International Food Policy Research Institute

About: International Food Policy Research Institute is a nonprofit organization based out in Washington D.C., District of Columbia, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Agriculture & Food security. The organization has 1217 authors who have published 4952 publications receiving 218436 citations.

Costing alternative transfer modalities

Abstract: Discussions regarding the merits of cash and food transfers focus on their relative impacts. Much less is known about their relative costs. Activity-based costing methods are applied to interventions situated in Ecuador, Niger, Uganda, and Yemen, finding that the per-transfer cost of providing cash is always less than food. Given the budget for these interventions, an additional 44,769 people could have received assistance at no additional cost had cash been provided instead of food. This suggests a significant opportunity cost in terms of reduced coverage when higher cost transfer modalities are used. Decisions to use cash or food transfers should consider both impacts and costs.

Evaluating transfer programmes within a general equilibrium framework

Abstract: We develop a general equilibrium model for evaluating domestically financed transfer programmes and derive analytical expressions which provide a framework for combining results from a computable general equilibrium model with disaggregated household data. We separate the welfare impact into three components, i.e. redistribution, reallocative, and distortionary effects. We show how these are subsumed within one parameter, the cost of public funds. Using a Mexican programme for illustration, we show that substantial welfare gains result from a switch from universal food subsidies to targeted transfers, reflecting both the improved targeting efficiency of the latter and the relaxation the trade-off between equity and efficiency when designing tax systems. In an attempt to maximise the welfare impact of government transfers on lowincome households, many governments in both developed and developing countries have moved towards better targeted transfer programmes. In developed countries these transfers mostly take the form of cash transfers or tax credits, whereas in developing countries they take the form of either cash transfers (e.g. in Latin America) or infra-marginal subsidised food rations (e.g. in South Asia).l When evaluating the economic impact of such transfers, it is useful to separate these into direct and indirect income (or welfare) effects. The direct income effects reflect the design of the programme (i.e. the rules for targeting transfers) - these are often referred to as first-round effects and are captured by partial equilibrium approaches to policy evaluation. The indirect effects capture the second-round income changes brought about by the impact of cash transfers, and their financing, on the level and composition of demand and supply. Most evaluations of social safety net programmes focus on the partial equilibrium evaluation of programme targeting outcomes. Even those that focus on the indirect impacts tend to concentrate on their efficiency implications with only a very limited analysis of income distribution outcomes and with little attempt to combine both the equity and efficiency dimensions. This is all the more limiting given that the central objective of these programmes is to improve income distribution. In this paper we focus primarily on the indirect income effects. In particular, we show how the results from a computable general equilibrium model can be combined with the information available in standard household surveys to

Climate Risk Management Through Sustainable Land Management in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract: Empirical evidence has shown that farmers can adapt to climate change by using sustainable land and water management (SLWM) practices that provide local mitigation benefits, reducing or offsetting the negative effects of climate change at the level of the plot, the farm, or even the landscape However, adaptation to climate change using SLWM practices in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remains low This study was conducted to examine the impact of government policies on adaptation to climate change

Bales and Balance: A Review of the Methods Used to Assess the Economic Impact of Bt Cotton on Farmers in Developing Economies

Abstract: We assess 47 peer-reviewed articles that have applied stated economics methods to measure the farm-level impacts of Bt cotton in developing agriculture from 1996. We focus on methods, although findings are also contrasted and compared in qualitative terms. The central research question assessed by the articles reviewed is: what are the current and potential advantages of transgenic cotton with respect to yield, pesticide use, input cost, revenue and/or profits at the farm-level, by farm type, and geographical region? We find that, while the evidence is promising, the balance sheet remains inconclusive - in part because of some methodological limitations and in part because institutional and political context, which is mutable and often ignored, shapes economic impacts, especially over the longer-term. Most often, the contextual factors that influence whether a new variety succeeds or fails are more critical than whether yield advantages can be demonstrated in on-farm trials.

Agriculture, gendered time use, and nutritional outcomes: A systematic review

Abstract: Existing reviews on agriculture and nutrition consider limited evidence and focus on impact size, rather than impact pathway. This review overcomes the limitations of previous studies by considering a larger evidence base and exploring time as one of the agriculture-nutrition pathways. Agricultural development plays a role in improving nutrition. However, agricultural practices and interventions determine the amount of time dedicated to agricultural and domestic work. Time spent in agriculture—especially by women—competes with time needed for resting, childcare, and food preparation and can have unintended negative consequences for nutrition. The findings of this systematic review confirm previous conclusions about the gendered nature and impact of agricultural practices and interventions. However, the results contradict the assumption that rural residents in low- and middle-income countries have surplus labor time. In particular, the evidence shows that • women play a key role in agriculture, and this is reflected in their time commitments to these activities, whether as farmers or as farmworkers; • women are important actors in the uptake and response to agricultural interventions; and • agricultural interventions tend to increase women’s, men’s, and children’s time burdens. However, the studies included in this review do not provide clear-cut evidence on the nutritional implications of agricultural practices and interventions, even when these result in increased time spent on agricultural activities. Nutritional impacts are varied because households and household members respond to increased time burden and workload in different ways. Why are responses different? It depends on a number of important differentiating factors that include income and the possibility of purchasing food, household socioeconomic status more generally, household type and composition (in particular the presence of members who can take up domestic work), and the type of indicator used to assess food consumption, security, or nutrition. Therefore different sets of policies are needed to address specific forms of burden management, shouldered by households, individual household members, or both.