![](/sites/default/files/styles/medium/public/user/profile/bg.jpg?itok=AS7CYxvm)
Topics and Regions
Land Portal Foundation administrative account
Details
Location
Gender-specific approaches, rural institutions and technological innovations
This paper reviews and integrates findings from existing empirical studies and case studies received from 35 organizations in various countries to identify demand- and supply-side constraints and opportunities in access, adoption and impact of agricultural technological innovations. The most common technologies studied are improved seeds, fertilizers, farm mechanization, improved management practices, transporting technologies, and information and communication technologies.
Land lease markets and agricultural efficiency
This paper develops a theoretical model of land leasing that includes transaction costs of enforcing labor effort, risk pooling motives and non-tradable productive inputs. We test the implications of this model compared to those of the “Marshallian” (unenforceable labor effort) and “New School” (costlessly enforceable effort) perspectives using data collected from four villages in Ethiopia. We find that land lease markets operate relatively efficiently in the villages studied, supporting the New School perspective relative to the other two models.
Collective action and the intensification of cattle-feeding techniques
The adoption of intensified cattle-feeding techniques by smallholders in Sub-Saharan Africa has been slower than anticipated. This study seeks to better define and understand the role of local collective action in conditioning the strategies that smallholders choose to intensify their cattle-feeding techniques. Collective action was analyzed as a determinant of the transaction costs of accessing feed for these techniques. An in-depth case-study method was used in a single peri-urban village that was at a low-but-increasing level of intensification of land use.
The sophistication and diversification of the African agricultural sector: A product space approach
We use the concept of the product space to analyze the key features of the transformation process in Africa with a focus on the agricultural sector. Between 1962 and 2008, we find that both specialization and diversification occur for the overall economy and across sectors. Our findings also confirm that the transformation of the African economy is driven primarily by the increasing specialization of nonagricultural exports. However, the transformation process is still moving more slowly than that of an emerging economy such as Brazil.
Nouvelles de l'IFPRI
Dans ce numero:; Commentaire: L'Etat devrait-il se retirer du secteur de la recherche et du développement ?; Perspectives de la recherche: Projet MERRISA : un atelier pour examiner les réformes macro-économiques et l'intégration régionale en Afrique australe; Nouvel Ouvrage D'un Ancien Membre du Conseil; Publications Récentes: Perspectives de la sécurité alimentaire en Afrique australe / Durabilité, croissance et atténuation de la pauvreté : une perspective politique et agroécologique / Identification les populations touchées par l'insécurité alimentaire : application de démarches mixtes en
Determinant of smallholder farmer labor allocation decisions in Uganda
"Although there is growing evidence of the increasing role of nonfarm activities in rural livelihoods, there is still relatively little empirical evidence regarding the factors that influence smallholder farmers to diversify into nonfarm activities. This study analyses the factors that influence household labor allocation decisions and demand for farm labor in Uganda. Data were collected from 660 households in three banana-based production zones with divergent production constraints and opportunities. The determinants of demand for hired labor were estimated with the Tobit model.
Gender, wealth, and participation in community groups in Meru Central District, Kenya
TA mixed-methods, multiple-stage approach was used to obtain data on how gender and wealth affected participation in community groups in Meru, Kenya, and how men and women farmers obtain and diffuse agricultural information. Research techniques included participant observation, documentary analysis, semi-structured interviews, social mapping, group timelines, and structured questionnaires. Dairy-goat farmer groups were interviewed for the study. Qualitative data provided baseline information, and helped in the formulation of research questions.
Impacts of the triple global crisis on growth and poverty in Yemen
Yemen is an oil-exporting and food-importing country on the Arabian Peninsula with persistently high levels of poverty. The impacts of the food, fuel, and financial global crises are likely to further complicate preexisting conditions of internal conflicts, decreasing oil revenues, and governance failure. The latest official growth numbers date back to precrisis levels; new estimates are subject to much debate; and the current state of poverty in Yemen remains unclear.
Policy reform toward gender equality in Ethiopia: Little by little the egg begins to walk
There is growing interest in the role of policy reforms to promote gender equality and empower women, two key objectives of development policy. From a policy perspective, it would be ideal for reforms undertaken in different policy areas to be consistent, so that they reinforce each other in improving gender equity.