Though Zambia has considerable agricultural potential, the sector’s contribution to growth and poverty reduction has been limited. The sector remains one of the most important employers of labour and remains the main source of livelihood for most rural households in Zambia. Thus key...

This study analyzes the implications of increasing population density in Kenya’s rural areas on smallholder production and commercialization. Using data from five panel surveys on 1,146 small-scale farms over the 1997-2010 period, we use econometric techniques to determine how increasing rural...

Despite upward trends in fertilizer application rates on maize fields over the last twenty years, there remains a perception in Kenya that fertilizer use is not expanding quickly enough and that application rates are not high enough to reverse the country’s growing national food deficit. In...

This paper determines the effect of market reform and price decontrol on the size of maize milling/retail margins in South Africa. Regression models of monthly milling/retail margins are run over the period May 1976 to September 2003. To assess the robustness of our findings, we estimate several...

This study estimates the effects on poverty resulting from maize price changes associated with the operations of the maize marketing board in Kenya. We consider both supply and demand responses and the accompanying adjustments in rural labor markets in estimating a second order approximation to...

Replaced with revised version of paper 06/30/08.

Price transmission between the South African market and other regional markets is not as straightforward,despite South Africa’s role of a surplus producer for the region. There appears to be a host of local factors thatmust be taken into account in order to anticipate the likely level of...

Replaced with revised version of paper 06/30/08.

This study estimates the effects on poverty resulting from maize price changes associated with the operations of the maize marketing board in Kenya. We consider both supply and demand responses and the accompanying adjustments in rural labor markets in estimating a second order approximation to...

This study used nationally representative pooled cross-sectional household data to assess determinants of farmers’ decisions to use minimum tillage and how much land is cultivated using minimum tillage between 2008 and 2012 in Zambia. Empirical results from the Double Hurdle model show that...