James F. Oehmke

An economic evaluation of SPREAD on Rwanda’s rural population

ABSTRACT Sustainable Partnerships to Enhance Rural Enterprises and Agricultural Development (SPREAD) was a programme to enhance the value chain for commodities in Rwanda including coffee. The implicit concept was that improving the value chain would increase the incomes for smallholders and, hence, reduce the poverty rate. The results indicate that Rwanda coffee prices increased relative to an index price for traded coffee with the implementation of SPREAD. In addition, the results indicate that participation in the coffee market at this time was associated with higher household income and lower rates of poverty.

Food Security, Subsistence Agriculture, and Working’s Model

Abstract Purpose This chapter examines whether donor investments in a market channel that rewards product quality increase food security in Rwanda. Specifically, do policy interventions that improve marketing channels increase the price received by farmers also increases smallholder income? Furthermore, does this increase in income improve food security? Methodology/approach To examine the effect of the policy intervention, we estimates the relationship between the share of income spent on food and income (Working’s Model) using ordinary least squares and a logit regression. Findings The empirical results support Working’s conjecture (i.e., the share of income spent on food declines as income increases). Furthermore, whether the household benefits from the improved market channel does not affect the share of income spent on food. Practical implications Increased household income appears to improve food security. However, the lack of a statistically significant effect of the policy intervention variable indicates that commercial agriculture does not eliminate household food production at home.

Agricultural policy for improved nutrition in Africa and Asia: evidence to guide the US Government’s investments in food security

This article represents the views of the authors and not necessarily those of USAID, Feed the Future or the United States Government. The article reports on a roundtable process funded through the USAID Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Collaborative Research on Nutrition (award # AID-OAA-L-10-00006). In addition to the authors, roundtable participants were Gilles Bergeron (FANTA), Jennifer Chow (USAID), Richard Greene (USAID), Ellen Harris (United States Department of Agriculture), Anna Herforth (independent consultant), David Klurfeld (USDA), Kathryn Kolasa (East Carolina University), Mercy Lung’aho (CIAT-PABRA), Maura Mack (USAID), John McDermott (IFPRI), Mary Murimi (Texas Tech University), Prabhu Pingali (Cornell University), Lori Post (Yale University), Daniel Bruce Sarpong (University of Ghana), Kalidas Shetty (North Dakota State University), Alison Steiber (Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics), Anne Swindale (USAID), Jessica Tilahun (SPRING), Patrick Webb (Tufts University), Tassew Woldehanna (Addis Ababa University), Margo Wootan (Center for Science in the Public Interest), and Felicia Wu (Michigan State University). The authors are grateful to them and to Marisol Pierce-Quinonez for their many contributions to the roundtable results summarized here.

Food expenditure patterns, preferences, policy, and access of Rwandan households

An extended period of economic growth along with stubborn childhood stunting and wasting levels raises questions about how consumer food purchasing behaviors respond to income increases in Rwanda. The purpose of this paper is to assess the role income, prices, policy, agricultural production, and market access play on how rural households purchase different food groups.,Six separate log-normal double hurdle models are run on six different food groups to examine what affects the probability a household purchases in each food group and for those who do purchase, what determines the quantity purchased.,Rural Rwandans are price and expenditure responsive but prices have more impact on food group purchases. Crop production resulted in reduced household market procurement for its associated food group but had mixed effects on the purchases of all other food groups. Rural Rwandans purchase and consume low amounts of animal-based proteins which may be a leading factor related to the high stunting and wasting rates. Owning an animal increased the purchased quantity of meat but lowered the purchased quantity of most other food groups.,Results suggest that policies and programs have to address multiple constraints simultaneously to increase the purchases of the limited food groups in the rural household diets that may be contributing to the high rates of stunting and wasting.,This study is the first to evaluate the interplay among prices, household income, household production, policies and donor programs, and demographic variables on rural Rwandan household food purchases.

Technical convening on smallholder agricultural transformation, Arlington, VA, USA, May 7–8, 2015

In an effort to revive agricultural growth in developing countries, especially in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and particularly after the 2008 global food crisis, several high-level government commitments were made. African Union member states pledged to allocate 10 % of national budgets to agriculture, and donor countries in the 2009 L’Aquila Food Security Initiative pledged to increase support to agriculture and food security. The U.S. commitment of at least

Does Plant Variety Intellectual Property Protection Improve Farm Productivity? Evidence from Cotton Varieties

3.5 billion over three years resulted in Feed the Future, the U.S. Government’s global hunger and food security initiative, with an overarching objective of inclusive economic growth particularly in agricultural growth and rural development to end poverty and hunger. While many Feed the Future activities are focused on improving agricultural productivity and growth arising in part from the use of new technologies, Feed the Future recognizes that sustainable and inclusive growth is the result of systemic agricultural transformation of which technical change is just one aspect. Our understanding of structural and agricultural transformations needed for inclusive growth has not kept pace with the new economic realities or broadened the narrow emphasis on the movement of labor out of agriculture and into industries. To take stock of current thinking and state of knowledge on issues pertinent to smallholder agricultural transformation, a 2 day technical convening was held in Arlington, VA on May 7–8. The convening, organized by a consortium of universities led by Rutgers University and funded through Feed the Future, brought together leading academic researchers and policy makers to discuss and debate current thinking on agricultural, food and nutrition policy. Five sessions were organized around a set of questions which the panelists were asked to address and which formed the basis for the dialogue among the participants. This report highlights the discussion in each of the sessions, and what they imply for further research as well as effective development policy and assistance.