Christopher L. Delgado

Livestock to 2020: The Next Food Revolution

A revolution is taking place in global agriculture that has profound implications for human health, livelihoods and the environment. Population growth, urbanization and income growth in developing countries are fuelling a massive increase in demand for food of animal origin. These changes in the diets of billions of people could significantly improve the well-being of many rural poor. Governments and industry must prepare for this continuing revolution with long-term policies and investments that will satisfy consumer demand, improve nutrition, direct income growth opportunities to those who need them most, and alleviate environmental and public health stress.

Determinants and effects of income diversification amongst farm households in Burkina Faso

Using four years of household data from three agroecological zones in Burkina Faso ‐ Sahelian, Sudanian, and Guinean ‐ the article examines the determinants and effects of household income diversification. Harvest shortfalls and terms of trade are found to drive diversification, but land constraints do not. Income diversification is associated with higher incomes and food consumption, and more stable income and consumption over years.

Coping with household-level food insecurity in drought-affected areas of Burkina Faso

The paper examines strategies used by rural households in the Sahelian and Sudanian zones of Burkina Faso to ensure food security in the face of drought-induced cropping shortfalls. It finds that three-quarters of the average household income in the Sahel sample and half of the same in the Sudanian sample come from non-cropping sources. These are more diversified regionally and sectorally in the case of the Sahel. The latters non-cropping income is less covariant with the local cereal economy than is the case in the Sudanian sample. Moreover, much greater food aid was targeted to the Sahel for geographical reasons, without taking into account the more stable and higher level of purchasing power in that zone vis-a-vis the Sudanian zone.

Smallholder dairying under transactions costs in East Africa

It is argued that dairying is vital to future viability of many small farms in East Africa and that high transactions costs for dairy production and marketing limit participation by asset- and information-poor smallholders. Case studies from Kenya and Ethiopia illustrate the role of dairy cooperatives in reducing transactions costs. Analysis of the determinants of producer prices received by a sample of dairy producers near Addis Ababa suggests that different levels of access to infrastructure, assets, and information explain why different households contemporaneously accept widely different producer prices for fluid milk.

Growth in high-value agriculture in Asia and the emergence of vertical links with farmers.

1. Director, Markets, Trade, and Institutions Division, International Food Policy Research Institute. 2. Research Fellow, Markets, Trade, and Institutions Division, International Food Policy Research Institute. 3. Director, ILRI-IFPRI Joint Program on Livestock Market Opportunities and Senior Research Fellow, Markets, Trade, and Institutions Division, International Food Policy Research Institute. 4. Senior Research Assistant, Markets, Trade, and Institutions Division, International Food Policy Research Institute.

Determinants of Nonfarm Earnings of Farm-Based Husbands and Wives in Northern Ghana

The nonfarm work participation decisions of married men and women in rural Northern Ghana were jointly and separately estimated for married couples through a bivariate probit, using recent survey data. Selectivity bias was corrected for in estimating wage offer and labor supply equations, using Heckmans procedure. Education, experience, infrastructure, distance to the capital, and population density, as well as interactions between education and infrastructure and between education and distance to the city, were found to be significantly related to the probability of nonfarm labor market participation, wages, and the amount of nonfarm labor performed, with significant differences by gender. Copyright 1999, Oxford University Press.

Promoting Intersectoral Growth Linkages in Rural Africa Through Agricultural Technology and Policy Reform

This paper addresses how increased rural incomes in select African cases are spent on consumption items, the implications of these patterns for stimulating rural growth, and areas of intervention necessary to sustain demand-led growth from improved agricultural technology and economic reforms. The country studies utilize panel data collected by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) in collaboration with African institutions and re-

A Variance Components Approach to Food Grain Market Integration in Northern Nigeria

A variance components methodology is developed for joint tests on a sample of time series of prices for seasonal differences in the price integration of markets. The approach requires a statistically adequate number of observations for each market within seasons characterized by constancy of transactions costs among markets. The model is applied to eighteen months of weekly grain prices for twenty-two villages in northern Nigeria. Results suggest that markets are not well integrated in the six months covering the harvest period. Implications are drawn for research on market performance in the region.

A Structural View of Policy Issues in African Agricultural Development

We respond to the comment by Schiff on our 1984 invited paper along three lines. First, we clarify points that appear to have been misunderstood. Second, we emphasize our disagreement with several aspects of Schiffs position that find particular currency within a small, but not negligible, portion of the donor community. Foreign assistance was equal to nearly two-thirds of gross domestic investment in the low income economies of Sub-Saharan Africa in 1984 and 13% of gross domestic investment for the region as a whole (World Bank 1984, 1986); the opinions of donors matter in Africa. Third, we use the opportunity to refocus the debate on the real issue of steps to improve agricultural investment in Africa. We feel that a critical mass of national and donor agency policy makers have made this transition but that we as an academic community have done relatively little in recent years to assist them.

Agricultural diversification and export promotion in sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract Declines in world commodity prices have emphasized the need in Africa for diversification away from a few agricultural exports. Market reforms are not enough. High transfer costs and imperfect factor markets imply that many consumer goods, frequently including food staples, are non-tradables, raising the possibility of major demand constraints in agriculture. Commodity-specific, zone-specific, and sequenced production and marketing policies are necessary to speed supply response of agricultural exports to market reforms. Then, supply-responsiveness must be increased for non-tradable wage goods, especially in non-export-producing zones, to cope with new domestic demand created by export growth.