Thomas S. Jayne

TL;DR: In this article, the authors provide a micro-level foundation for discussions of land allocation and its relation to income poverty within the smallholder sectors of Eastern and Southern Africa, showing that farm sizes are declining over time and that roughly a quarter of the agricultural households in each country are virtually landless, controlling less than 0.10 hectares per capita, including rented land.

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors synthesize how people, markets and governments are responding to rising land pressures in Africa, drawing on key findings from the various contributions in this special issue.

TL;DR: This article used a double-hurdle model with panel data from Malawi to investigate how fertilizer subsidies affect farmer demand for commercial fertilizer, and found that on average 1 additional kilogram of subsidized fertilizer crowds out 0.22 kg of commercial fertilizer.

TL;DR: In this article, the authors used small-scale farm survey data from five countries of eastern and southern Africa to highlight four under-appreciated issues: (i) how land distribution patterns constrain the potential of crop technology and input intensification to enable many small farms to escape from poverty; (ii) why most smallholders are unable to produce more than a marginal surplus or participate meaningfully in commodity markets; (iii) most farmers are directly hurt by higher grain prices; and (iv) why the marketed agricultural surplus is exceedingly concentrated among a small group of relatively large small

TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the characteristics of subsidy beneficiaries, crop response rates to fertilizer application and their influence on the performance of subsidy programs, the impacts of subsidies on national fertilizer use and the development of commercial input distribution systems, and finally the impact of ISPs on food price levels and poverty rates.