Outcome and Impact Studies

Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11766/9692

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    Enhancing Food Security in Arab Countries Project: Adoption and Impacts of Project Interventions and Returns on Investment in Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Sudan, and Tunisia
    Author(s): Yigezu, Yigezu; Al-Shater, Tamer; Sweidan, Rawad; Saleh, Enas Abbas; Màaroufi, Hayet; Ibrahim, Abdelhamed; Boughlala, Mohamed (International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), 2024-07-01)
    Date: 2024-07-01
    Status: Open access
    This report provides a comprehensive assessment of the cumulative adoption and impacts of the different interventions of the project during the three phases (2018–2022 cropping seasons). While more detailed and comprehensive reports are produced for each of the five countries, this report provides more concise and condensed information focusing on the main findings that are worth highlighting, because they have important policy, institutional, and strategic implications for governments, donors, development organizations, and extension personnel.
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    Linking farmers’ perceptions and management decision toward sustainable agroecological transition: evidence from rural Tunisia
    Date: 2024-05-13
    Status: Open access
    Global food systems face sustainability challenges like undernourishment, inequity, resource degradation, and pollution. Food production and consumption drive environmental change with greenhouse gas emissions, biodiversity loss, and land-system shifts. The climate change crisis has intensified concerns about the ecological impact of these systems. Sustainable food networks, such as community-supported agriculture, are promoting sustainable production and consumption through short supply chains. International bodies like the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) are also spearheading initiatives for more equitable and sustainable food systems. In Tunisia, where dryland areas predominate, the ongoing implementation of the Agroecology Initiative provides the context for this study, which explores the drivers and barriers of agroecological transformation in this challenging environment. The research focuses on stakeholder engagement, with a gender perspective to explore farmer perceptions. The study, conducted in the northwest of Tunisia in 2022–2023, involved focus groups, workshops, surveys, and questionnaires with various stakeholders. Findings highlight farmer organizations’ potential in promoting sustainable farming, with clear goals, diversified systems, and collaborations. However, challenges such as input scarcity, water shortage, low income, and marketing must be addressed. Results also indicate that over 90% of farmers who received assistance with agroecological practices reported a change in their ideas and practices. Fifty seven percent of the workshops participants identified the olive oil value chain as having the greatest potential for agroecological transformation, but it faces constraints such as climate, lack of policy incentives, training, funding, and difficulty in adopting technical innovations. Women’s inclusion in agriculture, environmental, social, and economic challenges were also highlighted. Despite these obstacles, key drivers for agroecological transition were identified. These include the compatibility of many agroecological practices with existing farmer capabilities, their cultural and economic benefits, and the positive outcomes for environmental sustainability and health. The study advocates for a socio-technical systems analysis to address the root causes hindering Tunisia’s agroecological transformation. A participatory approach is crucial to understanding priorities and developing a sustainable and resilient food system. Furthermore, the research underscores the importance of considering diverse farmer perspectives and tailoring strategies to support this critical transition effectively.
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    Adoption of Integrated Pest Management Strategies and Ex-ante Assessment of the Red Palm Weevil Control among Egyptian Farmers
    Date: 2024-02-26
    Status: Open access
    The study aimed to analyse the adoption rates of Red Palm Weevil (RPW) integrated pest management (IPM) practices in Egypt based on data collected from 343 farmers through structured questionnaires from three governorates: Al-shargia, Alwahat El-Bahria, and Aswant in Egypt. The overall adoption of IPM categories for RPW control was 83.85%. Egyptian farmers highly adopted the categories of legislative control (89.04%), cultural practices (88.92%), mechanical control (87.27%) and chemical control (83.85%), while they moderately adopted preventive measures (70.15%). Based on the average level of adoption of IPM practices, two farmer groups, “high adopters” and “moderate adopters”, were identified using cluster analysis. The “high adopters” represented 65.9% of the sample and had a higher adoption rate for all the RPW IPM practices than the “moderate adopters”. All three Egypt governorates were similarly ranked in terms of perception risk related to RPW. However, compared to Aswan and Al-Wahaat Al-Bahria, As-Shargia was the most vulnerable governorate regarding governance effectiveness related to RPW, characterized by lower training and public support index levels. These results point to the need to promote awareness among farmers, citizens, municipalities, researchers, non-governmental organizations, and decision-makers about the interest in adopting IPM against the spread of RPW.
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    Market participation and pastoral welfare in drought-prone areas: A dose-response analysis
    Author(s): Yitayew, Asresu; Kassie, Girma; Yigezu, Yigezu (Elsevier (12 months), 2023-12-01)
    Date: 2023-11-01
    Status: Open access
    The low market participation of pastoral livestock producers is a challenge to the development of a climate-resilient economy in drought-prone areas. Without deliberate and well-designed efforts to transform livestock production into a thriving profit-oriented commercial business, the development of pastoral societies will remain far-fetched. By applying bivariate selection model and dose-response function to a case study of 357 pastoral households in Ethiopia, this study examines pastoralists’ participation in goat markets and the impact of participation on per capita income, poverty headcount, and poverty gap. Our results show that the propensity and intensity of participation of pastoralists in goat marketing were influenced by flock size, transaction costs (TC), and access to veterinary services. An important finding in this study is that pastoralists are willing to pay for marketing services up to 97 % of the total variable TC, indicating the financial feasibility of public investment in the development of market infrastructure through cost recovery schemes. The results also reveal that participation in goat marketing has a positive impact on per capita income, poverty headcount, and poverty gap. These findings shed some light on more practical strategies for poverty reduction among pastoralists
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    The effects of advisory services and technology channeling on farm yields and technical efficiency of wheat farmers in Ethiopia
    Author(s): Yitayew, Asresu; Abdulai, Awudu; Yigezu, Yigezu (Elsevier (12 months), 2023-04-01)
    Date: 2023-03-20
    Status: Timeless limited access
    Improving the performance of low-productivity smallholder farmers is a pathway with great potential for reducing poverty and enhancing food security and nutrition in sub-Saharan Africa. Using experimental data from Ethiopia and a mediated stochastic frontier model that accounts for endogenous treatment status, we examine the impact of advisory services and technology channeling on farm yields and efficiency. Our results show that the impact of improved extension services on yields is positive and statistically significant and that advisory services constitute a significant proportion of the output effect.
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    The Socioeconomic Impact Assessment of Red Palm Weevil in Egypt and Saudi Arabia: An Ex-ante Evaluation
    Date: 2023-11-30
    Type: Brief
    Status: Open access
    Dates are economically, socially, culturally, and ecologically important fruit crops in the Near East and North Africa (NENA) countries. Dates also play important roles in the history, heritage, and socioeconomic life of the Arab population. They are one of the basic sources of income and employment and are among the main stable foods for local inhabitants, especially in the oases. Date palms give multiple benefits and services, including high-energy food, medicine for some diseases, shelter, microclimate, protecting plants growing under its shade from wind and high temperature, secure inputs to food industries and handicrafts, and providing by-products useful for many purposes. The Arab or the NENA Region dominates in Dates production and trade. About 75% of the global area of 1.35 million ha under date palm is in the Arab Region, producing more than 77% of the world’s production of about 9.2 million metric tons in 2020 (Ahmed and Ijaimi, 2022.
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    A contextual ICT model to explain adoption of mobile applications in developing countries: A case study of Tunisia
    Date: 2023-10-26
    Status: Open access
    In Tunisia, agriculture is the main source of livelihood for more than 75% of small and sub sistence farmers with minimal use of technology. The use of information and communication technology (ICT),such as mobile applications, represents a pertinent opportunity for these smallholders to access agricultural innovation and market information and improve their farming technologies and farm management. Thus, ICT can act as a replacement to foster access to innovation for this category of farmers. Unfortunately, the underuse of mobile applications has contributed to low and slow adoption of agricultural innovation and conse quently the benefits of this technology have not been attained. The purpose of this study is to identify the factors affecting the adoption of Short Message Service (SMS) through a con textual ICT model for livestock, olive crop, and beekeeping. Data were collected from 200 small-scale beekeepers, 225 olive growers, and 140 livestock breeders selected in Jen douba, Kairouan, and Zaghouan in Tunisia. The objective of this paper is to examine the fac tors that influence mobile applications using the partial least squares structural equation modelling technique, for livestock, olive crop, and beekeeping agricultural activities. The results showed that the final ICT-induced structural models were highly predictive of the use of SMS and its increased adoption. Factors affecting the use of SMS differed according to the farming system. The major perceived factor affecting the use of SMS was ‘observability’ for livestock farmers, ‘compatibility’ for olive growers, and ‘information quality’ for beekeepers. Understanding these factors by taking into account the specificity of the agricultural activity leads to a better understanding of the adoption of ICT tools by smallholder farmers in Tunisia
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    Improved agricultural input delivery systems for enhancing technology adoption: evidence from a field experiment in Ethiopia
    Author(s): Yitayew, Asresu; Abdulai, Awudu; Yigezu, Yigezu (Oxford University Press)
    Date: 2022-04-24
    Status: Open access
    In this study, we test the hypothesis that small-scale testing can reduce the risk and uncertainty of trying new technologies. We conducted a field experiment, in a cluster randomised control trial setting, to examine whether the availability of divisible packages of seeds influences smallholder farmers’ decisions to try a new wheat variety. Our results show that the adoption of the newly introduced wheat variety was higher in the villages where small seed packages were introduced. We find that smallholder farmers tend to experiment on the newly introduced variety on their farmland and are less likely to adopt the new variety as a coping mechanism for risk exposure at the stage of experimentation. The results from treatment heterogeneity reveal that supplying seed in small bags had differential causal effects on individual farmers. The intervention which made small seed bags available impacted relatively younger and poorer farmers the most. This finding provides an insight into the significance of seed delivery in small bags to improve the use of seeds of new varieties by smallholders
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    Economic and environmental evaluation of different irrigation systems for date palm production in the GCC countries: the case of Oman and Saudi Arabia
    Date: 2022-07-31
    Status: Timeless limited access
    This study evaluates the irrigation water volumes’ effect on the date palm productivity and water use efficiency under several conventional and improved irrigation systems (surface, subsurface, bubbler, subsurface drip irrigation). The study is focusing on Oman and Saudi Arabia. Data on the water requirement, temperature, and evapotranspiration has been collected from the experimental study conducted at Al-Kamil and Al-Wafi Agricultural Research Station, Oman and Farm Al Briga – research station, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The socioeconomics data used was collected from several national and international sources. The partial budgeting method is used for economic comparison between different irrigation systems. In Oman, the performance of bubbler irrigation systems (BI) and subsurface drip irrigation systems (SDI) was studied in terms of water use efficiency, economic performance, and yield of date palms (Cv. Khalas). Three intervention levels on SDI have been used: at the rate of 60%, 40%, and 20% of water requirement. This experimental study showed that SDI under the three intervention uses water more efficiently than the BI system. The water use efficiency (WUE) of the SDI 20%, 40%, and 60% of water requirements were 2.0, 2.7, and 4.7 kg/m3 , respec tively. Meanwhile, the BI water use efficiency was 1.3 kg/m3 . Economic findings confirmed using the SDI method vs. the BI method increased the cost of establishment but is economical in the long term. Therefore, measures can be taken to reduce the cost of equipment by promoting the production and supply of low-cost SDI systems. In Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, surface drip (SD) irrigation and SDI performance were evaluated in terms of water use efficiency, economic viability, and date palms yield (Cv. Khalas). The results showed that SDI was more efficient in comparison to the drip irriga tion (DI) technology. The SDI could save about 27% of irrigation water compared to SD. The results also confirmed that the SDI system produced the same date palm yield while saving the irrigation water. Findings indicate that the SDI compared to the DI could save between 125 and 205 $/ha. This result suggests water economic profitability by using the SDI system in date palm farming. These findings indicate a significant difference in net profit. Overall, the adoption of modern irrigation techniques such as drip and subsurface drip irrigation is essential today for this very arid region. This is mainly to increase WUE and Yield. In a short time, the capital cost associated with installing such a system limits adopting this technology. Thus, to accelerate the adoption process of these technologies, it is imperative to create favourable conditions so that a more significant number of farmers can benefit from the benefits of such technologies. The creation of strong networking among different institutions related to applying this modern irrigation technology and public and private financial institutions and support services could be an example of mechanisms to enhance adoption.
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    Predicted farmer uptake of new agricultural practices: case of silvo-pastoral technologies in Rajasthan, India
    Date: 2022-08-20
    Status: Timeless limited access
    The study aimed to assess the rate of adoption of silvo pastoral practices and identify main constraints that limit their adoption in Rajasthan, India using adoption and diffusion outcome prediction tool (ADOPT) in 2015-16. Focus group discussions (FGDs) involving farmers and technicians/researchers focused on discussing four categories of influence on adoption. Farmers’ FGDs predicted that the peak adoption rate for any silvo-pastoral practice in the target area would be 95% after a period of 19.3 years (27.6% and 78.4% after 5 and 10 years, respectively). However, this predicted peak is expected to be around 95% after 14.3 years based on technicians and researchers’ FGD (with a maximum predicted level of adoption for about 48% and 91.8% after 5 and 10 years, respectively). The constraints limiting adoption were highlighted as lack of knowledge, technical information, socio-economic limitations (benefits are not quick in the short-term and are labour intensive), risk, and uncertainty (initial establishment is not cost effective). The results of this research, and the ADOPT tool, should be of considerable assistance to policymakers in helping them to develop comprehensive investment programs. This will facilitate in addressing constraints limiting the adoption of these silvo-pastoral practices, contribute to improve their adoption, and significantly contribute towards sustainably utilizing natural resources.
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    Political Economy of the Wheat Sector in Uzbekistan Seed Systems, Variety Adoption and Impacts
    Author(s): Yigezu, Yigezu; Bishaw, Zewdie; Niane, Abdoul Aziz; Nurbekov, Aziz (International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), 2022-08-08)
    Date: 2022-08-08
    Type: Book
    Status: Open access
    Agriculture plays an important role in the economy of Uzbekistan contributing 16% to GDP and 44% to employment. Uzbekistan has a land area of 44.8 million ha, of which about 4.5 million ha is arable, and 4 million ha is irrigated. Main cultivated crops are cotton, wheat, barley, rice, maize, potatoes, and horticultural crops (vegetables and fruits). The population of Uzbekistan was estimated at 34 million in 2019 and continues to grow at a rate of 1.67% per year (WB, 2019). Currently, an estimated 18 million people live in rural areas, most of which draw their livelihoods from agriculture. During the Former Soviet Union (FSU) era, Uzbekistan was a major producer of cotton, vegetables, and fruits. About 70% of irrigated land was devoted to cotton production, while fodder crops (alfalfa, rye, barley, and maize) were grown in rotation with cotton and supported limited livestock production. Wheat, one of the key food security crops, was mostly imported from other regions of the FSU, with local production meeting only 20% of domestic demand. After its independence in 1991, Uzbekistan’s access to strategic food imports became less secure due to the abolition of the centrally coordinated commodity supply and subsidy systems between Russia and its Soviet Socialist Republics. Subsequent structural adjustments by the former Soviet republics made the contracting system less reliable and reduced regional trade. As a landlocked country with limited access to international markets, it became very important for Uzbekistan to ensure its food security through domestic production. Over the decades, Uzbekistan’s agricultural policy was characterized by full Government control over agricultural production and marketing. Land is owned by the Government as enshrined in the Constitution. The Government distributes land to farmers and determines the agricultural commodities to be grown under Government quotas (public procurement contracts). Two of the Government’s major goals were to increase the much-needed foreign exchange revenue through the export of cotton, and to increase self-sufficiency in wheat production - thereby reducing dependence on imports. However, this inadvertently led to monoculture of cotton and wheat in most of the country.
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    Impact of improved agricultural extension approaches on technology adoption: Evidence from a randomised controlled trial in rural Tunisia
    Date: 2022-04-13
    Status: Open access
    Low and slow adoption of innovative technologies among smallholder farmers in Tunisia is a key agricultural development problem partly related to the existing technology transfer approach used in the country. The objective of this study is to analyse how to design innovative technology transfer strategies more effective in terms of increasing female and male farmers’ adoption of an improved barley variety, ‘Kounouz’, for small ruminant nutrition. A randomised controlled trial method was used with farmers in Tunisia to implement four extension treatments and to evaluate their effects on adoption of Kounouz. Differencein- difference estimates showed that intensive agricultural trainings can significantly improve adoption of Kounouz. Technical trainings combined with economic and organisational training and female empowerment courses resulted in a higher adoption rate. This finding has important policy implications, because it suggests that ensuring more widespread and equitable adoption of improved technologies may not require changes in the research system, but rather introduction measures that ensure better access for women to gender-sensitive extension programmes given their positive impacts on technology adoption of the household.
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    Plot-level impacts of improved lentil varieties in Bangladesh
    Date: 2022-01-25
    Status: Open access
    The advent of improved lentil varieties (ILVs) in the mid-1990s solved the disease problem which almost halted lentil production in Bangladesh. Levels of adoption of ILVs have been documented in the literature, but little is known about their impacts. Applying an instrumental variables regression to data collected from a sample of 1,694 lentil plots and DNA fingerprinting for varietal identification, this study provides estimates of the plot-level impacts of adoption of ILVs in Bangladesh. Model results show that adoption of ILVs is associated with 14.3% (181.14 kg/ha) higher yields and 17.23% (US$169.44/ha) higher gross margins. Since 45% of lentil area is under ILVs, they generated over 8.77 tones (6%) more supply of lentils from domestic sources, saving the country US$8.22 million in imports in 2015 alone. By investing in the generation and scaling of ILVs, Bangladesh and other South Asian countries with similar agro-ecologies can increase production and decrease dependency on lentil imports.
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    CRP-GLDC Annual Report 2020
    Date: 2020-04-30
    Status: Open access
    The CGIAR Research Program on Grain Legumes and Dryland Cereals (CRP-GLDC) is an international consortium led by the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) and implemented by CGIAR, and non-CGIAR international research partners, NGO`s and NARES. This consortium strives to support beneficiaries in 13 priority countries in South Asia (SA) and Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) with a mission of improving rural livelihoods and nutrition by prioritizing demand-driven innovation to increase production and market opportunities along value chains. The CRP-GLDC envisions to increase productivity, profitability, resilience and marketability of critical and nutritious crops grown in the semi-arid and sub-humid dryland agroecologies of Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and South Asia (SA) where poverty, malnutrition, climate change and soil degradation are most acute. Improved innovation capacities within agri-food systems of these crops are expected to enable coherent and integrated research and development, production, and market and policy reforms to contribute towards resilience, inclusion, poverty reduction, nutritional security, environmental sustainability and economic growth. This report presents the results of the CRP for the year 2020.
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    Evaluación del impacto en la producción y análisis de adopción tecnológica de la tecnología de Cámara térmica”
    Author(s): Rivera, Tatiana; Pardo Garcia, Juan; Montoya, Juan; Antonio Labarta, Ricardo; Cuellar, Wilmer (International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT))
    Date: 2020-03-06
    Type: Report
    Status: Limited access
    Este reporte presenta los resultados de la evaluación ex -ante del impacto económico asociado a la instalación de una cámara térmica para la multiplicación de cormos de plátano de alta calidad en el municipio de Caicedonia, Valle del Cauca. Utilizando los métodos de análisis de presupuestos parciales y el del modelo de excedentes económicos, los resultados indican quela adopción de los cormos obtenida por multiplicación en cámara térmica en sustitución de los cormos tradicionales para la siembra de plátano,sería rentable para los productoresde la región.Estos resultadosson consistentes en varios escenariosdel análisis de sensibilidad. El análisis económico también indica que la tecnología será rentable para la sociedad, siempre y cuando se alcancen rendimientos superiores a 16,2ton/ha/año.
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    2020 CRP RTB Carry-Over Milestones
    Author(s): Paredes, Diego (International Potato Center (CIP))
    Date: 2021-01-25
    Type: Dataset
    Status: Open access
    The list of milestones presented are results not accomplished in previous year and carry-over to 2021.
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    RTB Milestones Table for 2021 Planning Process
    Author(s): Paredes, Diego (International Potato Center (CIP))
    Date: 2020-09-10
    Status: Open access
    RTB Milestones Table for 2021 Planning Process
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    Modeling Producer Responses with Dynamic Programming: A Case for Adaptive Crop Management
    Date: 2018-10-08
    Status: Timeless limited access
    Past research found agricultural producers’ conditional responses during the growing season are important adaptations to weather and other stochastic events. Failing to recognize these responses overstates the risks confronting producers and understates their ability to respond to adverse circumstances. Dynamic programming (DP) provides a means for determining optimal long‐term crop management plans. However, most applications in the literature base their analysis on annual time steps with fixed strategies within the year, effectively ignoring conditional responses during the year. We suggest an alternative approach that captures the strategic responses within a cropping season to random weather variables as they unfold, reflecting farmers’ ability to adapt to weather realizations. We illustrate our approach by applying it to a typical cereal farm in Karak, Jordan. The results show that including conditional within‐year responses to weather reduces the frequency of fallowing by 23% and increases expected income by 9%.
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    Adoption and impacts of improved varieties and seed demand analysis
    Author(s): Yigezu, Yigezu; Boughlala, Mohamed; Al-Shater, Tamer (International Center for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), 2018-02-28)
    Date: 2018-02-28
    Status: Open access
    There is very limited information about the national level adoption of improved wheat varieties in Morocco. With the exception of some estimates based on secondary data, the same is true for household, regional and national level seed use. Using a nationally representative sample of 1,230 farm households from 21 provinces distributed across 56 districts and 292 villages and a variety of methods including descriptive statistics, the Heckman selection model, duration analysis, propensity score matching and endogenous switching regression, this study attempted to provide: 1) accurate estimates of current national and provincial adoption levels of improved varieties with special attention to their release date; 2) analysis of factors influencing the decision and speed of adoption of improved wheat varieties; 3) estimates of impacts on livelihoods indicators particularly yield, wheat net income and wheat consumption; and 4) estimation of farm, provincial and national level seed demand.
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    CGIAR Outcome/ Impact Case Study Template
    Author(s): CGIAR Consortium, Office (CGIAR System Organization (CGIAR), 2016-12-31)
    Date: 2016-12-31
    Type: Template
    Status: Open access
    CGIAR Outcome/ Impact Case Study Template