Off-farm earnings account for a substantial and growing share of household income among smallholder farmers in most of Sub-Saharan Africa, but evidence concerning the effects of these earnings on investment in food production remains sparse. Conceptually, some factors may push farm families to...

The development and diffusion of hybrid maize seed in Kenya is a widely documented success story. Yet, to our knowledge, a missing link in existing research on maize hybrids in Kenya has been a rigorous analysis of the impacts of seed adoption on farmer welfare. The objective of this study is to...

When food prices shoot over import parity, this often leads to social and political unrest and even the toppling of governments. If markets behaved efficiently and in the absence of trade barriers, food prices should not exceed the price in world markets plus the cost of importing it to domestic...

De 1997 a 2007, os programas de monetização do Título II da Agência Americana para o Desenvolvimento Internacional (USAID) venderam mais de $200 milhões de trigo e óleos vegetais não refinados destinados à ajuda alimentar em Moçambique. Este estudo tem três objectivos: 1) documentar as...

Although a majority of Zambians work in agriculture, only a small minority of smallholders succeed in transitioning to high-productivity, high-value commercial agriculture. Only 20% of cotton farmers and less than 5% of maize and horticulture farmers succeed as top-tier commercial growers (Table...

This paper traces the trajectories of successful commercial smallholders operating under differing sets of market institutions. Analysis focuses on maize, cotton, and horticulture, three widely marketed crops with strikingly different market institutions. Maize receives intensive government...

From 1997-2007, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Title II monetization programs sold more than US$200 million of food aid wheat and unrefined vegetable oils in Mozambique. This research has three objectives: 1) to document the lessons learned from past monetization...

This paper assesses the record of five countries in southern and eastern Africa: Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Mozambique. The paper focuses on the course of reform in each – initial conditions, key elements of the reform, and institutional response to it – and draws lessons for...