Download or read book Agriculture for development in Iraq Estimating the impacts of achieving the agricultural targets of the national development plan 2013 2017 on economic growth incomes and gender equality written by Al-Haboby, Azhr and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2014-05-30 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper estimates the potential effects of achieving the agricultural goals set out in Iraq’s National Development Plan (NDP) 2013–2017 using a dynamic computable general equilibrium model. The findings suggest that raising agricultural productivity in accordance with the NDP may more than double average agricultural growth rates and add an average of 0.7 percent each year to economywide gross domestic product during the duration of the plan. As a consequence, the economy not only diversifies into agriculture, but agricultural growth also lifts growth in the food processing and service sectors. Achieving the yield targets for cereals (especially wheat) and for fruits and vegetables will have the largest impact on economic growth and household incomes. Household incomes will rise by an estimated 3.3 percent annually. This increase in household incomes will benefit the poorest households and female-headed urban households the most due to a combination of lower food prices and higher incomes from labor and land. Reaping these benefits from agricultural growth will critically depend on the implementation of policies and investments to ensure that additional agricultural produce can be marketed efficiently domestically and compete with imports.

Download or read book Direct seed marketing program in Ethiopia in 2013 written by Benson, Todd and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2014-05-27 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2013 the Bureaus of Agriculture in the regional states of Amhara, Oromia, and Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples of Ethiopia supported a program of direct marketing of certified seed by seed producers to farmers across 31 woredas (districts). This program stands in contrast to the dominant procedure for supplying such seed in which farmers register with local agricultural offices or extension agents to purchase seed for the coming cropping season and then receive seed either directly from these local offices or through local cooperatives. The evaluation shows that competition between entrepreneurial seed producers to capture a substantial portion of the market of farmer-customers for their seed to enable their firms to remain in business will propel wider and more effective distribution of new and improved hybrid maize to more and more farmers.

Download or read book The role of agriculture in the fast growing Rwandan Economy written by Diao, Xinshen and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2014-07-31 with total page 76 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study assesses the future growth prospects of Rwanda. The report first focuses on broad economic growth using a rather aggregated 18-sector dynamic general equilibrium model to display the trade-off between rapid growth and structural change. The analysis shows that with the current investment pattern, rapid growth is possible but structural transformation is slow. With an overvalued exchange rate, growth in the tradable sector slows down and its share in the economy stays small. The importance of agriculture thus should be considered in the broad development strategy, for its role not only in poverty reduction but also in economic growth.

Download or read book The impact of shocks on gender differentiated asset dynamics in Bangladesh written by Rakib, Muntaha and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2014-06-27 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Assets are an important means of coping with adverse events in developing countries but the role of gendered ownership is not yet fully understood. This paper investigates changes in assets owned by the household head, his spouse, or jointly by both of them in response to shocks in rural agricultural households in Bangladesh with the help of detailed household survey panel data. Land is owned mostly by men, who are wealthier than their spouses with respect to almost all types of assets, but relative ownership varies by type of asset. Controlling for unobserved heterogeneity across households and looking at changes within, rather than between, households, we find that weather shocks such as cyclones adversely affect the asset holdings of household heads in general, while predicted external events lead to assets of both spouses being drawn down. The results, furthermore, suggest that jointly owned assets are not sold in response to shocks, either due to these assets being actively protected or due to the difficulty of agreeing on this coping strategy, and that women’s asset holdings and associated coping strategies are shaped by their lower involvement in agriculture.

Download or read book Can market based approaches to technology development and dissemination benefit women smallholder farmers written by Njuki, Jemimah and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2014-07-11 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Rural household economies dependent on rainfed agriculture are increasingly turning to irrigation technology solutions to reduce the effects of weather variability and guard against inconsistent and low crop output. Organizations are increasingly using market-based approaches to disseminate technologies to smallholder farmers, and, although women are among their targeted group, little is known of the extent to which these approaches are reaching and benefiting women. There is also little evidence on the implications of women’s use and control of irrigation technologies for outcomes, including crop choice and income management. This paper reports findings from a qualitative study undertaken in Tanzania and Kenya to examine women’s access to and ownership of KickStart pumps and the implications for their ability to make major decisions on crop choices and use of income from irrigated crops. Results from sales-monitoring data show that women purchase less than 10 percent of the pumps and men continue to make most of the major decisions on crop choices and income use. These findings vary by type of crop, with men making major decisions on high-income crops such as tomatoes and women having relatively more autonomy on crops such as leafy vegetables. The study concludes that market-based approaches on their own cannot guarantee access to and ownership of technologies, and businesses need to take specific measures toward the goal of reaching and benefiting women.

Download or read book Identifying agricultural expenditures within the public financial accounts and coding system in Ghana written by Benin, Samuel and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2014-08-25 with total page 52 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper is part of four country case studies that take a detailed look at public expenditures in agriculture, and at how the data on expenditures are captured in government financial and budget accounts. The objective of these studies is to unpack the black box of public expenditure statistics reported in various cross-country datasets, and ultimately to enable the use of existing government accounts to identify levels and compositions of government agriculture expenditures, with better understanding of what these data are in fact accounting for.

Download or read book Bargaining power and biofortification The role of gender in adoption of orange sweet potato in Uganda written by Gilligan, Daniel O. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2014-06-13 with total page 28 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We examine the role of gender in adoption and diffusion of orange sweet potato, a biofortified staple food crop being promoted as a strategy to increase dietary intakes of vitamin A among young children and adult women in Uganda. As an agricultural intervention with nutrition objectives, intrahousehold gender dynamics regarding decisions about crop choice and child feeding practices may play a role in adoption decisions. Also, most households access sweet potato vines through informal exchange, suggesting again that gender dimensions of networks may be important to diffusion of the crop. We use data from an experimental impact evaluation of the introduction of OSP in Uganda to study how female bargaining power, measured by share of land and nonland assets controlled by women, affect adoption and diffusion decisions.

Download or read book The Economywide Effects of Teff Wheat and Maize Production Increases in Ethiopia written by Benson, Todd and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2014 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The government of Ethiopia is investing significant public resources to increase overall national production of teff, wheat, and maize. To better understand the likely economywide effects of increases of between 12 and 14 percent in the national production of these cereals, a set of production increase scenarios for each crop were run using a computable general equilibrium model of the Ethiopian economy. The analyses were extended to also consider the effects of several international wheat price and wheat import scenarios, a wheat subsidy program, and maize exports. Among the effects considered are changes in economic growth, prices, total household consumption, cereal and calorie consumption levels, and poverty measures.

Download or read book Geographic Realities in the Middle East and North Africa written by George Joffé and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-10-25 with total page 218 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Celebrating the work of Keith McLachlan, a well-known and much-admired geographer of the Middle East and North Africa, this book combines three interrelated topics that define the region. The Middle East has been integral to the growth of the global oil industry, an aspect of its evolution since 1908 which has had profound geopolitical implications as well. The territory was also the arena for the last European experiment in colonialism, a development that has left its legacy even today. And, historically, it has been the location of the great hydraulic civilisations of Egypt and Mesopotamia yet is still dependent on the flow of its two major river systems – the Nile and the Tigris-Euphrates – in an era of impending climate crisis. These themes form the essence of themes that are discussed in the chapters that follow. Keith McLachlan played a significant role in our understanding of these themes and of their effects in the contemporary world, as the comments of those who worked with him and have contributed towards this book reveal. Examining agriculture, oil and state construction, this volume offers an insight into how the contemporary Middle East was constructed after the collapse of the Ottoman Empire. It is a key resource for scholars and students interested in geopolitics and the geography of the Middle East.

Download or read book Understanding the context for agriculture for nutrition research written by Maruyama, Eduardo and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2014-07-31 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: We use data from 52 countries on child stunting, poverty, determinants of food security, environmental health, and quality of maternal and child care to carry out a cluster analysis of country typologies. The purpose is to identify where agriculture-led interventions might address binding constraints to progress in improving nutrition outcomes and to identify how existing research on the links between agriculture and nutrition in particular country contexts may or may not be representative.

Download or read book Sins of the fathers written by Tan, Chih Ming and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The intergenerational effect of fetal exposure to malnutrition on cognitive ability has rarely been studied for human beings in large part due to lack of data. In this paper, we exploit a natural experiment, the Great Chinese Famine of 1959–1961, and employ a novel dataset, the China Family Panel Studies, to explore the intergenerational legacy of early childhood health shocks on the cognitive abilities of the children of parents born during the famine. We find that daughters born to rural fathers who experienced the famine in early childhood score lower in major tests than sons, whereas children born to female survivors are not affected.

Download or read book Quality healthcare and health insurance retention written by Delavallade, Clara and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2014-06-06 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Healthcare in developing countries is often unreliable and of poor quality, thus reducing individuals incentives to use quality health services. This paper examines an innovative approach to access to and demand for quality health care from the poor. Using data from a field experiment in India, I examine the impact of high-quality care experiences in the form of a free medical consultation with a qualified nongovernmental organization doctor, randomly offered by a health insurance provider to a subset of its enrollees. The effects are twofold. First, receiving this additional benefit raises enrollees’ willingness to pay to renew health insurance by 51 percent. This impact appears mostly at the extensive margin and is driven by a perceived income shock, as well as increased satisfaction with the scheme and trust in the insurance provider. In addition, exposed individuals are 12 percentage points more likely to consult a qualified practitioner when ill two months after the free consultation. Providing some initial quality care thus improves the demand for quality healthcare through two different pathways—first by improving health insurance retention and second by raising the subsequent use of quality health services.

Download or read book Co movement of major commodity price returns A time series assessment written by de Nicola, Francesca and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2014-06-13 with total page 44 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the degree of co-movement among the nominal price returns of 11 major energy, agricultural, and food commodities using monthly data between 1970 and 2013. The authors study the extent and the time evolution of unconditional and conditional correlations using a uniform-spacings testing approach, a multivariate dynamic conditional correlation model and a rolling regression procedure.

Download or read book Assessing the economic benefits of sustainable land management practices in Bhutan written by Nkonya, Ephraim M. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2014-07-31 with total page 64 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This study was conducted with the objective of determining the returns to sustainable land management (SLM) at the national level in Bhutan. The study first uses satellite data on land change (Landsat) to examine land use change in 1990–2010 and its impact on sediment loading in hydroelectric power plants. The study then uses the Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) model to analyze the impact of land use change and land management on sediment loading. The results from the land use change and SWAT analyses are used to assess the economic benefits of SLM.

Download or read book Tractor owner operators in Nigeria Insights from a small survey in Kaduna and Nasarawa states written by Takeshima, Hiroyuki and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2014-06-20 with total page 40 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper presents results of a small survey of tractor owner-operators conducted in Kaduna and Nasarawa states in Nigeria. Following are the key findings from simple descriptive statistics: (1) owner-operators who buy tractors from the private market or from private individuals are more efficient than those who receive tractors through government programs, providing services to a greater area at lower costs, including during the off-peak season; (2) providing access to a wider range of tractor horsepowers may improve efficiency over diverse soil types; (3) similar to some Asian countries in the 1980s, tractor operations are mostly concentrated in interviewees’ local home districts, though a fraction form groups and serve in distant locations to earn greater revenues.

Download or read book The other Asian enigma written by Headey, Derek D. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2014-07-25 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: South Asia has long been synonymous with persistent and unusually high rates of child undernutrition—the so-called Asian enigma. Yet contrary to this stereotype, Bangladesh has managed to sustain a rapid reduction in the rate of child undernutrition for at least two decades. In this paper we aim to understand the sources of this unheralded success with the aspiration of deriving policy-relevant lessons from Bangladesh’s experience. To do so we employ a regression analysis of five rounds of Demographic and Health Surveys covering the period from 1997 to 2011.

Download or read book What dimensions of women s empowerment in agriculture matter for nutrition related practices and outcomes in Ghana written by Malapit, Hazel J. and published by Intl Food Policy Res Inst. This book was released on 2014-09-01 with total page 45 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper investigates linkages between women’s empowerment in agriculture and the nutritional status of women and children using 2012 baseline data from the Feed the Future population-based survey in Ghana. The sample consists of 3,344 children and 3,640 women and is statistically representative of the northernmost regions of Ghana where the Feed the Future programs are operating.