Search

Non-PR, IFPRI5; DCA; Cross-cutting gender theme; Capacity Strengthening; Feed the Future Initiative, Natural Resources and Resilience (NRR); Transformation Strategies, Cashew is a cash crop primarily grown by smallholder farmers in Tanzania and is a major source of rural employment and income in Coastal areas. Women dominate small-scale cashew processing yet face various constraints to increasing their productivity and profitability. This study assesses the effectiveness of an intervention that provided equipment and training to women’s cashew processing groups (WCPGs) in Mtwara and Lindi regions, implemented by the Small Industries Development Organization (SIDO). The study uses mixed methods including in-depth focus group discussions with WCPGs, male and female cashew farmers, and other stakeholders in the cashew value chain, data on WCPG processing productivity, costs, revenues, and profitability with and without the improved processing equipment. The findings indicate that groups using this equipment can process 3 times as much RCN per day compared with the quantity that they could process before using rudimentary shelling tools. This results in participating WCPGs producing about 85 percent more processed cashew per season on average compared with a control group of WCPGs, and 3 times higher profits per season. However, participating WCPGs still face constraints including credit for accessing raw cashew and reliable access to markets for their processed cashew. The results suggest that this and similar interventions need to take a more holistic approach, recognizing that a technology intervention intended to increase production should be complemented by efforts to alleviate input and output marketing constraints.

Non-PR, IFPRI5; DCA; Capacity Strengthening; 4 Transforming Agricultural and Rural Economies; Feed the Future Initiative, Natural Resources and Resilience (NRR); Transformation Strategies, This study investigates the relationship between farm household participation in sugarcane production and food security in the main sugarcane-producing sub-regions of Busoga, Buganda, and Bunyoro of Uganda. Analysis is based on primary data collected from 1,771 households in these regions as well as qualitative focus group discussions with cane growers. Descriptive analysis found that three different measures of food security -- Household Food Insecurity Access Score (HFIAS); Months of Adequate Household Food Provisioning (MAHFP); and Household Dietary Diversity Score (HDDS); revealed higher average values of HFIAS, MAHFP and HDDS for cane growing households compared to non-cane growers. Poisson regressions of the three food security measures (and an Ordered Probit Model of Food Insecurity Score, derived from HFIAS) found that farm households engaging in cane production in 2021 had lower levels of food insecurity and a higher number of months of food adequacy, on average, relative to households not producing cane, while controlling for other factors known to influence household food security. Maintaining the positive association between cane production and food security requires a policy environment and public sector governance to promote improved coordination between growers and millers and consideration of related income stabilisation mechanisms for sugarcane farmers. In addition, extension services should promote sugarcane production on farms with 8 or more acres only, farmer adherence to maintaining food crop cultivation, and use of productivity-enhancing technologies in cane and food crop production.

Non-PR, IFPRI5; 4 Transforming Agricultural and Rural Economies; DCA; Capacity Strengthening; Feed the Future Initiative, Natural Resources and Resilience (NRR); Transformation Strategies, 67 pages, This study investigates sugarcane grower productivity and profitability in Uganda and whether and how they are influenced by institutional arrangements between sugarcane growers and millers. Analysis is based on primary data collected from 983 sugarcane growing farm households in the three main sugarcane-producing regions of Busoga, Buganda, and Bunyoro. The study finds evidence that use of key quality inputs and crop and soil management practices are associated with higher farmer cane yield. There is also a clear trade-off (an inverse relationship) between the level of competition between large and small cane mills in a region and the level of grower-miller coordination of market assurance and input access, as embodied by institutional arrangements between growers and millers. Better grower-miller coordination was associated with better grower access to a market for mature cane and access to key inputs and services such fresh, quality cane seedlings and cane-specific extension. In turn, better market access and higher yields are associated with higher farmer cane profits per acre. Revision of the existing policy framework and enabling environment of cane production and processing in Uganda is needed to resolve several contentious policy issues and provide public sector oversight of grower-miller relations and better coordination of the national supply of and demand for cane. Success of this policy reform is vital for the cane industry to remain both financially sustainable and inclusive.

Non-PR, IFPRI1; MyanmarSSP; CRP2; 4 Transforming Agricultural and Rural Economies; MAPSA, DSGD; PIM, CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM)

Non-PR, IFPRI1; MyanmarSSP; CRP2; 4 Transforming Agricultural and Rural Economies; MAPSA, DSGD; PIM, CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM), This working paper synthesizes findings from four large household and community surveys in Myanmar, each covering a major agro-ecological zone, to evaluate inter-regional variations in the composition of agriculture, livelihoods, and the rural economy, and prospects for production and income growth.

Non-PR, IFPRI2; Feed the Future Initiative; MyanmarSSP; CRP2, EPTD; DSGD; PIM, CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM), For countries like Myanmar, where crop production accounts for the largest share of agricultural GDP, improved varieties are an essential source of increased and/or more stable crop yields. The adoption of improved varieties often increases the incentives for farmers to invest in complementary improved crop and soil management practices. For this reason most countries give priority to variety development, and Myanmar is no exception despite the very limited research budget allocated to crop research by the government. Yet improved varieties only generate benefits for farmers if they are adopted, and farmers only adopt new varieties if they are aware of their existence and benefits. For farmers to evaluate and adopt improved varieties they need access to quality seed (seed which is pure, exhibiting only the true genetic characteristics of the variety, with a high level of germination and uncontaminated by disease, weed seeds or other foreign matter). Access to quality seed is important because the attributes of farmer-saved seed degenerate with multiple seasons of use. Sustained benefits from variety adoption therefore require farmer awareness of, and access to, quality seed which preserves those benefits. Despite the importance of variety adoption and access to quality seed for crop productivity growth very few survey-based studies have been conducted in Myanmar. Our study focuses on the Dry Zone. This major agro-ecological zone was chosen for the following reasons. First, the Dry Zone is home to approximately 10 million people who are dependent directly or indirectly on farming for their incomes; second, a wide variety of crops are grown in the Dry Zone for which improved varieties have been officially released; third, access to improved varieties is recognized as an important means to adapt to rapid climate change experienced in the Dry Zone over the past thirty years (increased frequency of flooding and drought); and fourth, no previous survey-based studies on th

Non-PR, IFPRI1; MAPSA; CRP2; CRP4; MyanmarSSP, DSGD; PHND; PIM; A4NH, CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health (A4NH); CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM), There is an urgent need to anticipate and mitigate the threat posed by COVID-19 to Myanmar’s agricultural sector and to rural households that depend on farming for income and for food and nutrition security. We evaluate options to address the threat and to support farmers to prepare their land and plant their crops on time in the short window before the start of the 2020 monsoon cropping season. Recognizing that no single intervention can address the full range of vulnerabilities faced by rural households, we recommend a combination: • Expansion of access to seasonal farm credit with extended loan repayment schedules; • Limited agricultural input subsidies targeting certified seed; and • Implementation of a cash transfer program to smallholder farmers. Despite the high cost of a cash transfer program, there are good reasons to expect that the benefits of such support to farm households will outweigh program costs in monetary terms – even more so if the economic benefits from the consequent lower incidence of malnutrition to which the program would contribute can be measured.