Over the past four decades, decision-makers in Ethiopia have pursued a range of policies and investments to boost agricultural production and productivity, particularly with respect to the food staple crops that are critical to reducing poverty in the country. A central aim of this process has...

Decisionmakers in Ethiopia have pursued a range of policies and investments to boost agricultural production and productivity. An important tool has been to increase the availability of improved seed, chemical fertilizers, and extension services for small-scale, resource-poor farmers. While...

Over the past decade, policymakers have been searching for an appropriate blend of public and private sector roles to accelerate the intensification of food staple production, smallholder commercialization, and sustainable market development in sub-Saharan Africa. In Ethiopia, steps taken to...

"In this paper, we develop a theoretical farm household model of food crop production and marketing decisions, derive testable hypotheses concerning the determinants of these decisions, and test these hypotheses, using data on cereal production and marketing collected from a nationally...

Over the past two decades, decisionmakers in Ethiopia have pursued a range of policies and investments to boost agricultural production and productivity, particularly with respect to the food staple crops that are critical to reducing poverty in the country. A central aim of this process has...

"Kenya's economy is relatively diverse, with both agricultural and industrial potential. However, the economy has performed poorly over the last decade, and poverty and inequality have risen. This paper examines the impact of alternative growth paths and rural investments on poverty using an...

This paper addresses the previously unanswered question of whether the private sector might play a future role in developing similar strains through applications of advanced biotechnology, and whether their research and development efforts would benefit poor and vulnerable farmers in...

Demand heterogeneity often makes it profitable for firms to price and promote goods and services differently in different market segments. When private consumption brings public benefits, this same heterogeneity can be used to target public subsidies. We explore the design of...

The role of intellectual property rights (IPRs) has been extensively debated in the literature on technology transfers and agricultural production in developing countries. However, few studies offer cross-country evidence on how IPRs affect yield growth, for example, by incentivizing...

This research was undertaken to understand how information about a new agricultural technology is transmitted through social networks, and what effect information gained through social networks has on technology demand at the household level. The technology in question is laser land leveling...