and age of the child. We find that participation in Public Works leads to a moderate reduction in agricultural labor hours on average for boys age 6-16 years and a reduction in domestic labor hours for younger boys age 6-10 years. Boys in households receiving more regular transfers (at least 90 birr per member) show large increases in school attendance rates and, at the younger age, a significant reduction in total hours worked. When Public Works is coupled with agricultural packages designed to boost farm productivity, there are no affects on boys schooling and labor hours fall only for younger boys in domestic chores. For girls, measured effects are weaker, but differences emerge between younger (age 6-10) and older (age 11-16) girls. Younger girls experience worse outcomes, with lower school attendance on average and increases in child labor in households participating in PW and the OFSP. Older girls benefit, with a reduction in labor hours on average and an increase in school attendance in households receiving larger transfers.

The Future in Mind: Aspirations and Forward-Looking Behaviour in Rural Ethiopia

Poor people often do not make investments, even when returns are high. One possible explanation is that they have low aspirations and form mental models which ignore some options for investment. This paper reports on findings of an innovative experiment to test this in rural Ethiopia. Firstly, individuals were randomly invited to watch documentaries about people from similar communities who had succeeded in agriculture or small business, without help from government or NGOs. A placebo group watched an Ethiopian entertainment programme and a control group were simply surveyed. Secondly, the number of invitees was varied by village to assess the importance of peer effects in the formation of aspirations. Six months after the screening of the documentaries, aspirations had improved among treated individuals but did not change in the placebo or control groups. Effects were larger for those with higher aspirations at baseline. We also find evidence of treatment effects on savings and credit behaviour, children’s school enrolment and investments in children’s schooling, suggesting that changes in aspirations can translate into changes in forward-looking behaviour. There are also positive treatment effects on a set of related measures from psychology and sociology, including a measure of locus of control, which theory predicts should behave in similar ways to aspirations. We also find that peer effects result in further impact on educational spending and induce more work and less leisure. That a one-hour documentary shown six months earlier induces such actual behavioural change offers challenging and promising areas for further research and the design of poverty-related interventions.

Seasonality and household diets in Ethiopia.

OBJECTIVE To revisit seasonality by assessing how household diets vary across agricultural seasons in rural and urban Ethiopia. The role of seasonality on the sources and intake of energy (per capita) and household dietary diversity score (HDDS) was analysed. DESIGN The use of nationally representative household-level data collected each month over one year to study the seasonal changes in the sources and intake of energy and HDDS. SETTING Eleven regions of Ethiopia, including rural and urban settings. SUBJECTS Total of 27 835 households were interviewed between July 2010 and July 2011 in all eleven regions of the country. On average each month saw 2300 household interviews, yielding nationally representative data for each calendar month. RESULTS For rural households, the mean daily per capita energy intake was 10 288 kJ (2459 kcal) in February (post-harvest period) and lower in the lean season: 9703 kJ (2319 kcal) in June (P<0·05) and 9552 kJ (2283 kcal) in July (P<0·001). HDDS for rural households was highest in February (6·73) and lowest in June (5·98; P<0·001) but high again in July (6·57). Urban energy intake was also lower in the lean season but HDDS varied less by season. Considerable seasonal variation was also found in energy sources in rural areas, less so in urban areas. CONCLUSIONS Household diets in Ethiopia remain subjected to significant seasonal stress. HDDS and food security measured using energy intake do not always agree. Preferably, HDDS and energy intake data should be used together to assess food security.

Perceptions, impacts and rewards of row planting of teff

This study analyzes the perceptions, impacts, and rewards of farmers who adopted row planting for the production of teff as a result of being exposed to a technology promotion campaign for row planting of teff in the Oromia region of Ethiopia.

From Agricultural Experiment Station to Farm: The Impact of the Promotion of a New Technology on Farmers' Yields in Ethiopia

Adoption of yield-increasing technologies is crucial to boost staple food production in sub-Saharan Africa. However, empirical evidence is lacking on the impact of improved agricultural technologies that are scaled up from research at agricultural experiment stations to the farm level. We assess the impact of a new technology, row planting, on farmers’ yields of teff in Ethiopia. Results of a randomized controlled trial show that row planting did not significantly affect teff yields at the farm level. While the treatment effect measured on village demonstration plots managed by extension agents is significant and positive, its magnitude is still lower than the productivity gains found on research plots. To explain the yield gaps between research plots at experiment stations, village demonstration plots, and farm plots, ex post analysis of treatment heterogeneity shows that the literacy level and information access of adopting households have significant interaction effects. Results further suggest that the yield gap is linked to the quality of extension and timely input delivery provided to farmers when transmitting the technology to the field. Greater attention to the design and implementation of public promotion programs appears critical to effectively scale up the adoption of improved technologies in these settings.