The impact of a farmer business school program on incomes of smallholder farmers: Insights from central Malawi

The impact of a farmer business school program on incomes of smallholder farmers: Insights from central Malawi
Author: Chilemba, Joanna
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 32
Release: 2018-05-15
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

Various models and approaches are being implemented to provide technical assistance and support to improve smallholder farmers’ incomes and welfare in Malawi. This study evaluates the impact of farmer business schools (FBS) on crop incomes of smallholder farmers in Dedza district in central Malawi. The FBS approach, which has been implemented nationally by the Government of Malawi since 2011, consists of one year of group training and learning sessions for smallholder farmers focusing on improving market access and establishing profitable agribusiness ventures. This study used a multi-stage sampling procedure to collect data from 455 smallholder farmers: 162 FBS graduates, 84 FBS dropouts, and 209 non-participants. Using propensity score matching and difference-in-difference techniques, crop incomes from two groups of farmers were evaluated; FBS participants and FBS non-participants as well as FBS graduates and FBS dropouts. The study finds a positive yet small impact of FBS participation on crop income and production (US$20 per year on average), and no significant difference in crop income and production for farmers who graduated from FBS versus those who dropped out. Insights from the qualitative research component of this study suggest that this is primarily due to the limited financial resources smallholder farmers have to implement the agricultural techniques and business models taught in FBS.

Assessing and strengthening Malawi’s pluralistic agricultural extension system: Evidence and lessons from a three-year research study

Assessing and strengthening Malawi’s pluralistic agricultural extension system: Evidence and lessons from a three-year research study
Author: Ragasa, Catherine
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 12
Release: 2019-11-20
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

In July 2016, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and partners launched a three-year evidence-based policy support project to analyze demand for and supply of agricultural extension services in Malawi and help design activities to strengthen service providers’ capacity to address farmers’ demands for information. For this project, IFPRI partnered with Wadonda Consult and the Lilongwe University of Agriculture and Natural Resources (LUANAR) to conduct the household survey and qualitative interviews. Funding came from the Government of Flanders, the U.S. Agency for International Development through the Strengthening Agricultural and Nutrition Extension (SANE), the German Agency for International Cooperation [GIZ]), and the CGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM). The project collected two rounds of nationally representative panel data of 2,880 households (2016 and 2018), two rounds of focus group discussions (FGDs), census of extension service providers in 15 districts, and a series of in-depth interviews. This note summarizes the main findings from 10 reports completed to analyze and draw conclusions from the stories behind these datasets.

Gender research in the CGIAR research program on policies, institutions, and markets in 2018 and 2019

Gender research in the CGIAR research program on policies, institutions, and markets in 2018 and 2019
Author: Vos, Andrea
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 67
Release: 2021-02-11
Genre: Political Science
ISBN:

This report analyses PIM’s 391 peer-reviewed 2018 and 20191 publications. We highlight key gender findings and discuss the challenges faced by researchers in doing gender analysis, with a view to documenting lessons learned and improving practices. It is hoped that the gaps and strengths identified in this report will be useful inputs for future research under PIM and One CGIAR.

Agricultural extension: Global status and performance in selected countries

Agricultural extension: Global status and performance in selected countries
Author: Davis, Kristin E., ed.
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 380
Release: 2020-09-02
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 0896293750

Agricultural transformation and development are critical to the livelihoods of more than a billion small-scale farmers and other rural people in developing countries. Extension and advisory services play an important role in such transformation and can assist farmers with advice and information, brokering and facilitating innovations and relationships, and dealing with risks and disasters. Agricultural Extension: Global Status and Performance in Selected Countries provides a global overview of agricultural extension and advisory services, assesses and compares extension systems at the national and regional levels, examines the performance of extension approaches in a selected set of country cases, and shares lessons and policy insights. Drawing on both primary and secondary data, the book contributes to the literature on extension by applying a common and comprehensive framework — the “best-fit” approach — to assessments of extension systems, which allows for comparison across cases and geographies. Insights from the research support reforms — in governance, capacity, management, and advisory methods — to improve outcomes, enhance financial sustainability, and achieve greater scale. Agricultural Extension should be a valuable resource for policymakers, extension practitioners, and others concerned with agricultural development.

Farmers taking the lead: thirty years of farmer field schools

Farmers taking the lead: thirty years of farmer field schools
Author: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.
Total Pages: 72
Release: 2019-06-01
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9251315698

The Farmer Field School (FFS) has been one of the most successful approaches developed and promoted by FAO over the past three decades, empowering farmers to become better decision makers in their own farming systems. Initiated by FAO in 1989, and subsequently adopted by many other organizations and institutions, the FFS programs constitute one of the most important “results of the collective action of millions of small-scale farmers” that FAO has supported. FFS is an interactive and participatory learning by doing approach that offers farmers, pastoralists, fisherfolks, foresters and their communities a place where they can learn from each other,share experiences, co-create knowledge and try new ways of doing. Participants enhance their understanding of agro-ecosystems, resulting in production systems that are more resilient and optimize the use of available resources. FFS aims to improve farmers’ livelihoods and recognize their role as innovators and guardians of natural environments. FFS has attained plenty of outstanding achievements in all aspects of agriculture and rural development.

Access to Credit and Its Impact on Welfare in Malawi

Access to Credit and Its Impact on Welfare in Malawi
Author: Aliou Diagne
Publisher: Intl Food Policy Res Inst
Total Pages: 175
Release: 2001
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0896291197

The rural economy and microfinance institutions in Malawi; Survey design and description of the data; Econometric analysis of the impact of access to credit on household welfare; Results of the econometric analysis; Conclusions and implications for policy; Econometric methodology.

Price Responses of Malawi Smallholder Farmers

Price Responses of Malawi Smallholder Farmers
Author: Joseph C. Mills
Publisher:
Total Pages: 54
Release: 1975
Genre: Acreage allotments
ISBN:

Economic research paper resulting from a questionnaire survey of 900 smallholding farmers in Malawi to measure land utilization response to the agricultural price of various crops - includes a bibliography pp. 43 and 44 and statistical tables.

Agricultural Input Subsidies

Agricultural Input Subsidies
Author: Ephraim Chirwa
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 315
Release: 2013-09-26
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 0199683522

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

Farming Systems and Poverty

Farming Systems and Poverty
Author: John A. Dixon
Publisher: Food & Agriculture Org.
Total Pages: 424
Release: 2001
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9789251046272

A joint FAO and World Bank study which shows how the farming systems approach can be used to identify priorities for the reduction of hunger and poverty in the main farming systems of the six major developing regions of the world.