143 research outputs found
Armed Conflicts and Forced Displacements: Incentives and Consequences on Consumption and Social Preferences
No full textLivelihood strategies and the prevalence of poverty in rural Malawi : the case of Central and Southern regions
No full textRural households in developing countries like Malawi often take on a diversity of
livelihood activities in an attempt to smooth consumption and improve on their general
wellbeing. However, their choices to any of the livelihood strategies (combination of
different livelihood activities) are conditioned by several factors ranging from asset endowment, geographical location and other exogenous factors like shocks. This paper identifies the livelihood strategies existing in Southern and Central Malawi using cross sectional data of 378 households. Subsequently, it looks at the factors limiting household’s choices to particularly higher return livelihood strategies and the prevalence of poverty within these strategies. It uses the Sustainable Livelihoods framework for this
analysis. Using factor and cluster analysis based on the labor shares, it identifies five
distinct livelihood strategies. However, when factor and cluster analysis based on the net income shares are used, three livelihood strategies are identified. For other analysis, it adapts the livelihood strategies identified under income shares and finds that the forest and off farm worker strategy is inferior to the non farm business strategy and mixed livelihood strategy. The prevalence of poverty based on Foster Greer Thorbecke poverty indices and the Three I’s of poverty also show that the forest and off farm worker strategy
has the highest prevalence of poverty followed by the mixed strategy and lastly the nonfarm business strategy. Using the multinomial logit model, the results indicate that the asset endowments particularly education, livestock units, labor, gender and district locations (Thyolo and Zomba districts in relation to Lilongwe) are crucial factors conditioning household’s choices to livelihood strategies. Programmes aimed at poverty reduction should therefore be directed to the forest and off farm livelihood strategy. Additionally, policies such as education and distribution of the livestock assets become relevant for this subgroup. Of at most importance however, is the need to create a balance within the districts in terms of improved infrastructural access
Impact of households’ membership of farmer groups on the adoption of agricultural technologies in Uganda: Evidence from the Uganda Census of Agriculture 2008/09
No full textThis study examines the impact of the adoption of agricultural technologies by households that are members of farmers’ groups using the Uganda Census of Agriculture (UCA) of 2008/09. It employs the two-step control function approach to impact evaluation. Results show plausible evidence of the positive impact of households’ membership of farmers’ groups on the adoption of improved technologies, particularly in the adoption of techniques such as making use of improved seeds, organic fertilizer and improved livestock breeds. However, for farmers to start making use of inorganic fertilizer, the impact is insignificant unless the farmer decides to use both organic and inorganic fertilizers simultaneously. Farmer group participation and household retention in groups in Uganda should thus be encouraged and should be used as an avenue for the dissemination of agricultural technologies in Uganda
Recommended from our members
Armed Conflicts and Forced Displacements: Incentives and Consequences on Consumption and Social Preferences
No full textSeveral countries currently have ongoing armed conflicts or are in post-conflict. Relatedly, the number of refugees has almost doubled in the last decade from continued armed conflicts with an increasing influx to countries like Uganda. This thesis examines armed conflicts and forced displacements with four specific objectives: (1) attempts to explore the incentives and disincentives of armed conflicts in the Great Lake Regions, (2) to assess the consequences of armed conflict on consumption and consumption pathways in post-conflict (3) to examine prosocial attitudes between hosts and refugees and to identify any discrimination (4) to evaluate the role of social preferences in informal contractual land arrangements between refugees and hosts. Informal contractual land arrangements offer an alternative sustainable and innovative way by which refugees can acquire land to be self-reliant. The thesis uses case study reviews, panel data methods, and lab in the field experiments. It focuses on the post-conflict Northern region of Uganda and Adjumani district that has a massive influx of refugees.We find that armed conflicts in the Great Lake Regions are driven by several factors stemming from grievances from ethnic and religious differences and orchestrated by autocratic political systems. With three measures of household conflict exposure, this thesis finds that food consumption was significantly less by a range of between 21 to 30 percent for affected households three years after the cessation of hostilities compared to the level at the time of the conflict. As the threat of insecurity reduces, affected families rely less on consumption from market purchases and transfers and more on their own food production. Further, this thesis finds no evidence of refugees making discriminatory social differentiation of "us refugees" and "them host" in their interactions with hosts, particularly in areas remote from urban areas. They are more trustworthy towards hosts than to fellow refugees in remote areas. We find that refugees located more than 10km from district headquarters reciprocate the trust and are more generous to hosts than to fellow refugees by 8 and 15 percentage points, respectively, in the behavioral experiments. Hosts trust fellow hosts more than refugees, by a 10 percentage point difference. However, hosts located 10km or more from the center trust refugees more than they trust fellow hosts (22 percentage point difference). In remote areas, we think that high transaction costs of travel confines refugees and hosts to a smaller radius, allowing for meaningful interactions between them. Lastly, the results show that trust plays a significant role in determining the hosts' willingness to engage in informal land arrangements with refugees. At least 4 in 10 of both refugees and hosts are willing to enter into such an agreement. The host's trust is associated with a 20 percent increased willingness to participate in informal land transactions.The study concludes with the following policy implications. First, governments in the Great Lake regions can avoid the reoccurrence of armed conflict by paying attention and addressing factors that have motivated past conflicts like grievances from high inequality and lack of political rights. Second, food assistance programs should be targeted at households directly affected by armed conflict, emphasizing fostering own food production after an armed conflict. Third, to minimize discrimination by hosts and boost refugee integration, the study suggests creating opportunities for meaningful refugee and host interactions such as community groups, sports activities, and religious worship. Finally, refugees' self-reliance can be enhanced by taking measures to build trust and leverage on existing behavioral attributes of hosts to promote informal land arrangements amidst costly Government land provision to refugees
Using high-frequency data to measure the resilience metrics for food security and women's dietary diversity in Uganda
No full textSeveral debates and discussions have emerged in contemporary literature on the best method, data, and timing to measure the resilience concept. We contribute to this discussion by using high-frequency data collected in short spans of two to three months. We also validate if RIMA II can be used to estimate the resilience of rural households using high-frequency data collected within the year. We compare the resilience of families estimated using RIMA II with the subjective self-evaluated resilience score and the qualitative measures from focus group discussions and key informant interviews. Our qualitative and quantitative assessment establishes that the resilience concept does change within six months. The results are consistent when using two different weighting approaches to estimating the resilience capacity index using RIMA II. The resilience capacity index calculated from RIMA-II is also moderately comparable to the subjective self-evaluated resilience score estimated. Anecdotes from qualitative interviews also show that within the year, households can recover from some shocks and bounce back to their previous level of well-being using different coping strategies. Overall, this study reveals the possibility of employing the RIMA-II metrics for measuring resilience with data collected in six months durations to understand the dynamic and complex nature of resilience amongst rural households
Agricultural cooperative marketing and credit policy reform in Uganda: an opportunity for poverty reduction
No full textAcademics and development practitioners increasingly view cooperatives as the cornerstone for agricultural transformation and poverty reduction in sub-Saharan Africa. Cooperatives play a crucial role in promoting bulk storage and sale by smallholder farmers, which can play a major role in poverty reduction for farmers otherwise unable to commercialize. Despite the significant role of cooperatives, the reforms associated with economic liberalisation have caused many cooperatives in the region to fail. While efforts were made in Uganda to ameliorate this situation through the passing of the National Co-operative Policy (NCP), this has done little to enhance the survival of these cooperatives. In this opinion paper, we identify challenges faced by cooperatives that negatively impact performance and survival, such political interference, lack of administrative support, human resource constraints, inadequate knowledge of the operations by members and poor governance. This paper recommends stronger linkages between the Ministry of Trade, Industry and Cooperatives and the Ministry of Agriculture Animal Industry and Fisheries (MAAIF). Integrating cooperatives into the decentralisation framework and formalising existing village savings and loan association groups into formal cooperatives. Most importantly, the government needs to take on a more proactive approach toward cooperative development, as seen in some countries such as South Africa and Rwanda.Keywords: Cooperatives, Marketing, Credit Policy, and Poverty Reduction and Ugand
Do agriculture extension policies improve nutrition outcomes? panel survey evidence from Uganda
No full textThe EBV-MS connection: the enigma remains
No full textThe author(s) declare financial support was received for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article. Our research on EBV and MS is funded by the Belgian Charcot Foundation, the Flemish Research Foundation (FWO), and the National Fund of Scientific Research (FNRS)
East Africa commodity price report - November 2021
No full textThe Food Price Monitor: East Africa is a monthly report developed for the Food Security Portal (FSP), facilitated by IFPRI, with the goal of providing clear and accurate information on price trends and variations in selected maize and rice markets throughout East Africa. The reports are intended as a resource for those interested in maize and rice markets in East Africa, namely producers, traders, consumers, or other agricultural stakeholders.Non-PRIFPRI1; DCA; Food Security Portal; 4 Transforming Agricultural and Rural EconomiesMTI
- …
