Sara Savastano

Agricultural intensification : the status in six African countries

Boserup and Ruthenberg (BR) provided the framework to analyze the impact of population growth and market access on the intensification of farming systems. Prior evidence in Africa is consistent with the framework. Over the past two decades, rapid population growth has put farming systems under stress, while rapid urbanization and economic growth have provided new market opportunities. New measures of agro-ecological potential and urban gravity are developed to analyze their impact on population density and market access. The descriptive and regression analyses show that the patterns of intensification across countries are only partially consistent with the BR predictions. Fallow areas have disappeared, but cropping intensities remain very low. The use of organic and chemical fertilizers is too low to maintain soil fertility. Investments in irrigation are inadequate. In light of the promising outcomes suggested by the Boserup-Ruthenberg framework, the process of intensification across these countries appears to have been weak.

Smallholders' Land Ownership and Access in Sub-Saharan Africa: A New Landscape?

While scholars agree on the importance of land rental markets for structural transformation in rural areas, evidence on the extent and nature of their operation, including potential obstacles to their improved functioning, remains limited. This study uses household-level data from six countries to start filling this gap and derive substantive as well as methodological lessons. The paper finds that rental markets transfer land to land-poor, labor-rich, and more productive producers throughout. But vast cross-country variation in transfers and the fact that female managers could possibly improve their income by leasing out land point towards barriers to participation that policy might address. Methodological and substantive conclusions are derived.

On the Determinants of Low Productivity in Maize Farming in Uganda: The Role of Markets, Fertilizer Use and Gender

African governments and international development groups see boosting productivity on smallholder farms as a key way to reduce rural poverty and safeguard the food security of non-farming households. Prompting smallholder farmers to use more fertilizer has been a key tactic. Closing the productivity gap between male and female farmers has been another avenue toward achieving the same goal. Our results suggest the two are related. We find that fertilizer use and maize yields among smallholder farmers in Uganda are increased by improved access to markets and extension services, and reduced by ex-ante risk-mitigating production decisions. However, we find that the gender productivity gap, significant in OLS regression results, disappears when gender is included in a list of determinants meant to capture the indirect effects of market and extension access. Consistent with observed risk mitigation production choices, the research confirms the important consequences of unexpected weather outcomes on yields.

Are Women Less Productive Farmers? How Markets and Risk Affect Fertilizer Use, Productivity, and Measured Gender Effects in Uganda

African governments and international development groups see boosting productivity on smallholder farms as key to reducing rural poverty and safeguarding the food security of farming and non-farming households. Prompting smallholder farmers to use more fertilizer has been a key tactic. Closing the productivity gap between male and female farmers has been another avenue toward achieving the same goal. The results in this paper suggest the two are related. Fertilizer use and maize yields among smallholder farmers in Uganda are increased by improved access to markets and extension services, and reduced by ex ante risk-mitigating production decisions. Standard ordinary least squares regression results indicate that gender matters as well; however, the measured productivity gap between male and female farmers disappears when gender is included in a list of determinants meant to capture the indirect effects of market and extension access.

Can Diaries Help Improve Agricultural Production Statistics? Evidence from Uganda

Although good and timely information on agricultural production is critical for policy-decisions, the quality of underlying data is often low and improving data quality could have a high payoff. This paper uses data from a production diary, administered concurrently with a standard household survey in Uganda to analyze the nature and incidence of responses, the magnitude of differences in reported outcomes, and factors that systematically affect these. Despite limited central supervision, diaries elicited a strong response, complemented standard surveys in a number of respects, and were less affected by problems of respondent fatigue than expected. The diary-based estimates of output value consistently exceeded that from the recall-based production survey, in line with reported disposition. Implications for policy and practical administration of surveys are drawn out.

Farm size and productivity : a"direct-inverse-direct"relationship

This paper proposes a new interpretation of the farm size-productivity relationship. Using two rounds of the Ethiopian Rural Household Survey, and drawing on earlier work on five countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, the paper shows that the relationship between farm size and productivity is neither monotonic nor univocal. Most previous studies that tested the inverse farm size-productivity relationship used ordinary least squares estimation, therefore reporting parameter estimates at the conditional mean of productivity. By expanding these important findings to consider the entire distribution of agricultural productivity, the analysis finds sign switches across the distribution, pointing to a ?direct-inverse-direct? relationship. Less productive farmers exhibit an inverted U-shape relationship between land productivity and farm size, while more productive farmers show a U-shape relationship that reverses the relationship. In both cases, the relationship points toward a threshold value of farm size; however, the threshold is a minimum for the less productive farmers and a maximum for the more productive ones. To the left of the threshold, for very small farmers, the relationship between productivity and farm size is positive; for the range of middle farm size, the relationship is negative; and to the right of the threshold, the relationship is direct (positive) again. From a policy perspective, these findings imply that efficiency-enhancing and redistributive land reform should consider farm size in the proper context of the present and potential levels of agricultural productivity. The results and their policy implications underline the relevance of the most recent efforts of the international development community to collect more reliable georeferenced data on farm size and agricultural productivity.

Overview: Poverty and Exclusion in the Western Balkans: New Directions in Policy and Analysis

Countries in the Western Balkans are at a crucial junction, called to innovate and adapt to a new environment while still dealing with the legacy of the past and the need to complete the transition to modern market economies. This book looks at this junction from the special lens of the poverty and exclusion agenda, though its overarching theme is of broader application. New resources and tools are available, and a lot of innovation is occurring in both measurement and policy design. Yet, in this as in other domains, the transition to a new way of doing things needs to build on a careful assessment of local realities. As for several of these countries the prospects of EU accession are becoming closer, there is a temptation to adopt models that have been developed for other contexts without questioning whether all the supporting elements for those models to be effective are in place. Grounding the decisions on how to move forward in rigorous analysis of what different approaches and tools contribute to our understanding of poverty and exclusion, and sharing experiences and learning from others will strengthen the effectiveness of the decisions taken as the region’s poverty and exclusion agenda become more aligned with EU priorities.

Measuring Poverty in the Western Balkans: Recent Trends and New Challenges

As countries in the Western Balkans proceed on the path to accession to the European Union, they need to strengthen their statistical tools for measuring poverty and social inclusion and achieve compliance with the statistical chapter of the Acquis Communautaire. Over the last two decades, significant progress has been made to establish regular programs of household surveys to monitor poverty and other key policy variables in a systematic and consistent manner. However, substantial differences remain among countries in the region in terms of survey methodology and analytical approaches to measure poverty and social exclusion. Between 2007 and 2009, an expert group composed of representatives of Eurostat, the World Bank, DFID, and the national statistical institutes of Italy and Spain convened to elaborate recommendations on how the existing household survey systems of countries in the region could adapt to the requirements of collecting social inclusion indicators and eventually moving towards full compliance with the EU Survey on Income and Living Conditions (SILC). This chapter aims at taking stock of where countries are in terms of statistical developments and regular monitoring of the EU indicators of social inclusion and reviews the different options available to them to proceed further in the transitions towards full adoption of SILC.

The Impact of Soft Traits and Cognitive Abilities on Life Outcomes: Subjective Wellbeing, Education Achievement, and Rational Choices: A Chocolate Tasting Experiment

Linking to a growing literature in behavioral economics, this study combines neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral economics to empirically analyze the extent to which academic achievement, the relative weight of rationality vs. fairness in decision-making, and life satisfaction are affected by cognitive ability, persistent personality traits, and short-term stimuli based on psychological priming techniques. Prior to undertaking a course exam and playing the role of the respondent in an ultimatum game, a group of Masters and PhD students were stimulated either emotionally (via chocolate tasting) or rationally (via mathematical problem solving). Results show that, in addition to rational skills, short term stimuli and persistent personality traits have a significant impact on academic performance. They also influence the extent to which decisions are affected by notions of rationality and fairness and individuals’ subjective satisfaction with life. Given the economic importance of the associated outcomes, this opens up an important research agenda.