Smoothing Seasonal Hunger through Planning in Zambia

This expansion of an ongoing project in Zambia expansion tests whether a low-cost planning intervention improves savings, shifts how families distribute household resources and whether the intervention changes how families make decisions at the next harvest.

Developing Advanced Index-Insurance Products for Ghanaian Smallholder Farmers

This project will develop improved index insurance policies for small-scale farmers to create stronger demand and impact for index insurance in Ghana, with a particular focus on improving the accuracy of how well products predict actual crop losses.

Pathways for Ensuring Access to Assets: Land Tenure Reform and Beyond in Liberia and Uganda

This project will analyze the social, economic and institutional barriers that women face in accessing and controlling assets, including land, in Liberia and Uganda.

Understanding the Impact of Idiosyncratic Shocks on Farm Productivity and Household Asset Building and Protection in Ethiopia, Ghana and Bangladesh

Risk and poverty are key, inextricable concerns in Bangladesh, Ghana and Ethiopia. The research will focus on the impact of idiosyncratic risk on asset poverty and the mechanism available to redress it.

Natural Capital and Poverty Reduction in Malawi and Uganda

This project will document the ways in which natural capital serves as informal insurance and a safety net against income variability and transitory shocks.

Tailoring Contract Farming to Smallholders: Experimental Evidence on Enrollment Impact, Insurance Provision, and Communication Technologies in Kenya

The research proposes three field experiments in Kenya to evaluate the potential of contract farming schemes to increase smallholder welfare.

Demand and Supply Constraints to Improved Sorghum Technology Adoption and their Gender-Differentiated Effects in Burkina Faso

In this project, researchers are working with sorghum breeders and agro-input suppliers in Burkina Faso to compare alternative mechanisms to encourage adoption of improved seed and fertilizer micro-packs.

Complementarities of Training, Technology, and Credit in Smallholder Agriculture in Senegal and Uganda

This project includes field studies of short- and long-term impacts of two innovative agricultural development programs based on this model that target smallholder, mainly women farmers, in Uganda and Senegal.

A Multiple Interventions Approach to Increasing Technology Adoption with a View Towards Scaling-Up in Mexico

This project implements an experimental evaluation of the Trust Funds for Rural Development’s (FIRA’s) Technological Guarantee Program (TGP) targeted a Mexican maize smallholders and extends the project design to farmers in Kenya.

Savings, Subsidies and Sustainable Food Security: A Field Experiment in Mozambique

This research explores the short- and long-run impacts of fertilizer subsidies on smallholder farmers in Mozambique.

Evaluating the Effect of Site-Specific Soil Information on Farmer Input Choices and the Relationship Between Poverty and Soil Quality in Tanzania

This project evaluates the impact of a rapid on-farm soil diagnostic kit developed by researchers and collaborators at Columbia University’s Agriculture and Food Security Center.

Rural Livelihoods and Institutional Reform in Small-Scale Fisheries in Tanzania

This project tests a novel approach to improving institutional performance by playing repeated experimental games, which may then alter patterns of coordination and cooperation for managing fisheries in Tanzania.

Health, Education, and Economic Interventions for Orphans and Vulnerable Children in Mozambique

This project evaluates the health and overall outcomes of the orphans and vulnerable children (OVCs) of Mozambique. 

Building Market Linkages for Smallholder Farmers in Uganda

This project aims to combine the market linkage services of a highly reputable private sector brokerage firm with high‐frequency data collection, an innovative digital trading platform and a set of contractual guarantees for smallholder farmers in Uganda.

Evaluating the Socio-economic Impacts of Western Seed’s Hybrid Maize Program in Kenya

This project evaluates the impact of Western Seed Company’s (WSC) hybrid maize program on the welfare of smallholder farmers in Kenya’s mid-altitude regions.

Smart Subsidies to Promote Peer Monitoring of Conservation Agriculture Compliance in Malawi

This project evaluates the impact of the agglomeration bonus incentive scheme on conservation agriculture compliance in Malawi’s Shire Valley basin.

Assessing the Value of Index Insurance for Herders: Comparing NDVI-based Insurance Products in Ethiopia and Kenya

This project examines a range of drought-related indices based on data sources and parameters used by HSNP and IBLI. This will help determine which index is most appropriate for an index insurance product that aims to protect households from drought related shocks.

Bundling Innovative Risk Management Technologies to Improve Nutritional Outcomes of Vulnerable Agricultural Households

This project evaluates new agricultural technologies that stabilize crop yields and rural incomes in the face of environmental shocks that historically have led to decreased food intake and irreversible, long-term negative impacts especially among young children.

Communication, Search, and Mobile Phones: A Telephone Directory Intervention in Tanzania

This project measures the impact of a listing in a paper telephone directory on outcomes for enterprises that support the agricultural sector in rural Tanzania.

Developing a Satellite-based Index to Predict Crop Yields in Smallholder Agriculture in Tanzania

This project develops an innovative satellite-based index which can reliably predict local crop yields.

Biometric and Financial Innovations in Rural Malawi: A Field Experimental Approach

This projects demonstrates how biometric technology, specifically fingerprinting, can help improve the functioning of rural credit markets in Malawi.

Understanding and Improving Financial Access for the Poor in Ghana

This project seeks to improve access for the poor by identifying mechanisms that create incomplete access, which innovations are effective at expanding access, and finally in looking at the welfare implications of expanded financial services.

Promoting Adoption of Improved Production Technologies via Coupled Credit and Insurance Contracts among Smallholders in Ghana

This three-year program of research, outreach, and education is designed to promote the adoption of improved production practices among Ghanaian smallholders by coupling index insurance with production loans.

Disseminating Innovative Resources and Technologies to Smallholders in Ghana (DIRTS)

The Disseminating Innovative Resources and Technologies to Smallholders (DIRTS) project seeks to understand the barriers that stand between these farmers and more profitable investments.

Using Index Insurance to Promote Investment in West Africa’s Cotton Industry

The purpose of this index insurance project is to protect West African cotton producers from crop yield volatility.

Index-Based Livestock Insurance in East Africa

This project develops and evaluates a risk management program to help East African pastoral households in drought-inflicted areas to cope with current and future climate risks. 

Insuring Against the Weather: Integrating Generic Weather Index Products with Group-Based Savings and Loans in Ethiopia and Bangladesh

The  research will focus on developing simple, flexible and inclusive index insurance products, and learning how to link them with savings or credit to reduce the impact of basis risk inherent in any index product.

Demand for and Productivity Impact of Weather Index Insurance in Ethiopia

This study reports the initial results from a pilot project using weather index insurance as a way to expand credit supply and, consequently, fertilizer demand by smallholders.

A Productive Safety Net for Northern Kenya’s Arid and Semi-Arid Lands: The HSNP+ Program

This research project evaluated the impact of both the HSNP and PSN programs, which will help inform the design of future cash transfer programs.