Agricultural policies affect almost everyone in the world, directly or indirectly. Improvements i... more Agricultural policies affect almost everyone in the world, directly or indirectly. Improvements in agricultural policy analysis capacity can therefore significantly benefit society. This report synthesizes lessons learned from the Food Security Policy Innovation Lab’s capacity strengthening efforts over the 2013–2018 period and from related capacity development initiatives conducted over the last four decades by the partner institutions in Africa and Asia. “Capacity” is defined as the resources required for people and institutions to reach their objectives and achieve results in an efficient and sustainable manner. Capacity development is therefore the process of enhancing, improving, and unleashing such resources—in people, organizations, and systems. In this report, the term “locally led” refers to institutions registered in the host country, led by nationals of the host country, and often, but not necessarily, affiliated with a public university or government unit in the host cou...
benefited from the comments of Cynthia Donovan, Michael Weber and two anonymous reviewers. The vi... more benefited from the comments of Cynthia Donovan, Michael Weber and two anonymous reviewers. The views expressed in this article reflect the views of the authors only.
As part of broader efforts to address major global challenges―such as climate change, urbanizatio... more As part of broader efforts to address major global challenges―such as climate change, urbanization, gender equality, and nutrition―USAID’s Feed the Future Program hosted a series of Roundtable Discussions in early 2016. These meetings brought together a diverse set of specialists to identify new emerging issues and strategies for effectively achieving the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Toward this end, Feed the Future assembled 44 academics and representatives of African governments, field-based youth programs and development organizations on May 17, 2016 in Washington, DC for the Youth & Employment Roundtable Symposium.
BACKGROUND: “Smallholder commercialization” for the purposes of this symposium refers to a virtuo... more BACKGROUND: “Smallholder commercialization” for the purposes of this symposium refers to a virtuous cycle in which farmers intensify their use of productivity-enhancing technologies on their farms, achieve greater output per unit of land and labor expended, produce greater farm surpluses (or transition from deficit to surplus producers), expand their participation in markets, and ultimately raise their incomes and living standards. This is the vision of commercialization explored in this paper and conference.
This note highlights the major challenges facing governments and international agencies in their ... more This note highlights the major challenges facing governments and international agencies in their efforts to strengthen the performance of staple food markets in Eastern and Southern Africa. The analysis synthesizes recent analyses by
This paper examines the intersections between youth access to land, migration decisions and emplo... more This paper examines the intersections between youth access to land, migration decisions and employment opportunities using nationally representative and multi-year data from multiple African countries. We document evidence on the evolving dynamics in land distribution and ownership patterns, the effect of land access on youth livelihood choices and development of rental and sales market in the region. The report highlights six key findings: First, a progressively smaller proportion of young people are inheriting land due to land scarcity. Second, rural youth who do inherit land will need to wait longer to gain access to it because of significantly longer adult life spans. Third, land scarcity has been driving rapid changes in the land ownership and distribution patterns over the past decade and shaping the employment and migration decisions of rural youth. Fourth, the share of individual labour time devoted to farming is declining over time across age categories and gender, signifyi...
Our analyses highlight the fact that even in countries that have achieved impressive grain produc... more Our analyses highlight the fact that even in countries that have achieved impressive grain production growth in recent years, such as Malawi and Zambia, this growth has been heavily concentrated among a small proportion of farmers. In most of the countries for which nationwide farm survey data is available, about 75% of the marketed maize output comes from 10% of the farms (Jayne et al 2010). The value of these farms’ crop and animal product sales is almost as much as the other 90% of farms. Because most poor smallholder farms have limited land and other productive assets, over half of the smallholder population is bypassed by this production growth and remain staple food buyers. For these and other reasons, rural poverty rates have remained stubbornly high even where aggregate grain production has risen dramatically. A major challenge for CAADP Investment Plans is therefore how to effectively reach the least productive half of the smallholder population. Doing so will require a com...
The Food Security Research Project is a collaborative program of research, outreach and local cap... more The Food Security Research Project is a collaborative program of research, outreach and local capacity building, between the Agricultural Consultative Forum (AFC), the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MACO), and Michigan State University’s Department of Agricultural Economics (MSU). We wish to acknowledge the financial and substantive support provided by the Swedish
Agricultural policies affect almost everyone in the world, directly or indirectly. Improvements i... more Agricultural policies affect almost everyone in the world, directly or indirectly. Improvements in agricultural policy analysis capacity can therefore significantly benefit society. This report synthesizes lessons learned from the Food Security Policy Innovation Lab’s capacity strengthening efforts over the 2013–2018 period and from related capacity development initiatives conducted over the last four decades by the partner institutions in Africa and Asia. “Capacity” is defined as the resources required for people and institutions to reach their objectives and achieve results in an efficient and sustainable manner. Capacity development is therefore the process of enhancing, improving, and unleashing such resources—in people, organizations, and systems. In this report, the term “locally led” refers to institutions registered in the host country, led by nationals of the host country, and often, but not necessarily, affiliated with a public university or government unit in the host cou...
benefited from the comments of Cynthia Donovan, Michael Weber and two anonymous reviewers. The vi... more benefited from the comments of Cynthia Donovan, Michael Weber and two anonymous reviewers. The views expressed in this article reflect the views of the authors only.
As part of broader efforts to address major global challenges―such as climate change, urbanizatio... more As part of broader efforts to address major global challenges―such as climate change, urbanization, gender equality, and nutrition―USAID’s Feed the Future Program hosted a series of Roundtable Discussions in early 2016. These meetings brought together a diverse set of specialists to identify new emerging issues and strategies for effectively achieving the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Toward this end, Feed the Future assembled 44 academics and representatives of African governments, field-based youth programs and development organizations on May 17, 2016 in Washington, DC for the Youth & Employment Roundtable Symposium.
BACKGROUND: “Smallholder commercialization” for the purposes of this symposium refers to a virtuo... more BACKGROUND: “Smallholder commercialization” for the purposes of this symposium refers to a virtuous cycle in which farmers intensify their use of productivity-enhancing technologies on their farms, achieve greater output per unit of land and labor expended, produce greater farm surpluses (or transition from deficit to surplus producers), expand their participation in markets, and ultimately raise their incomes and living standards. This is the vision of commercialization explored in this paper and conference.
This note highlights the major challenges facing governments and international agencies in their ... more This note highlights the major challenges facing governments and international agencies in their efforts to strengthen the performance of staple food markets in Eastern and Southern Africa. The analysis synthesizes recent analyses by
This paper examines the intersections between youth access to land, migration decisions and emplo... more This paper examines the intersections between youth access to land, migration decisions and employment opportunities using nationally representative and multi-year data from multiple African countries. We document evidence on the evolving dynamics in land distribution and ownership patterns, the effect of land access on youth livelihood choices and development of rental and sales market in the region. The report highlights six key findings: First, a progressively smaller proportion of young people are inheriting land due to land scarcity. Second, rural youth who do inherit land will need to wait longer to gain access to it because of significantly longer adult life spans. Third, land scarcity has been driving rapid changes in the land ownership and distribution patterns over the past decade and shaping the employment and migration decisions of rural youth. Fourth, the share of individual labour time devoted to farming is declining over time across age categories and gender, signifyi...
Our analyses highlight the fact that even in countries that have achieved impressive grain produc... more Our analyses highlight the fact that even in countries that have achieved impressive grain production growth in recent years, such as Malawi and Zambia, this growth has been heavily concentrated among a small proportion of farmers. In most of the countries for which nationwide farm survey data is available, about 75% of the marketed maize output comes from 10% of the farms (Jayne et al 2010). The value of these farms’ crop and animal product sales is almost as much as the other 90% of farms. Because most poor smallholder farms have limited land and other productive assets, over half of the smallholder population is bypassed by this production growth and remain staple food buyers. For these and other reasons, rural poverty rates have remained stubbornly high even where aggregate grain production has risen dramatically. A major challenge for CAADP Investment Plans is therefore how to effectively reach the least productive half of the smallholder population. Doing so will require a com...
The Food Security Research Project is a collaborative program of research, outreach and local cap... more The Food Security Research Project is a collaborative program of research, outreach and local capacity building, between the Agricultural Consultative Forum (AFC), the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives (MACO), and Michigan State University’s Department of Agricultural Economics (MSU). We wish to acknowledge the financial and substantive support provided by the Swedish
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Papers by Thomas Jayne