Hope Michelson

Small Farmers, NGOs, and a Walmart World: Welfare Effects of Supermarkets Operating in Nicaragua

Despite more than a decade of NGO and government activities promoting developing world farmer participation in high-value agricultural markets, evidence regarding the household welfare effects of such initiatives is limited. This article analyzes the geographic placement of supermarket supply chains in Nicaragua between 2000 and 2008 and uses a difference-in-differences specification on measures of supplier and nonsupplier assets to estimate the welfare effects of small farmer participation. Though results indicate that selling to supermarkets increases household productive asset holdings, they also suggest that only farmers with advantageous endowments of geography and water are likely to participate. Copyright 2013, Oxford University Press.

Measuring Socio-economic Status in the Millennium Villages: The Role of Asset Index Choice

How are poverty analyses and poverty traps assessments affected by the choice among conventional methods of asset index construction? To address this question, this article uses panel data from four sites in the Millennium Villages Project (MVP) in Malawi, Tanzania, Mali and Ghana to study the relationship between eight asset indices and the sensitivity of findings related to poverty rates, poverty transitions and poverty traps to the index used. We find that although estimations of poverty rates and transitions are largely consistent across indices, evidence of poverty traps can be conditional on which asset index is used. The asset indices studied include structural income, principal components, factor analysis and a reduced set of assets reflecting the portfolio assessed in the Demographic Health Survey (DHS) data.

Smallholder Participation in Agricultural Value Chains: Comparative Evidence from Three Continents

Supermarkets, specialized wholesalers, and processors and agro-exporters’ agricultural value chains have begun to transform the marketing channels into which smallholder farmers sell produce in low-income economies. We develop a conceptual framework through which to study contracting between smallholders and a commodity-processing firm. We then conduct an empirical meta-analysis of agricultural value chains in five countries across three continents (Ghana, India, Madagascar, Mozambique, and Nicaragua). We document patterns of participation, the welfare gains associated with participation, reasons for non-participation, the significant extent of contract non-compliance, and the considerable dynamism of these value chains, as farmers and firms enter and exit frequently.

Cash, Food or Vouchers in Urban and Rural Kenya? An Application of the Market Information and Food Insecurity Response Analysis Framework

This paper uses data on food market intermediation and on consumer behavior and preferences to clarify whether market-based cash and voucher programs are likely to prove effective for addressing food insecurity in rural and urban study sites in Kenya. The findings carry important implications for food security interventions by government and operational agencies. We find that context matters when undertaking a response analysis. Markets in surveyed urban settlements can respond better to a much larger injection of cash or vouchers than the surveyed rural areas can. Moreover, household vulnerabilities are associated with household preferences in different ways across the two sites. In rural areas, female headed households and households reporting a physical limit to market access strongly preferred food aid to cash or vouchers while in urban areas, households with these characteristics preferred the flexibility of cash or vouchers to food.

Cash, food, or vouchers? An application of the Market Information and Food Insecurity Response Analysis Framework in urban and rural Kenya

This paper uses the Market Information and Food Insecurity Response Analysis Framework to analyze data on food market intermediation and on consumer behavior and preferences in order to clarify whether market-based cash and voucher programs are likely to prove effective for addressing food insecurity in rural and urban study sites in Kenya. The findings carry important implications for food security interventions by government and operational agencies. We confirm that context matters when undertaking a response analysis. While we find that cash and/or vouchers are appropriate in both urban and rural locations, markets in surveyed urban settlements can respond better to a large injection of cash or vouchers than can surveyed rural areas. Moreover, household vulnerabilities are associated with household preferences in different ways across the two sites. In rural areas, female headed households and households reporting a physical limit to market access were among the groups that strongly preferred food aid to cash or vouchers while households with these characteristics in urban areas preferred the flexibility of cash or vouchers to food.

Connecting supermarkets and farms: The role of intermediaries in Walmart China's fresh produce supply chains

This paper identifies and describes the recent emergence of a new class of private sector intermediaries in fresh fruit and vegetable (FFV) supermarket supply chains in China. These intermediaries play key roles that determine the ways in which farm households participate in and the benefits they derive from new retail-led market opportunities associated with the supermarket sectors shift from FFV procurement through wholesale markets towards more direct contracting with farm communities. This paper provides a comprehensive description of 198 FFV supply chain intermediaries working with Walmart China in 2014, including their historical background, infrastructure investments, downstream marketing and upstream sourcing. We find that these actors play an increasingly critical role in the organization of land, labor and production through contracts. Our study provides critical insights for understanding both the trends in vertical coordination of Chinas developing agricultural sector and the pace of the countrys agricultural modernization. Walmart is a leading international supermarket chain with a growing presence in China, and evidence suggests that their supply chain strategies are similar to other large supermarkets in the region. Results are also relevant to understanding current challenges in China related to food safety and quality, a top priority in recent years.

His, Hers, or Ours: Impacts of a Training and Asset Transfer Programme on Intra-Household Decision-Making in Zambia

Abstract This paper studies the effects of a multifaceted asset transfer programme on the decision-making dynamics of smallholder households. Constructing separate indexes of participation in household decision-making for adult females and males, and using difference-in-differences to assess the impact of livestock transfer and training, we find evidence that these interventions increased the share of decisions in which individuals participated, regardless of gender. Increases in decision-making participation by both men and women are driven by an increase in joint decision-making within the household on the extensive margin. Decisions made jointly by men and women increased by 16 per cent across all household activities, with statistically significant declines in independent decision-making by men and women. Findings are encouraging given the evidence of welfare gains associated both with increases in participation in decision-making by women as well as increased cooperation within households.