An important hypothesized benefit of large-scale input subsidy programs in Africa is that by raising maize production, the subsidies should put downward pressure on retail maize prices to the benefit of urban consumers and the rural poor who tend to be net food buyers. To inform debates related...

Millions of smallholder farm households in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) are net consumers of staple crops, and millions of poor urban households spend a significant share of their income purchasing staple foods. Recent research has underscored the major effects of changes in food prices on poverty,...

Input subsidy programs that provide inorganic fertilizer and improved maize seed to small farmers below market rates are currently receiving a great deal of support as a sustainable strategy to foster an African Green Revolution. In recent years numerous countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)...

This study uses nationally representative household-level panel data from Malawi and Zambia to identify the determinants of subsidized maize seed and fertilizer receipt, and to estimate how input subsidies affect households’ commercial purchases of improved maize seed varieties. In both...

CONTEXT Agricultural management systems of many smallholders in low and middle-income countries depend on services by pollinator populations. However, increased adoption of modern inputs and particularly the wide-spread use of agrochemicals threaten pollinators and smallholders' crop production....