Year Published
- 2008 (1) Apply 2008 filter
- 2009 (2) Apply 2009 filter
- 2010 (3) Apply 2010 filter
- 2011 (5) Apply 2011 filter
- 2012 (1) Apply 2012 filter
- (-) Remove 2013 filter 2013
- 2014 (0)
- (-) Remove 2015 filter 2015
- 2016 (1) Apply 2016 filter
- (-) Remove 2017 filter 2017
- 2018 (1) Apply 2018 filter
- (-) Remove 2019 filter 2019
- 2020 (0)
- 2021 (1) Apply 2021 filter
Research Topics
Populations
Types of Research
- Data Analysis (3) Apply Data Analysis filter
- Literature Review (1) Apply Literature Review filter
- Portfolio Review (0)
- Research Brief (0)
Geography
- (-) Remove East Africa Region and Selected Countries filter East Africa Region and Selected Countries
- Global (11) Apply Global filter
- South Asia Region and Selected Countries (3) Apply South Asia Region and Selected Countries filter
- Southern Africa Region and Selected Countries (1) Apply Southern Africa Region and Selected Countries filter
- (-) Remove Sub-Saharan Africa filter Sub-Saharan Africa
- West Africa Region and Selected Countries (2) Apply West Africa Region and Selected Countries filter
Dataset
Current search
- (-) Remove East Africa Region and Selected Countries filter East Africa Region and Selected Countries
- (-) Remove Sub-Saharan Africa filter Sub-Saharan Africa
- (-) Remove Food Security & Nutrition filter Food Security & Nutrition
- (-) Remove Development Finance & Policy filter Development Finance & Policy
- (-) Remove 2017 filter 2017
- (-) Remove 2015 filter 2015
- (-) Remove 2019 filter 2019
- (-) Remove 2013 filter 2013
Studies of improved seed adoption in developing countries almost always draw from household surveys and are premised on the assumption that farmers are able to self-report their use of improved seed varieties. However, recent studies suggest that farmers’ reports of the seed varieties planted, or even whether seed is local or improved, are sometimes inconsistent with the results of DNA fingerprinting of farmers' crops. We use household survey data from Tanzania to test the alignment between farmer-reported and DNA-identified maize seed types planted in fields. In the sample, 70% of maize seed observations are correctly reported as local or improved, while 16% are type I errors (falsely reported as improved) and 14% are type II errors (falsely reported as local). Type I errors are more likely to have been sourced from other farmers, rather than formal channels. An analysis of input use, including seed, fertilizer, and labor allocations, reveals that farmers tend to treat improved maize differently, depending on whether they correctly perceive it as improved. This suggests that errors in farmers' seed type awareness may translate into suboptimal management practices. In econometric analysis, the measured yield benefit of improved seed use is smaller in magnitude with a DNA-derived categorization, as compared with farmer reports. The greatest yield benefit is with correctly identified improved seed. This indicates that investments in farmers' access to information, seed labeling, and seed system oversight are needed to complement investments in seed variety development.
Donor countries and multilateral organizations may pursue multiple goals with foreign aid, including supporting low-income country development for strategic/security purposes (national security, regional political stability) and for short-and long-term economic interests (market development and access, local and regional market stability). While the literature on the effectiveness of aid in supporting progress on different indicators of country development is inconclusive, donors are interested in evidence that aid funding is not permanent but rather contributes to a process by which recipient countries develop to a point that they are economically self-sufficient. In this report, we review the literature on measures of country self-sufficiency and descriptive evidence from illustrative case studies to explore conditions associated with transitions toward self-sufficiency in certain contexts.
An ongoing stream of EPAR research considers how public good characteristics of different types of research and development (R&D) and the motivations of different providers of R&D funding affect the relative advantages of alternative funding sources. For this project, we seek to summarize the key public good characteristics of R&D investment for agriculture in general and for different subsets of crops, and hypothesize how these characteristics might be expected to affect public, private, or philanthropic funders’ investment decisions.