Public investment in agriculture and rural infrastructure is an important driver of agricultural growth and has a significant bearing on poverty outcomes. Determining the right levels and types of investments requires that policymakers have reliable and context-specific information about the impacts of different types of public investments. The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) initiated its Global Research Program on Priorities for Public Investment in Agriculture and Rural Areas (GRP-3) in 1998 to provide such information.

Annual Report

The Knowledge, Capacity, and Innovation Division (formerly ISNAR) works to improve the functioning of food and agriculture systems by facilitating knowledge management—the creation, accumulation, sharing, and utilization of knowledge—and developing the capacity for innovation by all actors along the food and agriculture value chain. Fostering innovation means investing in agricultural science and technology, research and extension, education and training, and farmer organizations and other local institutions.

Financial cooperatives and microfinance institutions (MFIs) are the two major sources of rural finance in Ethiopia. Whereas MFIs are relatively new, financial cooperatives have existed for centuries in various forms. The coexistence of two different institutions serving the same group of people, and delivering the same financial services, raises several policy questions. Those questions have become particularly relevant, as the government has embarked on developing a new strategy for improving rural financial services delivery.

This paper investigates whether this increase in the opportunity cost of agricultural labor incentivizes farm owners to adopt labor-saving agricultural technology. Using a regression discontinuity design and new Indian agricultural census data, this paper finds that NREGA causes a shift of roughly 20 percentage points away from labor-intensive technologies toward labor-saving ones, particularly for small farmers and low-powered technologies.

Agricultural growth is essential for fostering economic development and feeding growing populations in most developing countries. As land and water become increasingly scarce, this growth will depend more and more on yield-increasing technological changes of the green revolution" type. A major concern is how these technologies will affect the poor. If the poor are left behind and rural inequalities worsen, agricultural growth may fail to achieve its intended objectives... Peter Hazell and C.

Droughts and floods are a capricious part of life for many Malawians. The country depends heavily on rain-fed agriculture and so it is crucial that we understand the implications of these climate events. Not only are rural livelihoods affected, but urban households are also vulnerable to food shortages and rising prices. Finding ways to overcome the losses from droughts and floods is a policy imperative.

The purpose of the research summarized in this paper is to provide policy-relevant knowledge on the governance of rural services in Guatemala and thus to contribute to improving the provision of services that are essential for agricultural and rural development. Based on quantitative and qualitative primary data, we examine how services are actually provided today and how community preferences and participation affect service provision in rural Guatemala. Our main finding is that the provision of formally decentralized services by local governments is incomplete.

This chapter develops an extended input-output model to provide a quantitative analysis of the direct and indirect impacts of increased agricultural production on the regional economy. The model is calibrated for 1982/83 using the 1982/83 social accounting matrix (SAM) (see Chapter 7).

The variety of views about ICTs reveals that their role in development is unclear, especially without convincing evidence of their impact—and little research has been conducted on the direct and indirect links between ICTs and poverty reduction. This book, addresses several pressing questions surrounding ICTs. How do ICTs affect economic development in low-income countries? How do they affect poor people in these countries and in rural areas in particular? What policies and programs facilitate their potential to enhance development and the inclusion of poor constituents?

Kenyan farmers’ livelihoods are closely linked to climate conditions. Almost three-quarters of the labor force depend on agriculture for their livelihoods, and almost all farmers depend on timely and adequate rainfall for crop production and husbandry, as only 2 percent of cultivated area is equipped for irrigation. Thus, climate variability and change will have an increasing impact on agricultural livelihoods and food security in the country, making adaptation essential for rural areas in Kenya.

Developing countries allocate scarce government funds to investments in rural areas to achieve the twin goals of agricultural growth and poverty alleviation. Choices have to be made between different types of investments, especially infrastructure, human capital and agricultural research, and between different types of agricultural regions, e.g., irrigated and high- and low-potential rainfed areas. This paper develops an econometric approach and provides empirical evidence on the impact of government investments in rural India using district-level data.