Agriculture

How smallholder farmers in Zambia are adapting to droughts

Evidence from over 6,600 farm households in Zambia finds that droughts reduce yields of maize, beans, and groundnuts while prompting smallholders to diversify crops, adopt resilient seed varieties, and expand cultivated area. This suggests that well-...

Agriculture

Martin Paul Jr. Tabe-Ojong Emmanuel Tolani Ernest L. Molua

Published

06.05.26

Boosting farmers' profits

Credit, subsidies, and cash transfers can improve yields and revenues for smallholder farmers in low- and middle-income countries, but translating these gains into higher profits proves far harder. The evidence suggests that credit works best not as ...

Agriculture

Craig McIntosh

Published

29.04.26

What’s holding back agriculture in Ghana?

Despite a long decline in agriculture's share of Ghana's economy, the sector remains vital, yet productivity gains are undermined by partial and uneven adoption of modern technologies across seeds, fertiliser, mechanisation, irrigation, and digital s...

Agriculture

Nkechi Owoo

Published

01.05.26

Can digital credit unlock investment in smallholder farms?

A randomised trial testing digital input loans for smallholder cocoa farmers in Ghana found that access to credit increased farm input spending but failed to raise profits, primarily because inputs arrived too late in the planting season to have the ...

Agriculture

Monica Lambon-Quayefio

Published

15.04.26

Extreme heat is changing how farming households work

Extreme heat in West Africa does not simply reduce farm labour but reshapes household labour allocation – often increasing reliance on women and children and reducing hired labour – while the overall response varies significantly across countries, de...

Agriculture

Martin Paul Jr. Tabe-Ojong Ange T. Kakpo Jourdain C. Lokossou

Published

27.03.26

Rising fertiliser prices hit developing countries hard

When fertiliser prices spike, farmers in countries dependent on fertiliser imports are hit especially hard, and governments must grapple with a range of trade-offs in how they respond.

Agriculture

Wyatt Brooks Kevin Donovan

Published

24.03.26

How cold weather increases domestic violence in Peru

Cold snaps increase domestic violence in the Peruvian Highlands by reducing agricultural income. Policies that improve households’ resilience to agricultural income losses can help mitigate this effect.

Agriculture

Katie Bollman Judhajit Chakraborty Leah Lakdawala Eduardo Nakasone

Published

24.03.26

Rethinking the agricultural productivity gap: Informality matters

After adjusting for labour input differences, the apparent agricultural productivity gap in India is largely a formal-informal sector divide. Differences in education and labour hours fully explain the productivity gap between informal sector and agr...

Agriculture

Rajveer Jat Bharat Ramaswami

Published

10.03.26

Fostering negotiation skills in land and forest agreements

Negotiation training improves the ability of Liberian communities to strike beneficial deals around forest and land management by strengthening leaders’ ability to identify mutually beneficial, higher-value agreements. However, it does not substantia...

Agriculture

Darin Christensen Alexandra Hartman Cyrus Samii Alessandro Toppeta

Published

05.03.26