Even under optimistic assumptions about the rate of urbanization and growth of non-farm employment, agriculture will still be the main source of livelihood for the majority of Africans for at least the next several decades (Losch 2012). Non-farm wage jobs in Sub-Saharan Africa will be able to...

The market structure in Zambia’s sugar industry is highly concentrated, leading to consumers paying higher prices than expected given the low cost of sugar production in the country.

For several reasons, fertilizer subsidies are again popular policy tools. First, there is broad agreement that fertilizer is a critical yet still-underused input for improving productivity and food security in Africa. Second, politicians have felt greater urgency to increase domestic food...

Without renewed attention to sustained agricultural productivity growth, most small farms in developing countries will become increasingly unviable economic and social units. Sustained agricultural productivity growth and poverty reduction will require progress on a number of fronts, most...

Decades of research have led to substantially improved understanding of the nature of food insecurity. A combination of economic growth and targeted programs resulted in a steady fall (until the food crisis of 2007/08) in the percentage of the world’s population suffering from undernutrition...

This Policy Synthesis is a summary of a longer report that discusses the procurement of food aid within the country or region where it is needed. Referred to as local and regional procurement – LRP – this practice has become a major element in multilateral food aid response over the past...

It is generally agreed that increasing agricultural productivity is critical to stimulating the rate of economic growth in Africa. There are many important and often complementary determinants of agricultural productivity. In this brief and the full paper it draws from, the focus is on...