Aliou Diagne

Market access by smallholder farmers in Malawi: implications for technology adoption, agricultural productivity and crop income

In Malawi, maize is the major crop and food staple. Given limited off-farm employment opportunities, much-needed increases in household income for improving food security must come from gains in agricultural productivity through better technology and more profitable crops. In the past, hybrid maize and more recently, tobacco were promoted by policy for increasing smallholder income. An analysis of determinants of adoption of these two crops and related income effects is presented. Apart from factor endowment and exposure to agroecological risks, differences in the households access to financial and commodity markets significantly influence its cropping shares and farm income.

Who is credit constrained? evidence from rural Malawi

Using data from Malawi, this paper examines factors that influence a household’s likelihood of facing credit constraints. Households with larger land holdings have a higher probability of reporting credit constraints, apparently due to lack of secure land rights which could enable households to use land as collateral when borrowing. Households with a greater number of active male adults are also more likely to report credit constraints.

Estimation of Actual and Potential Adoption Rates and Determinants of NERICA Rice Varieties in Nigeria

The paper uses the average treatment effect (ATE) to estimate the population potential adoption rates of the New Rice for Africa (NERICA) varieties in Nigeria when awareness and access to their seed are not constrained to farmers. It thus extends previous works in the literature that have focused on estimating potential adoption rates when only awareness of technology is not a constraint to farmers. The adoption gaps because of lack of awareness and access to seed, and the determinants of adoption are estimated as well. Results show that the potential NERICA adoption rate in Nigeria will be 54% if the entire population is aware and up to 62% if they have access to NERICA seed. The actually observed 19% adoption rate implies a population adoption gap of 35% and 43% because of lack of awareness and access to NERICA seed, respectively. It is also inferred from these results that, when awareness is not a constraint, about 8% of the population will fail to adopt NERICA because of lack of access to its seed. Also farmers with secondary education and farmers with access to extension services are more likely to adopt NERICA than farmers without them.

Can Africa replicate Asia's green revolution in rice ?

Asias green revolution in rice was transformational and improved the lives of millions of poor households. Rice has become an increasingly important part of African diets and imports of rice have grown. Agronomists point out that large areas in Africa are well suited for rice and are encouraged by the field tests of new rice varieties. So is Africa poised for its own green revolution in rice? This study reviews the recent literature on rice technologies and their impact on productivity, incomes, and poverty, and compares current conditions in Africa with the conditions that prevailed in Asia as its rice revolution got under way. An important conclusion is that, to a degree, a rice revolution has already begun in Africa. Moreover, many of the same practices that have proved successful in Asia and in Africa can be applied where yields are currently low. At the same time, for many reasons, Africas rice revolution has been, and will continue to be, characterized by a mosaic of successes, situated where the conditions are right for new technologies to take hold. This can have profound effects in some places. But because diets, markets, and geography are heterogeneous in Africa, the successful transformation of the Africas rice sector must be matched by productivity gains in other crops to fully launch Africas Green Revolution.

Estimating the impact of innovation systems on maize yields: the case of Iar4d in southern Africa

ABSTRACT Markets are known to have a great potential to unlock agricultural growth in developing countries. The conventional agricultural research and development approaches used hitherto have not yielded much success in stimulating farmer participation in markets. New agricultural development approaches, such as the Integrated Agricultural Research for Development (IAR4D), view developmental challenges as multi-dimensional and as such require multi-pronged and integrated initiatives – better known as innovation systems – to overcome. Using data from IAR4D trials in Zimbabwe, Malawi and Mozambique, the study evaluates the efficacy of IAR4D in stimulating market integration and crop intensification. The impact of IAR4D on maize yield, estimated using the local average treatment effect (LATE) is significant in all the countries. Yields improved by margins ranging 107–149 kgha-1, which is quite substantial in a region where yields average around 1000kgha-1. These findings give credence to the proposition that innovation systems such as IAR4D are more effective in stimulating agricultural growth.

Access to Subsidized Certified Improved Rice Seed and Poverty Reduction: Evidence from Rice Farming Households in Nigeria

This study assessed the impact of access to Subsidized Certified Improved Rice Seed (SCIRS) on poverty reduction among rice farming households in Nigeria, using cross-sectional data of 563 rice farmers selected from three states, representing the three major rice producing ecologies. Due to the problem of endogeneity and non-compliance, this study adopted Local Average Treatment Effect (LATE) estimation techniques to provide a reliable estimate of the impact of access to SCIRS on poverty reduction. The study showed an observed increase of 20 % in output for all the respondents. Farmers in the treated group had a 15 % increase in rice output and an 11 % increase in income after the intervention. Poverty incidence, and depth and severity by gender and rice ecologies reduced among the treated after the intervention. The result of the LATE estimate showed an impact of US

Empirical measurements of households' access to credit and credit constraints in developing countries: methodological issues and evidence.

221.98 on revenue from rice production. However, the impact on revenue was higher among the male-headed households (US

Access to credit and its impact on welfare in Malawi

441.41) than the female-headed households (US

The impact of credit constraints on the adoption of hybrid maize in Malawi.

142.16). The intervention was also pro-poor in nature, as it had a higher impact on the poor (US

Impact of Improved Rice Technology (NERICA varieties) on Income and Poverty among Rice Farming Households in Nigeria: A Local Average Treatment Effect (LATE) Approach

430.07) than the non-poor (US