In 2009, the World Bank published a comparative study of cotton sector reforms, based on detailed case studies carried out during 2007/08 in nine of Africa’s main cotton producing countries. The ...purpose of the study was to draw practical insights from the diversity of experiences in institutional reforms of cotton sectors and to better understand the strengths and weaknesses of the different types of sectors operating in Africa, the likely effects of specific types of policy change, and the possible ways forward. This paper develops a concept note for additional research that would address the perceived weaknesses of the earlier work. The underlying hypothesis of the proposed study is that technology research, farmer training, and policy and institutional reforms to improve cotton sector productivity and incomes tend to be designed for typical or model farmers. This often fails to take into account the diversity among cotton farmers and what this diversity implies for cotton sector development in general and the ability of the cotton sector to contribute to poverty reduction in particular. The proposed research is expected to contribute to aggregate growth in cotton productivity and incomes through the design of more targeted support interventions based on a better understanding of the strategies, capacities, and constraints of the different types of cotton farmers.
Mali has a high incidence of malnutrition. The fourth Demographic and Health survey reports that in 2006 the incidence of wasting, stunting and underweight children under 5 years of age was 13.8%, ...37.9% and 24.5% respectively in rural areas, and 12%, 24% and 25% respectively in urban areas. While malnutrition is found in all regions of Mali, the regions of Timbuktu and Sikasso have higher than average levels for all three indicators, while the region of Kidal has high levels of wasting. For a detailed analysis of food security indicators see Ward (2010).
This paper provides a systematic definition of food security, focusing on its different dimensions; examines the nature and magnitude of the different dimensions of food insecurity in developing ...countries; discusses the difficult tradeoffs that policy makers face in trying to address food security’s multiple dimensions simultaneously; and explores promising new approaches to address food insecurity. The geographic focus is on Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, where the majority of the world’s food insecure people live.
This paper aims to identify the geographic extent of major staple food market sheds in West Africa as well as the major trade corridors that link surplus producing areas with the deficit markets they ...serve. The method employed combines data on the spatial distribution of rural and urban population, maps of differing food staple zones, crop production data and consumption patterns as described in an array of recent household surveys to map major urban food markets as well as principal surplus production zones. Expert knowledge from traders and other market monitors in the region enable the authors to identify the major commodity flows linking the markets with their major supply zones. These efforts aim to summarize a large volume of information simply and clearly in market shed maps. The paper applies this method to map foodsheds for the region's major domestically produced food staple, sorghum and millet, and the major imported food, rice.
A key role for USAID and its partners is to identify how their resources can best contribute to increasing the capacity of the private and public sectors in Mali to scale up their investments, and ...increase the impact of those investments, in relation to the food security dimensions of availability, access, utilization and stability. To fulfill this role will involve identifying opportunities presented in the Malian agricultural sector investment plan (PNISA) to address critical needs in each of these dimensions, the types of investment that will best address the needs, and the set of resources and skills that will enable Malian organizations and entrepreneurs to implement those investments successfully and at scale. Even with increased resources, however, it is critically important that the USAID mission make strategic choices about where to focus resources. The scale and depth of rural poverty, and the complex nature of malnutrition, means that resources must be focused to have measureable impacts. The question is for whom, where and how should those resources be focused in the context of Mali’s CAADP compact and investment plan? To stimulate discussion of these questions we first highlight some key challenges and the nature of choices about resource allocation priorities, and then highlight the central role of information to achieve food and nutrition security objectives. We conclude with thoughts on two specific issues: graduating from fertilizer subsidies to free up resources for other investments, and the implications of smallholder heterogeneity for development strategies.
This paper investigates the determinants of participation and performance of tobacco contract farmers, and the effects of participation on overall crop and household incomes in the Zambezi Valley of ...Mozambique. We test the existence of threshold effects in land holdings and educational attainment to identify the types of farmers that benefit. Several results stand out. First, participation in the schemes is driven by factor endowments, asset ownership and alternative income opportunities, and very little by demographic factors. Second, we find no returns to education in tobacco; this result is consistent with previous research in Mozambique but surprising in an agronomically demanding crop like tobacco. Third, there appear to be economies of scale in tobacco production, perhaps through more efficient use of hired labor. If true, tobacco could drive greater economic differentiation through the growth of "emergent" or commercial smallholder households - something that has been conspicuously lacking in Mozambique to date. Fourth, farmers without wage income are more likely to grow tobacco; since other research shows that wage labor has driven most income growth in Mozambique over the past six years, tobacco could be inequality reducing. Tobacco growers also hire much more labor than non-growers, contributing to second-round inequality reducing effects. Further analysis, preferably in a general equilibrium framework, is needed to understand how the simultaneous forces of economic differentiation and spreading of economic benefits will affect income distribution. Potential adverse environmental impacts also deserve far more attention than they have received to date.
This paper assesses the record of five countries in southern and eastern Africa: Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Mozambique. The paper focuses on the course of reform in each – initial ...conditions, key elements of the reform, and institutional response to it – and draws lessons for policy makers, donors, and researchers.
With cotton sector reform in much of SSA a decade old, it is now possible to review the empirical record and begin drawing lessons from experience. This paper assesses the record of five countries in ...southern and eastern Africa: Tanzania, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Zambia, and Mozambique. In four of these countries, cotton is the first- or second most important smallholder cash crop; only in Uganda does it substantially lag other cash crops. The focus on the course of reform in each – initial conditions, key elements of the reform, and institutional response to it – and attempt to draw lessons for policy makers, donors, and researchers. the paper begins by outlining the challenges faced by cotton production and marketing systems. Next a review the range of pre-reform institutional responses to these challenges, before discussing the reform process in each country and reviewing the evolving institutional response to it. Finally, assess the performance that each country has achieved and attempt to relate this to its initial conditions and subsequent institutional responses, and closing by outlining lessons for strategies to improve cotton systems in SSA.
