Agriculture

There are fears that agricultural subsidies could attract farmers with low returns to use new technologies. Evidence from Bangladesh shows that without subsidies, the price of agricultural inputs is actually a barrier to adoption, highlighting that h...

An evaluation of six different text-message-based agricultural extension programmes, that collectively reached over 128,000 farmers in Kenya and Rwanda, shows that while the impacts of text messages are modest, they can be an extremely cost-effective...

Climate change is increasing the severity and incidence of extreme weather events. How can policymakers help build farmer resilience to these shocks?

Supervisors can nurture talent within organisations by passing on tacit production knowledge that improves workers’ performance. Evidence from Uganda shows that investments in supervisors as coaches can be a cost-effective way to boost worker product...

What has new evidence taught us about the evolution of smallholder agricultural productivity in sub-Saharan Africa over recent decades?

Food economics holds important lessons about market power in supply and product markets, poverty and malnutrition, and farm size.

Anthropogenic climate change will likely intensify the negative environmental impacts of agriculture through powerful feedback loops. This has important implications for development research, policy and R&D investment.

With more inputs, improved crop varieties can yield more. But do Ethiopian maize farmers know enough about their seeds to optimise fertiliser use?