Better dairy production could reduce poverty and improve nutrition in western Kenya, but the requisite technologies have not been widely adopted. This study collected dairy cow attributes from 630 households to evaluate what factors influence smallholder farmers to adopt technologies. Conjoint...

Although social capital is a potentially important asset for poverty reduction in developing economies, there has been little analysis of factors affecting its formation in developing countries such as Uganda. This paper analyzes what influences households to join local organizations and the...

This paper proposes an alternative measure of irrigation water efficiency based on the concept of input-specific technical efficiency. It uses a stochastic production frontier approach, based on Battese and Coelli’s (1995) inefficiency effect model, to obtain farm-specific estimates of...

Poverty is higher in most African countries than elsewhere in the developing world, and highest in the rural areas. Accelerating growth in agriculture will therefore be critical to sustain growth and reduce poverty, but policy makers are unsure which sub-sector will yield the highest return for...

Based on original trader surveys, this paper examines how agricultural traders operate in Benin and Malawi. Results indicate that the largest transaction costs are search and transport. The use of modern technology is limited. Search methods rely principally on personal visits by the trader, and...

This study focuses on public investments and policy reforms for leveraging growth spillovers at the Africa regional level. It reviews first the theory and evidence of knowledge and growth spillovers generally and second the evidence in the African context. Given the limited and scattered...

Governments do not have enough resources to make anti-poverty programs available to everyone in many African countries. Targeting the poorest populations could increase the efficiency of available program resources. Anti-poverty programs could target either households or geographical areas. This...

The concept of a livelihood strategy has become central to development practice in recent years. Nonetheless, precise identification of livelihoods in quantitative data has remained methodologically elusive. This paper uses cluster analysis methods to operationalize the concept of livelihood...