Types of Research

EPAR Technical Report #335
Agricultural Development Indicator Curation
Publication Date: 11/21/2017
Type: Data Analysis
Abstract
EPAR has developed Stata do.files for the construction of a set of agricultural development indicators using data from the Living Standards Measurement Study - Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA). We are sharing our code and documenting our construction decisions both to facilitate analyses of these rich datasets and to make estimates of relevant indicators available to a broader audience of potential users. 
Presentation Slides
Code, Code, Code, Code
EPAR Technical Report #356
Tracking Small-Scale Producer Households
Publication Date: 10/31/2017
Type: Data Analysis
Abstract

According to AGRA's 2017 Africa Agriculture Status Report, smallholder farmers make up to about 70% of the population in Africa. The report finds that 500 million smallholder farms around the world provide livelihoods for more than 2 billion people and produce about 80% of the food in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. Many development interventions and policies therefore target smallholder farm households with the goals of increasing their productivity and promoting agricultural transformation. Of particular interest for agricultural transformation is the degree to which smallholder farm households are commercializating their agricultural outputs, and diversifying their income sources away from agriculture. In this project, EPAR uses data from the World Bank's Living Standards Measurement Study - Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) to analyze and compare characteristics of smallholder farm households at different levels of crop commercialization and reliance on farm income, and to evaluate implications of using different criteria for defining "smallholder" households for conclusions on trends in agricultural transformation for those households.

 

AGRA Agrica Agriculture Status Report 2017, Presentation Slides
Code
EPAR Technical Report #326
Maize Yield and Crop Area Allocation among Tanzanian Farmers
Publication Date: 06/01/2017
Type: Data Analysis
Abstract

By examining how farmers respond to changes in crop yield, we provide evidence on how farmers are likely to respond to a yield-enhancing intervention that targets a single staple crop such as maize. Two alternate hypotheses we examine are: as yields increase, do farmers maintain output levels but change the output mix to switch into other crops or activities, or do they hold cultivated area constant to increase their total production quantity and therefore their own consumption or marketing of the crop? This exploratory data analysis using three waves of panel data from Tanzania is part of a long-term project examining the pathways between staple crop yield (a proxy for agricultural productivity) and poverty reduction in Sub-Saharan Africa. 

Presentation Poster, Presentation Slides
Code
EPAR Technical Report #140
Tanzania Data Comparison and Analysis: LSMS and Farmer First Surveys
Publication Date: 03/17/2011
Type: Data Analysis
Abstract

This brief explores agricultural data for Tanzania from the LSMS-ISA and Farmer First household surveys. We first present the differences in the LSMS and Farmer First survey design and in basic descriptives from the two data sources. We then present the results of our initial LSMS data analysis using the 2008/2009 wave of the Tanzania National Panel Survey (TZNPS), focusing on the agricultural data, before presenting our analysis of farmer aspirations and of gender differences using  the Farmer First data. 

Full Report