Access to markets is challenging for smallholders who may not be able to compete with larger operations that can provide firms with consistent quantities of high-quality products. This barrier to entry may be due to the smallholders’ limitations to exploit economies of scale, but it can also be due to their apprehension to sign contracts. IFPRI’s research project, Contracting Out Poverty: Experimental Approaches to Innovation in Agricultural Markets with Small Farmers, explored three innovative contract structures to solve this problem, focusing on markets for high-value crops in three diverse locations: Peru, Tanzania, and Viet Nam. Using randomized trials, innovative contract designs were developed with private companies in each country (a mango producer in Peru and milk processors in Viet Nam and Tanzania).
Innovation in Insurance: Managing the Risky Business of Weather
On March 29-30, 2017, the Chicago Council on Global Affairs will host the Global Food Security Symposium in Washington, D.C. IFPRI has been helping design and evaluate index insurance products to aid farmers in mitigating the impact and managing the risks associated with severe weather and crop loss.
Strengthening Resilience in Latin America
Climate change and agricultural diseases threaten the food security and livelihoods of many poor people in developing countries. IFPRI’s research in Latin America examined these environmental shocks, helping to bring the urgency of adaptation and mitigation to the forefront and to convince policy makers to act to build the poor’s resilience. In the 2000s, little >> Read more
Enhancing South-South Learning: From Brazil to Africa
Brazil has made impressive progress in reducing poverty. Rural poverty has been cut almost in half, from 51 percent in 2002 to 29 percent in 2011, and family farmers’ incomes grew by 50 percent. These results were achieved partially through Fomento, a set of government-run social programs targeting smallholder farmers. When a program shows such >> Read more
Building Capacity for Strategic Policies and Investments in Latin America and the Caribbean
Ineffective investments and policies can be partly attributed to limited information. To help policy makers in Latin America and the Caribbean make informed decisions, IFPRI has used its research and economic modeling expertise to develop region-specific tools that enhance policy makers’ access to data, analyses, and trends. Peru has enjoyed sustained periods of economic growth >> Read more
Advancing Cutting-Edge Nutritional Interventions in Latin America
IFPRI's work continued to promote improved nutrition in Latin America through innovative evaluations and programs. From 2011 to 2016, IFPRI, in collaboration with Mercy Corps and with support from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), designed and evaluated the Programa Comunitario Materno Infantil de Diversificación Alimentaria (PROCOMIDA)—a nutrition program aimed at improving the health and >> Read more
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