Since 2002, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) has funded programs to promote maize, dairy, and horticulture enterprises among smallholder farmers in Kenya under the Strategic Objective 7 of Increased Rural Household Incomes. On behalf of USAID, Tegemeo Institute has...

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...

Despite the resurgence of parastatal marketing boards and strategic grain reserves over the last decade in eastern and southern Africa, there is little empirical evidence about how their activities affect smallholder input use and cropping decisions. This paper uses panel survey data from...

Improving farmers’ access to markets is widely recognized as a major development challenge. A review of the literature suggests that indicators of market access may bear little relationship to the specific processes of interest and hence provide misguided evidence of the impacts of improved...

Kenya has been recognized globally as maize success story since the 1970s. Released on the eve of independence, Kenya’s first maize hybrid diffused faster than did hybrids in the U.S Corn Belt during the 1930s-1940s. In recent decades, policy researchers have lamented that earlier gains in...

Women are central to food production and maize is a dominant food staple in Sub-Saharan Africa, but published gender analyses of hybrid seed use in Sub-Saharan Africa are uncommon. Building on previous work, this paper tests the effects of headship definitions on hybrid seed use and explores the...

This paper uses information from rural household surveys in 24 districts in Kenya to inform current debate on maize pricing policy. Specifically, it sheds light on how rural farm households are being affected by governmental efforts to support maize price levels. Using information on landed...

This study looks at the urban consumption patterns of fresh fruits and vegetables and the major supply chain systems used in the distribution of fresh produce. The study integrates issues of supply chain organization and performance into the analysis of consumer demand for fresh produce. In...

Published by Tegemeo Institute for Agricultural Policy and Development

Published by Tegemeo Institute for Agricultural Policy and Development