Year Published
- 2008 (0)
- (-) Remove 2009 filter 2009
- 2010 (4) Apply 2010 filter
- 2011 (1) Apply 2011 filter
- 2012 (0)
- 2013 (0)
- 2014 (0)
- 2015 (0)
- 2016 (2) Apply 2016 filter
- 2017 (2) Apply 2017 filter
- (-) Remove 2018 filter 2018
- 2019 (0)
- (-) Remove 2020 filter 2020
- 2021 (0)
Research Topics
Populations
Types of Research
- Data Analysis (0)
- Literature Review (1) Apply Literature Review filter
- Portfolio Review (0)
- Research Brief (1) Apply Research Brief filter
Geography
- East Africa Region and Selected Countries (4) Apply East Africa Region and Selected Countries filter
- Global (0)
- South Asia Region and Selected Countries (0)
- Southern Africa Region and Selected Countries (2) Apply Southern Africa Region and Selected Countries filter
- (-) Remove Sub-Saharan Africa filter Sub-Saharan Africa
- West Africa Region and Selected Countries (4) Apply West Africa Region and Selected Countries filter
Dataset
- ASTI (1) Apply ASTI filter
- (-) Remove FAOSTAT filter FAOSTAT
- Farmer First (0)
- (-) Remove LSMS & LSMS-ISA filter LSMS & LSMS-ISA
- Other Datasets (2) Apply Other Datasets filter
Current search
- (-) Remove LSMS & LSMS-ISA filter LSMS & LSMS-ISA
- (-) Remove 2018 filter 2018
- (-) Remove 2009 filter 2009
- (-) Remove FAOSTAT filter FAOSTAT
- (-) Remove 2020 filter 2020
- (-) Remove Sub-Saharan Africa filter Sub-Saharan Africa
Recent research has used typologies to classify rural households into categories such as “subsistence” versus “commercialized” as a means of targeting agricultural development interventions and tracking agricultural transformation. Following an approach proposed by Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa, we examine patterns in two agricultural transformation hallmarks – commercialization of farm output, and diversification into non-farm income – among rural households in Ethiopia, Nigeria, and Tanzania from 2008-2015. We classify households into five smallholder farm categories based on commercialization and non-farm income levels (Subsistence, Pre-commercial, Transitioning, Specialized Commercial, and Diversified Commercial farms), as well as two non-smallholder categories (Largeholder farms and Non-farm households). We then summarize the share of households in each of these categories, examine geographic and demographic factors associated with different categories, and explore households’ movement across categories over time. We find a large amount of “churn” across categories, with most households moving to a different (more or less commercialized, more or less diversified) category across survey years. We also find many non-farm households become smallholder farmers – and vice versa – over time. Finally, we show that in many cases increases in farm household commercialization or diversification rates actually reflect decreased total farm production, or decreased total income (i.e., declines in the denominators of the agricultural transformation metrics), suggesting a potential loss of rural household welfare even in the presence of “positive” trends in transformation indicators. Findings underscore challenges with using common macro-level indicators to target development efforts and track progress at the household level in rural agrarian communities.
EPAR’s Political Economy of Fertilizer Policy series provides a history of government intervention in the fertilizer markets of eight Sub-Saharan African countries: Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, and Tanzania. The briefs focus on details of present and past voucher programs, input subsidies, tariffs in the fertilizer sector, and the political context of these policies. The briefs illustrate these policies’ effect on key domestic crops and focus on the strengths and weaknesses of current market structure. Fertilizer policy in SSA has been extremely dynamic over the last fifty years, swinging from enormous levels of intervention in the 1960s and 70s to liberalization of markets of the 1980s and 1990s. More recently, intervention has become more moderate, focusing on “market smart” subsidies and support. This executive summary highlights key findings and common themes from the series.