An exciting project in Uganda is bringing together a team of ICT entrepreneurs, economists, computer scientists, and agri-business professionals to test whether a highly scalable, high-tech approach can reduce transactions costs and improve market access for smallholders.

As hypothesized, significant profitable opportunities for increased fertilizer use appear to exist in Ethiopia, but farmers are constrained by cash availability and credit.

This evidence indicates that the offer of a voucher had enormous impact on take-up rates. Even relatively small subsidies, however, significantly increased up-take rates to almost 40 percent.

Exposed to the forces of trade liberalization and globalization, smallholder farmers face an uncertain future. Our project will carry out research in Guatemala to explore three innovations that offer the potential to enhance the competitiveness of smallholder agriculture.