Globalization has significantly changed agricultural trade, and markets are more connected and capable of delivering economic opportunity and food security now than ever before. While the market itself is the physical representation of trade, the rules governing the market are a key factor in...

Prepared for the COMESA policy seminar on“Variation in staple food prices: Causes, consequence, and policy options”,Maputo, Mozambique, 25-26 January 2010under the Comesa-MSU-IFPRI African Agricultural Marketing Project (AAMP)

Published by Tegemeo Institute for Agricultural Policy and Development

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...

Egerton University Tegemeo Institute of Agricultural Policy and Development

Prepared for the COMESA policy seminar on “Variation in staple food prices: Causes, consequence, and policy options”, Maputo, Mozambique, 25-26 January 2010 under the Comesa-MSU-IFPRI African Agricultural Marketing Project (AAMP)

The objective of this study is to identify the factors responsible for the impressive growth in fertilizer use in Kenya since market liberalization in the early 1990s. Over the past 10 years, fertilizer consumption has risen by 35%. So far, it is unknown whether smallholder farmers are...

The objective of this study is therefore to take stock or review the existing body of knowledge, distill the main policy issues and findings, and to identify the analytical gaps. The findings and lessons from research will feed into the ongoing debates and policy formulation, and the identified...

This study uses nationwide household panel survey data from 1996/97 to 2006/07 to examine trends in fertilizer use on maize by smallholder maize growers. The paper also compares these findings with fertilizer use rates according to other recent surveys in Kenya to assess comparability. We also...