Author: Jacob Ricker-Gilbert
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781124814674
Category : Agriculture and state
Languages : en
Pages : 171

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Book Description

Author: Benson, Todd
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 27

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Book Description
Malawi has been at the center of the debate on agricultural input subsidies in Africa ever since it significantly expanded its fertilizer subsidy program about two decades ago. When it did so, Malawi was a trailblazer, receiving international attention for seemingly leveraging the subsidy program to move the country from a situation characterized by food deficits and widespread hunger to crop production surpluses. In this paper we trace the history of Malawi’s subsidy program over the past 70 years, describing how the country arrived at that watershed moment earlier this century and how the subsidy program has developed since. We show how donor support for the program has wavered and how external pressure to remove the subsidy has repeatedly been unsuccessful. We also demonstrate how over the years the program’s total fiscal burden has fluctuated significantly. However, we find that since the expansion of the subsidy program in 2004, the fiscal costs of the program have shown little correlation with the maize harvest that same agricultural season. We show that the subsidy program has succeeded in raising awareness about the value of the fertilizer for increased crop productivity. However, despite its continued prominence in the country’s agricultural policy, most Malawian smallholder do not manage to grow sufficient maize to feed their households throughout the year, and every year millions depend on food assistance during the worst months of the lean season.

Author: Ephraim Chirwa
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0199683522
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 315

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Book Description
This book takes forward our understanding of agricultural input subsidies in low income countries.

Author: Kurdi, Sikandra
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 24

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Book Description
As part of a national policy to ensure a certain level of food self-sufficiency in strategic crops, the government of Egypt subsidizes nitrogen fertilizer directly by distributing quotas of subsidized fertilizers to farmers and indirectly by subsidizing natural gas used by local fertilizer factories. The implication of this subsidy on farmers’ fertilizer demand and productivity remains unknown. Using a detailed agricultural survey collected from smallholder farmers in Upper Egypt, we show that nitrogen fertilizer application rates are substantially in excess of crop-specific agronomic recommendations. We exploit eligibility criteria and other sources of variation to show that farm plots with easier access to the subsidy tend to use more subsidized nitrogen fertilizer and less phosphate fertilizer. Easier access to the subsidy increases use of total nitrogen fertilizer per unit of land, mainly because of the increase in subsidized nitrogen fertilizer. In particular, the fertilizer subsidy program in Egypt is associated with significant overapplication of nitrogen fertilizer. Such overapplication of fertilizer is expected to adversely affect soil, water, and environmental health. Our findings have important policy implications for Egypt and other African countries known for input subsidy programs. As Egypt is currently moving on from the successful implementation of a comprehensive macroeconomic reform program towards sector-level reforms, our results suggest that eliminating fertilizer subsidies is a good place to start.

Author: Stein Holden
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 34

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Book Description

Author:
Publisher: World Bank Publications
ISBN: 0821368818
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 162

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Book Description
The good practice guidelines - which form the basis of an interactive policymaker's tool kit included on a CD accompanying the book - relate not only to the more focused problem of encouraging increased fertilizer use by farmers, but also to the broader challenge of creating the type of enabling environment that is needed to support the emergence of efficient, dynamic and commercially viable fertilizer marketing systems."--Jacket.

Author: Duncan Ndhlovu
Publisher: LAP Lambert Academic Publishing
ISBN: 9783659157103
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 84

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Book Description
Achievement of food security is at the top of the agenda of many developing countries especially in the awake of food price volatility and climate change. In Malawi, input subsidies are primarily supporting the staple crop, maize. This book analyzes how fertilizer subsidies to maize production in Malawi affect farm households' crop choice, cropland allocation and crop diversification level. Empirical results show that farm households' cropland allocation patterns and the subsequent crop diversification levels are sensitive to fertilizer subsidy program. In particular, the results showed that farm households' access to fertilizer subsidy is associated with a decrease in the cropland allocation to maize and pulses while there is an increase in cropland allocation to ground nuts, roots-tubers and tobacco. In terms of crop diversification, the study findings suggest that farm households' access to fertilizer subsidies promote crop diversification. The results illustrate that fertilizer subsidies to maize positively contribute to promoting farm households' crop diversification levels through intensified maize production.

Author: Harou, Aurélie
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
ISBN:
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 36

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Book Description
Despite the rise of targeted input subsidy programs in Africa over the last decade, several questions remain as to whether low and variable soil fertility, frequent drought, and high fertilizer prices render fertilizer unprofitable for large subpopulations of African farmers. To examine these questions, we use large-scale, panel experimental data from maize field trials throughout Malawi to estimate the expected physical returns to fertilizer use conditional on a range of agronomic factors and weather conditions. Using these estimated returns and historical price and weather data, we simulate the expected profitability of fertilizer application over space and time. We find that the fertilizer bundles distributed under Malawi’s subsidy program are almost always profitable in expectation, although our results may be reasonably interpreted as upper-bound estimates among more skilled farmers given that the experimental subjects were not randomly selected.

Author: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.
ISBN: 9251099081
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 46

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Book Description
In this paper, we evaluate the impact of this proposed change to the existing FISP design and implementation mechanisms by utilizing two waves of the Living Standards Measurement Study - Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA)survey merged with historical climate data. We estimate how the demand for agricultural inputs varies according to a variation in the targeting criteria and identify more efficient farmers that should be eligible for the FISP.

Author: Sergio Gomez y Paloma
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030421481
Category : Agriculture
Languages : en
Pages : 253

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Book Description
This open access book discusses the current role of smallholders in connection with food security and poverty reduction in developing countries. It addresses the opportunities they enjoy, and the constraints they face, by analysing the availability, access to and utilization of production factors. Due to the relevance of smallholder farms, enhancing their production capacities and economic and social resilience could produce positive impacts on food security and nutrition at a number of levels. In addition to the role of small farmers as food suppliers, the book considers their role as consumers and their level of nutrition security. It investigates the link between agriculture and nutrition in order to better understand how agriculture affects human health and dietary patterns. Given the importance of smallholdings, strategies to increase their productivity are essential to improving food and nutrition security, as well as food diversity.