South Africa has signed the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and placed poverty and inequality reduction at the forefront of its National Development Plan. This study links a nonparametric income distribution (micro) simulation model and an economywide general equilibrium (macro) model to...

In September 2013, the Parliament of India enacted the National Food Security Act (NFSA), which entitles two-thirds of India's population to 5 kg of rice, wheat, or coarse cereals per person per month at 1 to 3 Indian rupees (Rs) per kg. Foreshadowing the possible impact of this comprehensive...

While numerous studies exist that evaluate the impacts of land reform on household investment behavior, land productivity, and land rental market activities, the literature is thin in terms of showing the direct food securities impacts of land tenure reforms. This study, thus, uses five rounds...

Reducing undernutrition requires improving access to goods and services from a wide range of economic and social sectors, including agriculture, education and health. Yet despite broad agreement on the multisectoral nature of the global burden of undernutrition, relatively little research has...

The improved performance of the agricultural sector in Africa south of the Sahara during the most recent decade (2000-2010) has raised questions about the drivers behind the growth. Skeptics argue that rising commodity prices, as world markets experience a commodity boom, are the main cause of...

Interventions aimed at increasing water availability for livelihood and domestic activities have great potential to improve various determinants of undernutrition, such as the quantity and diversity of foods consumed within the household, income generation, and women’s empowerment. However,...

Using data on 34 countries in Africa south of the Sahara (SSA) from 1980 to 2012, this paper assesses the returns to public spending in the agricultural sector, considering expenditures on agriculture as a whole versus expenditures on agricultural research. First, an aggregate production...

The evidence of improved performance of agriculture in Africa south of the Sahara (SSA) in recent years has indeed been quite striking when compared with the past. For the first time, the sector has maintained a real growth rate of 3.4 percent per year, well above the population growth rate of...

This paper looks at the prioritization of agricultural value chains (VCs) for the allocation of R&D resources that maximize development outcomes (poverty, growth, jobs, and diets). Considering that growth in VCs affects those various outcomes differently, as expansion pathways result in the...

This analysis explores the relationship between agricultural R&D investments and rural poverty reduction, and the prevalence of undernourishment in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). It uses a panel data set of internationally comparable poverty dis-aggregated by urban and rural areas, country level...