IFPRI Datasets

Changes in height-for-age of Egyptian children from 1995 to 2014: Implications for improving child health outcomes

Background
Stunting is a serious health problem in Egypt. Stunting rates and height-for-age z-score (HAZ) distributions changed notably in Egypt over time, yet the factors that led to these changes remain unknown. This study examines the factors associated with these changes and provides important considerations for designing interventions to achieve the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) of ending all forms of malnutrition by 2030.

Methods
Leveraging data from Egypt’s Demographic and Health Survey for the years 1995, 2003, and 2014, we employ a Recentered Influence Function (RIF) approach that goes beyond the conventional way of measuring stunting as a binary indicator to examine changes across the entire HAZ distribution. The RIF decomposes changes in the HAZ distribution over time into differences attributable to changes in the levels of the determinants of nutrition (covariate effects) and in the strength of the association between these determinants and HAZ (coefficient effects).

Results
The stylized facts show a puzzling increase in stunting rates despite improvements in the level of the determinants of nutrition. Our RIF results attribute the change in stunting rates and other parts of the HAZ distribution primarily to changes in the association between the determinants of nutrition and HAZ (coefficient effects) rather than in the level of the determinants (covariate effects). The results also show that the determinants of nutrition could have heterogeneous impacts at different quantiles of the HAZ distribution.

Conclusion
To reduce stunting rates and achieve the SDG of ending malnutrition, our findings highlight the need for targeted interventions. Interventions should be geographically targeted, promote gender and income equality, improve maternal nutrition, and expand access to better sanitation facilities. This is in addition to wealth redistribution and reforming Egypt’s subsidy program to focus on nutritious food.

Associations between exposure to nutrition, WASH interventions and children’s academic performance in Ethiopia: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Background

Poor nutrition and inadequate WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene) practices significantly impact children’s health, nutrition, and cognitive development, especially in low-income settings. These factors further aggravate the incidence of undernutrition, weaken the immune system, increase susceptibility to illnesses and reduce cognitive performance. Evidence on the effectiveness of existing WASH interventions is needed.

Objective

This review evaluated the effectiveness of nutritional and WASH interventions on the academic performance of children in Ethiopia.

Methods

A systematic search of Cochrane, DOAJ, Google Scholar, and PubMed (2010–2024) was conducted using MeSH terms and keywords related to WASH. Two independent reviewers screened studies and extracted data. Eligible studies included cross-sectional and cohort studies on Ethiopian schoolchildren with quantifiable academic outcomes. The JBI SUMARI was used to assess bias, and the GRADE approach was used to evaluate evidence quality. The meta-analysis used a random-effects model in Stata and reported pooled RRs with 95% CIs. Subgroup and sensitivity analyses examined moderators such as study design, intervention type, and sample size.

Results

A total of 19 studies, 16 cross-sectional (n= 16) and three prospective (n= 3) cohort studies with a total of 9034 participants, were included. The random effects model revealed a significant improvement in academic performance among students receiving both nutrition and WASH, with a pooled large positive effect size of 2.05 (95% CI: 1.26, 2.28; I2=). In the subgroup meta-analysis, the effect of the intervention was more positive among those who skipped breakfast (3.47, 95% CI: 0.47, 6.47), chronic iodine deficiency (4.49, 95% CI: 4.08, 4.90), food insecurity (2.810, 95% CI: 1.281, 4.339), and underweight (0.61, 95% CI: 0.46, 0.75).

Conclusion

Despite moderate variability and some risk of bias, the evidence supports the integration of comprehensive nutrition and WASH programs into school health initiatives. Future research should focus on long-term effects and cost-effectiveness.

“If you want to have sex you can, if you don’t, you don’t have to”: A qualitative evaluation of the Unite for a Better Life couples program to prevent intimate partner violence in rural Ethiopia

Background
Gender-transformative programing targeting couples is an important strategy to reduce intimate partner violence (IPV), but questions around efficacy and safety remain. This qualitative study explores indications of change and unintended consequences of the gender-transformative Unite for a Better Life (UBL) intervention, using data from the couples’ and control arms of a cluster randomized controlled trial (cRCT) in Ethiopia. The cRCT found no impact on physical and psychological IPV and weak evidence of reductions in sexual IPV in the couples’ arm.

Methods
We analyzed 33 facilitator feedback questionnaires and 29 in-depth interviews (IDIs) among couples conducted approximately 30-months post intervention; 14 participated in UBL delivered to couples, and 15 were from the control arm. IDIs were conducted separately with each member of the couple and analyzed thematically in Dedoose to explore indications of change attributed to UBL.

Results
UBL couples attributed improved household task-sharing, communication, and joint decision-making to the program. Men and women developed more gender-equitable attitudes, leading to more fulfilling relationships. Additionally, most participants in violent relationships reported that UBL led to a reduction or cessation of physical and psychological IPV, and a complete cessation of sexual IPV. These effects were largely attributed to shifts at the individual level for men. Men developed better anger management skills, reduced their alcohol consumption, and increased their knowledge around the consequences of IPV. At the relational level, couples reported increased communication, particularly around sexual desire, and reduced conflict. Additionally, participants reported normative shifts, including decreased acceptance of IPV. There were no reports of changes in control participants nor of major unintended consequences.

Conclusions
When delivered to couples, UBL shows promise in shifting individual-level male factors and relational dynamics and reducing conflict and IPV. This suggests that engaging men in couples can be an effective and safe strategy for IPV prevention.

Assessing the role of food MSMEs in providing employment for women and youth in Ethiopia

Micro-, Small-, and Medium-Sized Enterprises (MSMEs) are often important sources of employment in the food retail environment of Low- and Middle-Income Countries. As a result, policy makers might consider promoting job creation through MSMEs operating in the food environment. In this paper, we study a unique data set collected in two sites in Ethiopia to draw potential policy lessons for job creation based on the characteristics of MSMEs operating in the food environment. The data were collected from among 1,686 food vendors in a neighborhood of Addis Ababa and Butajira, Ethiopia, as part of an effort to better understand the relationship between consumers and the food environment in Ethiopia. Our descriptive analysis suggests that a large share of the enterprises in our sample do not employ anyone beyond the owner, and female-owned enterprises are less likely to hire workers than male-owned enterprises. Moreover, the profits per worker are lower than the cost of a healthy diet, suggesting that without an improvement in profitability it is unlikely that hiring labor would help improve nutritional status. So while the sampled MSMEs may have the potential to deliver food at lower cost, they have limited ability to generate additional employment.

A rapid tool for understanding how knowledge users engage with research findings in research-for-development contexts

Promoting the use of research findings in development projects is essential but often overlooked during study design. Existing frameworks for research use tend to focus on clinical settings and offer questionable applicability to development contexts, which are typically nonlinear, dynamic and cross-sectoral. As a result, there remains a gap in tools that can capture how evidence is intended to be applied by diverse knowledge users in real-world development settings. To address this gap, and drawing on over a decade of experience implementing research-to-action strategies, our objective is to develop a simple research uptake and use tool to better understand and support the use of evidence in research-for-development. We piloted the tool immediately after or 1 month following dissemination workshops, engaging 206 participants across nine sessions in five countries – Kenya, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Malawi, and Vietnam – to gather insights on which evidence was most relevant, how participants intended to apply it and why they valued it. Although conceptualized with a focus on agriculture and global health research, this framework is broadly applicable across the wider development sector in low- and middle-income countries.

Farmers’ preferences and willingness to accept incentives for adopting sustainable agricultural practices in India

Sustainable agricultural practices are increasingly promoted to mitigate the impacts of climate change on agriculture. However, adoption at the farm level remains limited, often due to trade-offs between tradable and non-tradable ecosystem services. This study examines farmers’ preferences for resource conservation practices and their willingness to accept incentive payments for their adoption in the Indian state of Punjab, where rice has become the most important crop despite its cultivation being unsupportive of its climatic conditions. Following the discrete choice experiment approach, the study included 500 farmers with the following attributes: ecosystem service benefits, income compensation, and carbon credit price. The findings reveal that farmers showed a strong preference for adopting improved farm practices. Saving water and avoiding residue burning are the two most preferred ecosystem benefits by the farmers. However, farmers’ preferences are strongly influenced by factors including carbon credit prices, income compensation, socioeconomic characteristics, and their risk aversion capacity. The estimation of extended random parameter logit (RPL) indicated that switching to direct rice seeding requires compensation of Rs. 29,223/ha and Rs. 29,178/ha for reallocating area from rice to legumes, ceteris paribus. These findings are crucial for policymakers in restructuring the existing incentive structure to accelerate the adoption of resource conservation practices in India.

Distance, prospects, and migration to towns and cities

The two sides of migration in Central America: Aggregate and distributional impacts in Guatemala

International migration affects labor supply, production patterns, and external income flows in origin countries, yet our understanding of its economy-wide and distributional consequences remains limited, particularly with regard to the role of return migration. This study integrates detailed microdata on migrant profiles into a general equilibrium model applied to Guatemala to examine how emigration and return migration affect macroeconomic performance, sectoral dynamics, and household welfare. We simulate three scenarios: a reference scenario reflecting recent-historical emigration patterns (MIG-0), a reduced-emigration scenario (MIG-1), and a net-return migration scenario (MIG-2), capturing recent shifts in emigration and return flows by skill level. Results reveal trade-offs between aggregate economic performance and distributional impacts across households. Compared to a baseline economy with no mobility, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) rises modestly under the reference scenario (+0.2 percent) and by additional 0.3–0.5 percentage points under the reduced-emigration and net-return scenarios, driven by expanded labor supply from returnees and currency depreciation. Non-agro-processing manufacturing shows the largest expansion (up to 1.8 percent), reflecting its strong labor-absorption potential. Household welfare, especially among remittance-dependent households, is highly sensitive to these flows, with income and consumption declining under the two counterfactual migration scenarios. These findings underscore the need for policies that facilitate returnee reintegration and strengthen social protection for remittance-dependent households, ensuring that the macroeconomic gains from migration adjustments translate into equitable welfare improvements.

Tajikistan Rural Household Survey (TRHS) 2025

The Tajikistan Rural Household Survey (TRHS) is a survey data collection effort led by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the Tajik Academy of Agricultural Sciences (TAAS). It is an ambitious attempt to generate data critical to filling pertinent evidence gaps on the livelihoods and the resilience of rural households in Tajikistan. The TRHS interviewed 3,267 households in the country's three most populated regions (Sughd Region, Khatlon Region, and Districts of Republic Subordination).

The in-person household survey includes a household-level questionnaire that was administered to any knowledgeable adult household member. An accompanying individual-level questionnaire was administered in private to one randomly selected household member, aged 18 to 54 years old. In households were no adult was present in the specified age range, another household member 55 years or older was allowed to respond to the individual-level questionnaire. The dataset also consists of a brief enumerator survey.

A robust spectral-temporal index for cross-regional mapping of plastic-mulched farmland using decametric-resolution images

Healthier diets: A global economic modelling study of income and employment impacts across regions

Interest has grown in how to achieve healthy, sustainable, and affordable human diets. The potential income and employment effects of a transition towards healthier diets have received much less attention. We simulate aggregate and sectoral income and employment for business-as-usual and healthier diets for all geographic regions up to 2050 using scenario-based modelling. These healthier diets can increase food’s share of household expenditure in some regions, for example from 18% to 25% in East and Central Africa in 2050. Our results suggest that a global shift towards healthier diets leads to a reallocation of primary factors of production, especially low-skilled labour and capital, from non-agricultural sectors to crop agriculture in parts of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. Notably, in 2050, with healthier diets, agriculture’s share of low-skilled labour increases by 3.2 percentage points in East and Central Africa and 1.5 percentage points in South Asia excluding India. Although Gross Domestic Product increases in these regions relative to business-as-usual, this reallocation raises agriculture’s share of Gross Domestic Product, consistent with a slower pace of long-run structural transformation. The reallocation leads to a mild increase in wages for low-skilled workers relative to high-skilled workers in most of these regions, compared to business-as-usual. However, in parts of sub-Saharan Africa, food price increases outweigh wage gains for low-skilled labour, reducing real purchasing power. Policies that encourage healthier diets may also alter income and employment and reduce economic welfare of poor populations in some regions, so care is needed in policy design to avoid adverse unintended consequences.

Familiar strangers: The role of diaspora networks in foreign investment and long-run development

Uncovering the climate vulnerability of China’s poverty alleviation frontiers

Women's experiences of the food environment and their association with fruit and vegetable intake: Insights from northern Tanzania

This analysis examined associations between factors in the food environment and fruit and vegetable (F&V) intake among women living in rural Northern Tanzania. We used cross-sectional data from 2597 women and 1275 food sources. Women's self-reported factors included buying frequency, sources, availability, and convenience. We also measured women's access to F&V sources using geospatial measures of distance and time from home to the reported typical sources. Data from a 30-day F&V food frequency questionnaire were used to calculate two scores that captured intake frequency and variety. We conducted a descriptive analysis of indicators of women's experience and tested their associations with the scores using multivariable and Poisson regression models, controlling for covariates. On average, 5% and 35% of women reported buying F&V daily, respectively. Fruit was mostly bought from markets: F: 80%, V: 40%. Two-thirds of respondents perceived F&V as available (F: 65%, V: 60%). Median (IQR) distance and time to fruit sources were 9 km (2,19), 39 min (19,78), and to vegetable sources were 3 km (1,10), 32 min (8-69). Compared to women who reported making daily purchases of F&V, those who purchased weekly or monthly reported lower frequency and variety of F&V intake. Women's perceptions that F&V were less available and at a longer distance were associated with lower frequency and variety of vegetable intake.Buying frequency, perceived availability, and distance to markets were associated with women's frequency and variety of F&V intake, underscoring the need to consider these and other factors in food environments to increase F&V intake.

Diets, fruit and vegetable intake, and nutritional status in Benin, Fiji, the Philippines, Sri Lanka, and Tanzania: Foreword

Improving diets can improve nutrition and health outcomes. In this supplement, evidence from five low-and-middle-income countries on the country specific dietary (including F&V) intake patterns, nutrition issues and evaluated solutions to improve diets across population groups is presented. Based on this evidence, the final paper offers perspectives and future priorities.

Gender asset-ownership gap, women's agency, and its implications for household inequality: Evidence from Nigeria

he gender asset-ownership gap remains a persistent barrier to inclusive economic growth. While women contribute significantly to agricultural production and household welfare, they continue to face constraints in accessing and controlling productive assets such as land and non-land resources. Using nationally representative panel data from the Nigeria Living Standards Measurement Study-Integrated Surveys on Agriculture (LSMS-ISA) waves 4 and 5, this study examines the role of women’s productive asset ownership and empowerment in shaping household income inequality in rural Nigeria. Descriptive evidence shows persistently high intrahousehold inequality, with intrahousehold Gini coefficients averaging approximately 0.70 across survey rounds, despite a modest decline between 2018/19 and 2023/24. Regional patterns reveal particularly pronounced inequality in the North East, where income distributions are heavily skewed and most households exhibit extreme intrahousehold disparities. Employing fixed effects regressions and Blinder-Oaxaca decompositions, the analysis yields three key findings. First, women’s land share is associated with reduced intrahousehold income inequality, but this effect is modest and conditional. It becomes meaningful primarily in households where women control more than half of total household farmland, suggesting that small and fragmented landholdings offer limited inequality-reducing potential on their own. Women’s control over income and participation in agricultural decision-making emerge as additional and consistently significant drivers of reduced intrahousehold inequality. Second, women’s land share has a significant and positive effect on women’s income share, with a 10 percentage point increase in female-managed farmland associated with approximately a 0.76 percentage point increase in women’s share of household income; women’s income control and agricultural decision-making further amplify this effect. Third, Blinder-Oaxaca decompositions reveal that households where women own productive assets have significantly lower intrahousehold inequality and higher women’s income shares than those where no woman owns an asset, with differences driven primarily by disparities in women’s income control and decision-making authority rather than asset ownership alone. This shifts the policy debate from simply closing gender asset gaps to ensuring women’s assets are productive and consolidated with genuine economic agency.

The early bird gets the cash: Early notification and conditional cash transfers for secondary school

What is the optimal timing for a cash transfer targeting increased secondary school enrollment? We present evidence from a randomized trial in rural Ethiopia showing a CCT increases enrollment and reduces child marriage. The largest effects are observed for youth offered the transfer a year prior to their (potential) matriculation; in this cohort, there is also a significant in-crease in the probability students pass the primary school leaving exam. By contrast, reduced treatment effects are observed for prior dropouts, and a generalized random forest analysis suggests this primarily reflects different observable characteristics (lower academic performance) among this sub-sample.

Soil tests, vouchers, and the limits of site-specific fertilizer recommendations: Experimental evidence from Malawi

Fertilizer subsidy programmes dominate agricultural spending in several African countries. Rising and volatile fertilizer prices have renewed concerns about the efficiency of such spending, prompting initiatives to tailor fertilizer recommendations to local soil conditions. We test this premise in Malawi, where the national subsidy programme distributes a standard package of urea and NPK fertilizer. In a cluster-randomized trial involving more than 2,000 households across 113 villages, we assign farmers to (i) a plot-level soil-test recommendation, (ii) the same recommendation combined with a voucher of subsidy-equivalent value, or (iii) a control group. The recommendation alone has no effect on fertilizer use, input choice, or maize yields. When paired with a voucher, fertilizer use and maize yields increase substantially, with yields rising by roughly one-third; at the maize prices prevailing in our study area, however, the value of this additional production falls short of the face value of the voucher, let alone the value of the voucher plus the cost of individualized soil test. For farmers themselves the package is nonetheless profitable, since the voucher largely displaces fertilizer they would have bought anyway and so lowers their own input spending, and because many households are net maize buyers, valuing the additional output at retail rather than farmgate prices narrows the shortfall. The yield gains do not reflect adoption of site-specific prescriptions: voucher recipients predominantly purchase urea and NPK in proportions closely matching the standard subsidy bundle, regardless of what their soil test recommends, and compliance with recommended alternatives such as potassium, lime, or calcium ammonium nitrate is negligible. Because the observed gains come almost entirely from nitrogen intensification while phosphorus, potassium, and lime gaps remain uncorrected, the measured yield response is a lower bound on what full-compliance fertilization could deliver. Relaxing financial constraints thus increases input use and productivity, but information alone does not redirect behaviour toward precision fertilization. Effective subsidy reform will require addressing broader supply- and demand-side constraints, including input availability, farmer familiarity with recommended products, and the practical implementation of site-specific recommendations, not only improving agronomic information.

Gender, disability, and welfare in Myanmar

This working paper examines household welfare among women-adult-only households and households with a disabled/chronically ill member using Myanmar Household Welfare Surveys from April 2022 to July 2025. It analyzes their demographic characteristics, income composition, and levels of asset and income poverty. The paper’s main contribution is assessing key food security indicators for these vulnerable households, including Minimum Dietary Diversity, the Food Consumption Score, and the Household Hunger Score.

Women-adult-only households, defined as households without any male members aged 15 or older, account for 9 percent of households nationally, or 13 percent when including households with elderly male dependents. Fourteen percent of households have a disabled or chronically ill member, and 10 percent have a disabled or chronically ill adult.

Women-adult-only and disability-affected households have higher asset poverty rates than the national average. Women-adult-only households have similar income poverty levels compared with the national average, while 71 percent of households with a disabled/chronically ill member are income poor, compared to 63 percent nationally. Remittance receipt among women-adult-only households decreases income poverty for the group; more women-adult-only households receive remittances (33 percent) and rely on remittances (24 percent) as their main income source.

Women-adult-only and disability-affected households perform worse across all dietary indicators. Women-adult-only households show, on average, 4 percentage points higher prevalence of low food consumption across survey rounds, while households with a disabled/chronically ill adult have a 3percentage-point higher prevalence. Moderate or severe hunger is also higher among women-adultonly households (6 percent) and households with a disabled/chronically ill adult (7 percent), compared with the national average of 4 percent.

Households with a disabled/chronically ill adult are significantly more likely to rely on negative food-related coping strategies—including borrowing food, reducing meals, and skipping meals— highlighting their heightened vulnerability relative to other households. Regression results highlight that women-adult-only households face elevated hunger because of their structural economic disadvantages —fewer different income sources, weaker land ownership, and lower asset holdings — rather than the absence of adult men per se. Low food consumption, however, remains significantly lower for women-adult-only households even after fully controlling for these structural factors. This likely reflects the severe time constraints of households where all productive, care, and domestic tasks fall on adult women alone. For households with a disabled or chronically ill adult hunger persists across all specifications regardless of income, land, or asset controls — pointing to a direct burden that structural economic characteristics cannot explain. These contrasting findings suggest different interventions: structural economic interventions around land and livelihoods for women-adult-only households, and direct consumption support and social protection transfers for households affected by disability.

When quality (doesn't) pay: Evidence from two experiments in Uganda

Quality in agri-food supply chains is often unobservable at first sale and early aggregation limits traceability, weakening incentives for quality provision. We study whether making milk quality visible and traceable creates a market for quality in Uganda’s dairy sector. Increasing observability reduces adulteration and improves quality, but no premium emerges. In a follow-up experiment, we introduce trader quality premiums. This increases quality when binding, yet informed intermediaries capture the gains and farm-gate prices do not rise. Observability is necessary but insufficient: without downstream demand for quality and pass-through by intermediaries, incentives for quality upgrading remain weak.

Climate change impacts on agriculture and adaptation options for Uzbekistan

Climate change is likely to reshape agriculture in an irrigated, water-scarce transition economy like Uzbekistan. We use IFPRI's International Model for Policy Analysis of Agricultural Commodities and Trade (IMPACT) model and evaluate the direct effects of climate change on Uzbekistan’s agriculture through 2050. We assume changes in GDP, population, and technological progress to be exogenous. We find that climate change and the corresponding temperature increase will have significant adverse effects on the long-term yields of cotton and wheat through changes in water availability, precipitation patterns, crop yields, and the use of land, water, and other natural resources, but harvested area responses may differ. All climate change scenarios are similar in predicting an increase in harvested area for temperate fruits and vegetables, but their yield gains remain conditional on market prices, policy reform, water use and institutional constraints. For policymakers, this makes climate change adaptation actions an opportunity for incentives and structural reforms as well as for technology to adapt to changing environmental conditions and to ensure food security.

Presentations for Engines of Growth in Fragile Contexts: Launching the IFPRI–UNU-WIDER research partnership

Targeting of beneficiaries in chemical fertilizer subsidy programs: State of knowledge and evidence gaps

Low- and middle-income countries are under increasing fiscal pressure to rationalize spending on fertilizer subsidy programs. Policy reforms shifting expenditure away from subsidies can have beneficial impacts given the well-documented distortionary market effects and negative environmental externalities of fertilizer subsidies. However, such reforms also result in losses and often lower fertilizer use for current beneficiaries. Understanding who is impacted by reform thus requires an assessment of who is currently benefiting, yet there is little systematic work understanding who these programs currently benefit both on paper and in practice. In this paper, we identify low- and middle- income countries with active fertilizer subsidy programs, and characterize the targeting regime of each program based on both explicit and implicit criteria determining eligibility. Then in a selection of case studies, we explore which individuals are receiving subsidy benefits in practice. We find that while many fertilizer subsidy programs are designed as universal, in many countries there are implicit targeting criteria embedded in the way subsidy programs are implemented and/or informal targeting induced by supply shortfalls. Further, we find evidence that regardless of targeting regime, the targeting of subsidy programs is generally pro-poor, driven by the fact that the poor are often concentrated in the agricultural sector.

IFPRI Malawi maize market report, May 2026

Average retail prices of maize declined by most measures, with lowest prices registered in the Southern Region. Driven by increased domestic supply of newly harvested maize and cheap imports, maize retailed mostly below the government-mandated minimum farmgate price.

From Vision to Action (V2A): Co-development of transition pathways towards enhanced multifunctionality in Mandla landscapes, Madhya Pradesh (India)

Mandla district is situated in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh (seen in figure 1), covers an area of 7226 km2 and is defined by its diverse topography and agricultural significance. The district is situated within the Satpura hill range and the Narmada catchment area. The district comprises 1223 villages with a population of 1.28 million, and is home to several scheduled tribes, particularly the Gond, Baiga, and Oraon communities https://hdl.handle.net/10568/173476. These indigenous groups rely heavily on the commons, forests for Non-Timber Forest Produce (NTFP), and open pastures. The district's agricultural landscape is marked by the cultivation of key crops such as rice, wheat, pulses, and oilseeds. Mandla faces challenges like soil erosion, particularly in ridge areas, prompting the construction of continuous contour bunds and trenches to mitigate its impact. With a total cropped area of 376,780 hectares, the district predominantly cultivates paddy, wheat, and pulses. However, water scarcity looms large despite an annual average rainfall of more than 1300 mm, as the districts undulating topography limits prolonged water retention and its soil characteristics further constrain groundwater recharge. Limited irrigation infrastructure, concentrated mainly near dams and canals, compels local residents to depend on rivers, streams, and traditional wells for domestic water needs. The district, largely falling under the Narmada river catchment, exhibits a unique environmental duality, with over 60% covered by forests providing vital habitat for wildlife and serving as a crucial resource for the local population.

Myanmar Agricultural Performance Survey Round Eight: Note on Sample Characteristics and Weighting

The Myanmar Agricultural Performance Survey (MAPS) is a nationally and sub-nationally representative phone survey that collects bi-annual data on agricultural indicators, including crop production and sales, input use, crop marketing, farm and livestock assets, and farm services. MAPS is a sub-sample of the Myanmar Household Welfare Survey (MHWS), a nationally and sub-nationally representative phone survey that collects bi-annual data on household and individual welfare indicators, including poverty, food security, dietary quality, subjective wellbeing, and coping strategies. This note covers the eighth round of MAPS. Rounds 1, 3, 5, and 8 were conducted between January and March of 2022 and 2026 and collect recall data on monsoon production. Rounds 2, 4, 6, and 7 were conducted between June and October of 2022 and 2025 and collect recall data on dry season production (post/pre-monsoon season).
In this note, we provide details on the data collection and sample characteristics of the eighth-round of MAPS. First, we briefly describe the modules present in MAPS data. Second, we discuss the household sampling design of MHWS and each MAPS round and the differences between the datasets. Third, we discuss the calculation of weights for MAPS and provide descriptives of the weighted sample. Most comparisons throughout the paper are between MAPS round 5 and MAPS round 8 because both surveys were carried out for the monsoon season.

Current Agro-Based Transformation and Its Future in East and Southern Africa

Conflict and farmland values: Spatial panel data evidence from rice plots in Myanmar

The significant economic implications of the value of farmland in developing countries is increasingly recognized, particularly in those countries where land scarcity is a growing problem. However, knowledge gaps remain about how farmland values can be affected by factors such as conflict and social instability. A knowledge gap also remains regarding how spatial transmission and feedback effects of land values among geographically proximate parcels may affect the relationship between conflict and farmland values. This impact has generally been overlooked in the literature, despite the well-established importance of clustering in agricultural economies. This paper addresses these gaps by utilizing unique, nationally representative panel data on farm households and spatial data on conflict intensity in Myanmar, with a focus on the period of significant conflict intensification following the 2021 political crisis, particularly in 2022 and 2023, when the country’s conflict level largely shifted to a high-intensity state. We apply spatial econometric models and their extensions to a panel data framework, as well as models that allow for endogenous spatial weights, which enable conflicts to not only affect farmland values but also shape how changes in farmland values transmit across locations. Our results indicate that more local conflict during the prior 12 months, measured by the number of months with at least one fatal violent event within the township of respondents, significantly reduced the farmland values of the largest rice plot of these respondents. Specifically, in the monsoon and non-monsoon harvesting seasons of 2022 and 2023, an additional one month of fatal violence was associated with approximately 3 percent and 5 percent decline in land values, respectively, implying a potentially sizable decline for townships that experience more persistent conflicts over several months. Moreover, the effects of violent events are magnified by spatial spillover effects on land values across village tracts. These adverse effects are robust and consistent across a range of methodologies and hold across diverse agroecological conditions.

Financial inclusion for youth in agrifood systems: Gendered barriers and solutions in northern Nigeria

Nigeria is home to one of the world's largest and fastest-growing youth populations aged 15–35, yet financial exclusion continues to sideline young people, particularly young women, from fully participating in agrifood systems. When women control financial resources, they generate multiplier effects across the food system.

In northern Nigeria, where more than half the population remains unbanked, the stakes are especially high. This research note draws on evidence from two complementary IFPRI studies to examine the financial inclusion experiences of young women and young men in northern Nigeria and identify practical, gender-sensitive solutions.

Strengthening Myanmar’s agrifood system: Evidence and pathways for resilience

Myanmar's agrifood system is central to the country's economy and to the livelihoods of most of its population, having historically accounted for roughly almost half of GDP and two-thirds of employment. Since 2021, the political crisis, intensifying conflict and insecurity, climate shocks, and a major earthquake have placed the system under sustained and compounding stress. Drawing on evidence collected between 2021 and 2025, this paper provides a snapshot of where the system stands following this period of crisis and identifies opportunities for strengthening its resilience going forward.

Private sector actors have been central to sustaining the agrifood system's resilience since 2021. Input retailers have maintained the physical availability of fertilizer, seeds, and agro-chemicals, even in insecure areas, while mechanization service providers have continued to supply labor-saving services through flexible payment arrangements. Private agribusinesses have absorbed the contraction in formal credit, now accounting for roughly three-quarters of fertilizer credit sources, and have become the dominant providers of extension, both in-person and digital. These actors are operating under significant financial stress, but they have sustained farmers’ access to inputs, services, credit, and advice during a period when these would otherwise have likely collapsed.

Input costs have risen significantly since 2022, with agricultural wages, mechanization costs, and fertilizer prices all rising substantially. Farmers have responded by partially shifting toward lower-cost production practices, including direct seeding, which carries an estimated yield penalty of approximately 15 percent compared to transplanted rice. Promoting appropriate agricultural technologies in conflict- and climate-affected areas requires targeted attention, particularly for smallholders and more remote households. Sustaining and expanding development assistance alongside humanitarian assistance will be important to support the transition toward more productive and sustainable farming systems, with scaling domestic production of organic soil amendments and expanding mechanization services.

Agricultural extension use rebounded to 38 percent in the 2025 dry season, with the private sector now the dominant provider and digital channels expanding rapidly. Given persistently low and unequal access to extension services, more inclusive outreach combining targeted in-person support in underserved areas with strengthened digital delivery is needed, with particular attention to women, less educated, remote, and conflict-affected farmers. As agrochemical distributors dominate both in-person and digital advisory services, promoting high-quality agronomic content and ensuring clear separation between technical advice and product promotion is important. The rapid expansion of digital platforms creates opportunities but requires investments in digital literacy, content quality, and monitoring systems to assess impact. Partnerships between digital platforms and large firms could also support traceability and quality requirements for export markets.

Ice valuation among artisanal fishers in Hadramawt: Findings from a field-based choice study

A field-based choice study of 129 artisanal fishers in two coastal locations in Hadramawt, Yemen, supports the following key findings:

Ice use for chilling fish is very low, despite willingness to adopt its use. Only 2 percent of fishers reported always using ice, yet 53 percent of fishers indicated willingness to adopt ice use and 36 percent were willing to forgo a cash payment in exchange for a bag of ice. This gap is consistent with low adoption being driven primarily by economic constraints rather than lack of awareness.

Fishers’ valuation of ice is well below its market prices. The average valuation is approximately 2,200 YER per bag of ice, less than half the prevailing market price of 5,0006,000 YER. Only about 3 percent of fishers would choose to purchase ice at current prices.

Willingness to adopt ice is highly price-sensitive. The share of fishers willing to adopt ice rises sharply as prices decline. A reduction to around 2,500 YER per bag—approximately half the current market price—could increase adoption to an estimated 40–50 percent of fishers.

Expected gains from ice use vary by species. Price premiums are modest for the most commonly targeted fish species, limiting the economic incentive for most fishers to use ice.

Access to iceboxes is associated with higher willingness to adopt ice use. Fishers who own an icebox are about 20 percentage points more likely to indicate willingness to adopt ice use and are willing to forgo approximately 1,390 YER more to obtain ice. This highlights the importance of complementary assets, such as iceboxes, in shaping adoption decisions.

Cost–benefit analysis of WFP’s integrated resilience programme in Chad (2018–2023)

1. Integrated resilience programming (IRP) works. The IRP significantly improved household food security, with participating households recording an average 6.6 point increase in Food Consumption Scores (FCS) and reduced reliance on negative coping strategies, and increased resilience capacities, compared with nonparticipants, underscoring the value of multisectoral, layered interventions.

2. High economic returns are achievable in fragile contexts. Overall, the IRP delivered a benefitcost ratio (BCR) of 3.98, meaning every US$1 invested generated nearly US$4 in measurable benefits.

3. Nutrition interventions (treatment of acute malnutrition and blanket supplementary feeding) yield the strongest returns. Treatment of acute malnutrition and preventive nutrition support for women and children produced BCRs ranging from 6:1 to 9:1, validating global evidence on the cost-effectiveness of nutrition investments.

4. Knowledge-based and community-led interventions are transformative. Training and sensitization activities achieved the highest BCR (20:1) for resilience outcomes, highlighting the long-term payoffs of behavior change, empowerment, and knowledge transfer activities.

5. Cereal banks, particularly when combined with Food Assistance for Assets (FFA) through cash transfers, contributed to improved food security and resilience outcomes. The Cereal Bank + FFA Cash Transfers combination achieved balanced gains across key indicators (FCS +9.2, rCSI –3.4, RCS +10.4), highlighting its role in stabilizing seasonal food availability and access. However, despite these outcome improvements, the cost-effectiveness was modest, with BCRs ranging from 0.4 to 0.6—suggesting that while the intervention supports resilience, its financial return per dollar invested may be limited under current implementation models.

6. Bundled interventions outperform stand-alone ones. Layered approaches—particularly FFA Cash Transfers combined with School Feeding—produced the largest FCS gains (+5.7 points; BCR = 2.85), reinforcing WFP’s integrated “three-pronged approach” to resilience-building.

7. Short-term transfers remain essential but less cost-efficient. Lean season food and cash distributions provided vital relief but yielded lower long-term returns (BCR < 1), emphasizing the need to balance immediate humanitarian needs with investments in sustainability. 8. Strategic scaling of high-return interventions is crucial. Scaling nutrition, training, and cereal bank programs, while optimizing the design and sequencing of combined packages, could maximize impact per dollar spent and strengthen resilience dividends. 9. Resilience is a smart investment. The findings demonstrate that resilience programming is not only a humanitarian necessity but also a financially sound strategy—reducing long-term aid dependency, improving livelihoods, and fostering local self-reliance across fragile environments in Chad. 10. Short-term coping behavior responds more slowly than food security and resilience capacity outcomes, highlighting the need for sustained and sequenced support. While IRP interventions generated significant improvements in food consumption and resilience capacity, reductions in severe coping strategies were not observed in the short term. This underscores that behavioral change lags behind stabilization and capacity-building gains, and that resilience impacts should be assessed over longer horizons rather than through immediate reductions in negative coping alone.

Food subsidies in India: Revisiting the estimates

There is a view that the fis­cal bur­den of food sub­si­dies in India is un­sus­tain­able. Yet pop­u­lar de­bate and dis­cus­sion around the costs of these food sub­si­dies, rel­a­tive to their ben­e­fits, are mis­lead­ing for two rea­sons. First, they typ­i­cally treat re­ported bud­getary sub­sidy es­ti­mates—i.e. the fis­cal cost to the gov­ern­ment of the dis­tri­b­u­tion of food via ra­tion shops—as equiv­a­lent to “trans­fers” to ben­e­fi­cia­ries. Sec­ondly, they tend to focus ex­clu­sively on con­sumers. In doing so, they ne­glect the two-part na­ture of the food dis­tri­b­u­tion sys­tem, which in­cludes pay­ments to farm­ers at the time of pro­cure­ment. This paper ex­am­ines ways of mea­sur­ing the costs and value of the food sub­sidy. We pre­sent es­ti­mates that com­bine the im­plicit value of ben­e­fits to con­sumers aris­ing from the re­duced price of grain sold to con­sumers via ra­tion shops, with im­plicit ben­e­fits to farm­ers, in terms of the price dif­fer­ence be­tween what farm­ers are paid by the gov­ern­ment and what they would have ob­tained in the open mar­ket. This ap­proach shows that each rupee of the “food sub­sidy” re­ported in gov­ern­ment ac­counts rep­re­sents a trans­fer worth Rs 1.29 to con­sumers and farm­ers, on av­er­age, over the pe­riod 2001–02 to 2022–23. That is, each rupee trans­ferred to these groups is as­so­ci­ated with a cost of Rs 0.79 to the gov­ern­ment.

Beyond the 24-hour recall: Aligning dietary diversity metrics with nutrient physiology

Changing rural labor markets and welfare in Malawi

Cash transfers relax climate-induced mobility constraints in Kenya

The use of migration as an adaptation strategy is now recognized by scholars and policymakers as a key response to climate change. Cash transfer programs, now being implemented worldwide, also have the potential to facilitate adaptation and promote resilience in low- and middle-income countries. We investigate the extent to which a cash transfer program in Kenya promoted the mobility of household members due to climate shocks, leveraging exogenous variation in local deviations from the historical climate and the administration of the program through a randomized controlled trial. Our findings indicate that beneficiary households were less likely to reduce migration amid cold spells, likely via shifts in education-related migration. We also find that heat spells ubiquitously encourage new members to join the household, while cold spells have the opposite effect, and that cash transfers do not appear to alter these relationships. Together the results suggest that cold spells can trap migrants in temperate, low-resource settings and that cash transfers can partially alleviate these constraints. Modeling migration and complementary strategies in the presence of climate tipping points will become necessary to predict when more permanent migration will be triggered and modifying social assistance will become necessary.

Modeling the association between repeated measures of hemoglobin during pregnancy and adverse birth outcomes

Youth in relation to agroecology: practices, promises, and perceptions in five countries

In the context of rising youth populations in many low- and middle-income countries, coupled with high youth unemployment and aging farmer populations, this paper asks in what ways agroecology, as a sustainable alternative to the conventional agricultural practices and paradigm, attracts youth to farming and rural-based livelihoods. We draw on empirical data from semi-structured interviews and photovoice conducted with young women and men in five countries: Kenya, India, Peru, Tunisia, and Zimbabwe. In our discussion, we highlight which dimensions and aspects of agroecology resonate with youth and why.

Uncovering bottlenecks and innovative solutions for scaling small-scale irrigation through a system approach and design thinking: Evidence from Nigeria

CONTEXT
Small-scale irrigation (SSI) is central to food system transformation in Sub-Saharan Africa, yet its scaling remains low in Nigeria despite the apparent demand and policy narratives.

OBJECTIVE
Examine intermediary ‘missing middle’ barriers to SSI scaling and co-create solutions for socially inclusive, environmentally sustainable, and institutionally coherent scaling of SSI.

METHODS
We integrated Agricultural Innovation Systems (AIS) theory with a Human-Centered Design (HCD) approach to examine SSI diffusion in a Responsible Scaling lens. For qualitative study, a series of HCD workshops were conducted in three geographies (Kano, Oyo, and FCT) with a total of 85 stakeholders drawn from government institutions, financial organizations, and private irrigation technology suppliers. To complement qualitative insights, we analyzed the 2023 National Agricultural Sample Survey microdata to generate a national snapshot of irrigation prevalence, methods, and water sources. This is a nationally representative data from sample of 152,485 households and over 76 million agricultural plots included in the Nigeria National Agricultural Sample Survey (NASS) 2022/2023.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSIONS
The study demonstrates that Nigeria's SSI bottlenecks stem not simply from farmer reluctance or technological ignorance but primarily from systemic intermediation failures across policy coordination, finance, and market supply chains—producing a “missing-middle” ecosystem. These failures include fragmented government mandates, high lender risk perceptions, weak supplier networks, gendered exclusion, and pervasive information gaps. Applying responsible scaling (RS) we show how scaling of SSI is being hindered by institutional fragmentation, liquidity constraints, gender exclusion, and data/information deficiency.

SIGNIFICANCE
The study presents co-created innovation pathways, including a national SSI coordination platform, blended-finance mechanisms, supplier hub models, and gender-responsive financing, mapped to AIS functions to guide responsible, inclusive, and climate-resilient scaling. The integrated AIS–HCD–RS approach advances system learning and participatory co-design and offers a practical methodology for responsible scaling of agricultural innovation.

Food supply implications of healthy diet consumption in Senegal by 2050

Targeting social assistance in fragile settings: An experiment in community-based targeting

Political economy of planting for food and jobs input subsidy policy process in Ghana: An application of the Kaleidoscope Model

The Planting for Food and Jobs (PFJ) input subsidy policy was Ghana’s flagship agricultural programme from 2017 to 2025, designed to increase agricultural productivity, enhance food security, create jobs, and improve rural livelihoods through targeted support to smallholder farmers. Despite its prominence, there has been little systematic analysis of the political economy of the policy process that shaped it. This study applies the Kaleidoscope Model of Policy Change (KM), a framework developed for analysing development policy processes, to examine how the PFJ input subsidy policy was placed on the agenda, designed, adopted, and implemented. A qualitative research design was employed, involving 50 key informant interviews with policymakers, programme implementers, farmer-based organisations, and development partners, alongside two focus group discussions with farmers. Data were coded and analysed thematically using the KM framework to identify drivers, enablers, and constraints across the different stages of the policy process. The findings indicate that focusing events and policy coalitions were crucial in placing PFJ on the agenda. Policy design was influenced by the urgency of addressing declining productivity, ideological factors, and cost–benefit assessments. Adoption was shaped by the authority of advocates, the limited resistance of veto players, and favourable political timing, reflecting the perception that presidential initiatives often become policy priorities. Implementation, although constrained by budget shortfalls and logistical challenges, benefited from institutional capacity, budgetary allocations, and sustained advocacy. Overall, PFJ reached its target number of beneficiaries, raised productivity, enhanced food security, created jobs, and reduced dependence on food imports, despite only 69% of planned resources being released. However, limited tailored support for youth and women remains a key gap. The study demonstrates the value of political economy analysis for agricultural policy and recommends structured engagement with the private sector in subsidized input delivery from agenda setting through to implementation.

The impact of a continuum of care intervention from prevention to treatment on child wasting compared to usual community group activities: A cluster randomized controlled trial in Mali

Background
Child wasting is associated with a high mortality risk and remains a persistent public health challenge.

Objective
This study aimed to evaluate the impact of an intervention strengthening the continuum of care of child wasting from prevention, screening, and referral to treatment in Mali.

Methods
A two-arm cluster-randomized controlled trial was conducted using two study designs to evaluate impact and pathways: i) a longitudinal study of children enrolled at 6 months (n=2,324) with monthly follow-up for 3–6 months to assess wasting prevalence (primary outcome); ii) a longitudinal study of all children 6–23 months admitted to outpatient therapeutic programs (OTP; n=7,104) assessing recovery and adherence. Additional OTP coverage surveys were conducted at the end of the study. In both study arms, nutrition activity support groups (NASG) screened children for wasting and provided caregiver behavior change communication (BCC). The intervention arm additionally received small-quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements (SQ-LNS), child-centered BCC, family-led screening, and follow-up on referred wasting cases to support OTP admission and adherence.

Results
The intervention did not impact wasting prevalence but reduced the incidence of wasting (relative risk (RR): 0.80, 95% confidence interval (CI): 0.64, 0.99) and severe acute malnutrition (SAM) (RR: 0.71, 95%CI: 0.57, 0.89). The intervention significantly increased wasting screening coverage by 37 pp (95%CI: 31, 44) and SAM treatment coverage by 15 pp (95%CI: 0.35, 30). No impacts of the intervention on OTP recovery or adherence were found. NASGs often replaced the monthly home visits with community gatherings to deliver the intervention. NASGs also often distributed SQ-LNS to children they identified with wasting instead of referring them to the OTP.

Conclusions
Strengthening the continuum of care of wasting through community groups reduced the incidence of wasting and SAM and improved screening coverage, which translated into a modest gain in SAM treatment coverage.

Adding small quantity lipid-based nutrient supplements to an enhanced homestead food production program improves child hemoglobin, iron and vitamin A status in rural Burkina Faso: A cluster randomized controlled trial

Background
Enhanced homestead food production programs (EHFP) including nutrition behavior change communication and women’s empowerment activities have limited impacts on child nutrition. This may be due to short program duration or the absence of interventions to improve water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) and access to nutritious foods.

Objective
We assessed impacts on child anemia, micronutrient status and anthropometry of prior village exposure to an EHFP, and of adding WASH alone or WASH with daily small quantity-lipid based nutrient supplements (SQ-LNS).

Design
This 2y longitudinal cluster-randomized controlled trial (2014-2016) included 60 villages in Burkina Faso randomized to four groups (15 per group): (1) EHFP-2014, (2) EHFP-2014+WASH, (3) EHFP-2010+WASH, and (4) EHFP-2010+WASH+SQ-LNS. Groups 3 and 4 had previously received EHFP (2010-2012). We assessed impacts on child anemia and micronutrient status (n=1,704; 3-12.9 mo at baseline) and anthropometry (n=2,308; 0-12.9 mo at baseline) using difference-in-difference (DID) specifications. We controlled for covariates, adjusted for clustering, and assessed interactive effects by child age at baseline. The trial was registered with clinicaltrials.gov (NCT02236468).

Results
We found no impact of prior exposure to EHFP (groups 2 vs 3) on the outcomes examined. Adding WASH (groups 1 vs 2) reduced anemia (hemoglobin (Hb)<11 g/dL) (DID=9.43 pp, p<0.01) and led to a decline in weight-for-age Z-score (WAZ) (DID -0.11±0.04, p=0.01). Adding SQ-LNS (groups 3 vs 4) increased Hb (DID=0.26±0.13 g/dL, p<0.05), plasma ferritin (DID=7.61±2.69 μg/L, p<0.01), and retinol binding protein (DID=0.07±0.02 umol/L, p<0.01) concentrations. Effects were larger in children <6 mo at baseline, where providing SQ-LNS (>6 mo) positively impacted Hb, plasma ferritin, height-for-age Z-score, WAZ, and underweight.

Conclusions
Using EHFP to deliver WASH and SQ-LNS reduced child anemia and improved micronutrient status. Anthropometric improvements were found in children who joined the program before 6 mo of age and were exposed for the whole complementary feeding period.

Role of credit access, improved varieties, and gender dynamics in commercialization of cassava seeds in Nigeria

Cassava seed entrepreneurship is critical for strengthening seed systems and advancing agricultural transformation in Nigeria. This study examines the determinants of smallholder participation in cassava seed entrepreneurship and simulates the effects of targeted policy interventions using survey data from 993 cassava farmers in Benue State. The analysis applies a binary logit framework with counterfactual scenario simulations and production-regime, specific estimations to account for heterogeneity between low- and high-productivity environments, alongside additional robustness checks. The results show that access to credit (dy/dx = 13.2%, p <0.01), adoption of improved cassava varieties (dy/dx = 14.3%, p < 0.01), use of an area-calculation mobile application (dy/dx = 7.1%, p < 0.05), and access to extension services (dy/dx = 5.2%, p < 0.05) significantly increase the likelihood of participation in cassava seed entrepreneurship. Gender-disaggregated analysis indicates that male farmers have a modest but meaningful advantage (β = 0.92, dy/dx = 5.8%), reflecting differential access to productive resources and institutional support. The production-regime analysis reveals important structural differences in participation drivers. In low-productivity environments, participation is primarily constrained by financial capital, with credit access emerging as the dominant determinant. In contrast, in high-productivity environments, participation is more strongly influenced by technological complementarities, particularly adoption of improved varieties, digital decision-support tools, and extension services that enhance productivity and market coordination. These findings highlight that entrepreneurial engagement is context-dependent rather than uniform across farming systems. Policy simulations further indicate that the joint provision of credit and improved varieties could increase participation probabilities by 36.1 percentage points for men, 32.0 percentage points for youth (≤35 years), and 25.8 percentage points for women, demonstrating substantial untapped entrepreneurial potential among women and youth if structural barriers are relaxed. As part of the robustness analysis, conflict exposure, used as a proxy for local political instability, shows a positive and statistically significant association with participation, suggesting that farmers in conflict-affected environments may adopt cassava seed entrepreneurship as a resilience or income-diversification strategy. Consistency across alternative specifications confirms that institutional access, technological adoption, and productive capacity remain more decisive for participation than most demographic characteristics. Overall, the study underscores the need for gender and youth-responsive policies that integrate financial inclusion, technological support, institutional strengthening, context-sensitive interventions as well as attention to productivity regimes and local security conditions, to promote inclusive and resilient cassava seed systems in Nigeria.

C’est la vie! Mixed impacts of an edutainment television series in West Africa

Edutainment is a promising tool for changing behavior at scale, yet little is known about how to maximize impacts. We undertake an experimental evaluation of a popular West African television series, C’est la vie!, delivered through film clubs targeted at adolescent girls and young women in rural Senegal. We examine impacts on violence against women and girls and sexual and reproductive health. Results show C’est la vie! improved knowledge on both domains three months after film clubs ended, as well as violence-related attitudes nine months later, however, had no impact on behaviors. We investigate design components intended to strengthen impacts, generally finding no additional impacts from post-screening discussions, engaging men, and podcasts. Our findings suggest that edutainment is an engaging way to reach viewers on sensitive themes, however more evidence is needed on how to effectively deliver edutainment content for sustained behavior change at scale.

Cost and affordability of recommended diets in Rwanda using [near] real-time market data

Countries are increasingly benchmarking food assistance and labour laws on the cost of nationally recommended diets. Benchmarking is made against national annual estimates, which fail to account for sub-national and intra-annual variation in cost, blunting the impact of policies. Using monthly market price data collected by the Government of Rwanda (April 2019-March 2024), we estimate the cost of the country’s proposed food-based dietary guidelines, using a standardised diet costing methodology. We found rural areas experienced greater inflation in diet cost over the study period than urban areas (41% vs 28%), yet the recommended diet was 12.7% higher in urban locations. Diet costs were approximately 6% lower in districts with international border crossings to Tanzania, but 7% more in those with borders with the Democratic Republic of Congo. Fruits and vegetables (110% and 71%) and starchy staples (86% and 83%) contributed most to cost increases in rural and urban locations respectively. Seasonal diet cost fluctuations were also evident with a seasonal amplitude of 5.6% and 6.9% in rural and urban locations, synchronised to Rwanda’s agricultural calendar. 70% of employed Rwandans would find the recommended diet unaffordable, if spending 52% of wages on food. Diet costs varied 4.2-fold across all districts throughout the study period, meaning that uniform national policies to address costs and affordability would be systematically inadequate in high-cost settings and wasteful in low-cost ones. That such spatial–temporal variation exists in a small, relatively market integrated country like Rwanda suggests variation would be at least equally consequential in other low and lower-middle-income countries. High-frequency and sub-national monitoring of prices, diet costs, and affordability provides essential intelligence for policymakers to enable spatially and seasonally targeted interventions, improving both the adequacy and efficiency of food policy.

Using method of moments quantile regression to examine the influences of fishery operations and their ramifications for marine water contamination

This study aims to investigate the dynamic impact of the fishing industry on marine water contamination in 27 European countries by taking into account the roles of fisheries output, the use of fossil fuels, economic development, and governance between 1990 and 2022. The results, which used a novel technique called the Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR) in addition to factors that are fixed effect, demonstrated that, at most quantiles, there was a significant positive correlation between fishing production and marine water contamination. At the earliest and latest quantiles, fishery production significantly exacerbates marine water contamination, with a smaller impact at the lowest and a larger impact at the highest. Additionally, the data indicate that affluent EU14 countries produce more fish than developing EU13 countries, which has a significant and negative impact on the contamination of marine water. Marine water contamination from the usage of fossil fuels has increased significantly in the EU13 developing countries as compared to the EU14 wealthy countries. Policymakers can reduce marine water contamination in EU14 and EU13 countries by using eco-friendly fishing gear, more sustainable fishing methods, and energy technologies like wave and tidal power.

Digital literacy training to promote diffusion of digital agricultural tools to smallholder farmers: Evidence from a randomized intervention in Egypt

Despite growing enthusiasm about the potential of digital innovations to transform agrifood systems, adoption among smallholder farmers in Africa remains low and heterogeneous. While the proliferation of digital tools targeting smallholder farmers is encouraging, the vast majority remain at pilot stages, facing barriers such as limited awareness among farmer, digital illiteracy, usability challenges, and low trust among farmers. This paper evaluates alternative digital literacy interventions designed to address these demand-side barriers and enhance smallholder farmers’ knowledge, utilization, trust, and uptake of two Egyptian mobile apps offering marketing, advisory, and input delivery services. Following a Training of Trainers (TOT) model, we designed and implemented a randomized controlled trial to test three variants of digital literacy training: standard classroom-based digital literacy training (T1), digital training complemented (preceded) by a video-based play (T2), digital training complemented (preceded) by a live community play (T3), and a control group (C). We find that the different variants of digital training led to statistically significant increases in uptake and utilization of digital tools. Specifically, the standard digital training alone increased uptake by 20 percentage points and utilization by 18 percentage points. The interventions also improved farmers’ trust in digital tools by 8–13 percentage points. Surprisingly, for some outcomes, the digital literacy training alone outperformed the combined approaches that incorporated edutainment nudges. We explore possible explanations, including group size effects and social influence dynamics during the plays. We also document heterogeneity in the impact of these interventions across farmers’ gender and age. Our findings offer insights into designing cost-effective, scalable interventions that build digital capabilities and trust among smallholder farmers, while cautioning against assuming edutainment always strengthens adoption outcomes.

Assessing the development impacts of bio-innovations: The case of genetically modified maize and cassava in Tanzania

Agrifood systems of India: A state-level analysis using a social accounting matrix

IFPRI: Africa strategy: Partnering for evidence-based transformation

The International Food Policy Research Institute’s Africa Strategy focuses on achieving impact through partnerships, research and evidence-building, capacity development, and innovative communication and knowledge sharing in support of Africa’s agenda for agrifood systems transformation. Building on decades of high-impact engagement at continental, regional, national, and subnational levels, IFPRI aims to sharpen and intensify its work in a rapidly transforming Africa. Through deepened partnerships with African institutions, IFPRI plans to help generate high-quality evidence to drive impact across Africa’s fast-changing agrifood systems and economies to support sustainable, inclusive economic growth and open new opportunities for a better future.

Myanmar monthly food price report – April 2026

Rice prices increased sharply month-on-month in April 2026 (up 8.9 percent) and remained broadly stable year-on-year, suggesting a continued recovery following earlier declines driven by lower international rice prices and strong domestic supply. However, regional price disparities remain significant across major producing and deficit areas.

Most export crop prices showed relatively limited month-on-month movement, particularly for pulses, reflecting stable regional demand from China and India during the Thingyan holiday period. In contrast, maize prices increased sharply following expectations of the reopening of the Thailand–Myanmar border trade route.

Vegetable prices showed mixed trends in April 2026. Onion, chili, and garlic prices increased modestly month-on-month, partly linked to improving border trade expectations and lower domestic garlic production, while potato prices declined sharply amid increased inflows of imported Chinese potatoes and weak domestic demand.

Most animal-sourced food prices remained substantially higher year-on-year, led by mutton, pork, and fish, reflecting continued supply constraints, disease outbreaks, and export demand. Month-on-month changes remained relatively modest, although extreme summer temperatures affected poultry, livestock, and aquaculture production conditions during April.

Most animal-sourced food prices remained substantially higher year-on-year, led by mutton, pork, and fish, reflecting continued supply constraints, disease outbreaks, and export demand. Month-on-month changes remained relatively modest, although extreme summer temperatures affected poultry, livestock, and aquaculture production conditions during April.

Essential commodities prices, availability, and market actors’ perceptions: April 2026

Essential commodities prices, availability, and market actors’ perceptions: April 2026

Farm commercialization and farm services: Myanmar Agricultural Performance Survey (monsoon 2025)

This Working Paper presents findings from an assessment of farm commercialization and farm services during the 2025 monsoon. The analysis is based on data from the Myanmar Agriculture Performance Survey (MAPS), a phone-based survey conducted with 4,553 crop farmers across all states/regions of the country during Q1 of 2026. Our findings reveal the following:

Insecurity continues to affect farming, as reflected in the substantial share of farmers who feel unsafe and report being unable to move freely to buy inputs or sell outputs without serious concerns for their safety. Twenty-three percent of farmers reported feeling “very insecure” or “insecure” during the survey period. Additionally, 7 percent reported that some agricultural fields in their area could not be cultivated due to conflict. Furthermore, 9 percent of farmers expressed fear of storing produce at home because of the risk of confiscation or destruction.

Despite challenges related to fuel and mobility, agricultural inputs were largely available during the monsoon, reflecting the resilience of the private sector in supplying these goods even under difficult conditions. However, labor scarcity is becoming more pronounced, seemingly linked to migration and insecurity. Input prices continued to rise, with fertilizer prices increasing by 24 percent compared to two years earlier. Other input costs, including mechanization and wages, increased even more.

On the output side, prices for paddy—grown by 64 percent of all farmers during the monsoon—fell over the last two years, leading to reduced investments and lower agricultural productivity. Other crops linked to export markets also experienced price declines or only moderate increases over the same period, including pigeon pea (-18 percent) and maize (+28 percent), compared to much larger increases for more domestically consumed crops such as tomato (+178 percent), betel nut (+75 percent), and betel leaves (+43 percent).

Most farmers reported either stabilization or worsening of agricultural sales income compared to the previous monsoon. Thirty-nine percent of farmers reported lower incomes in the 2025 monsoon season than in the previous monsoon, with 22 percent experiencing declines of more than 20 percent. Only 30 percent reported an increase in sales income.

The use of agricultural credit during the 2025 monsoon continued its decline, falling from 47 percent of farmers in 2021 to 38 percent in 2025—a decrease of 9 percentage points. This decline occurred across all agro-ecological zones except the Delta. Access to agricultural extension services remained at levels similar to previous years, with 35 percent of farmers accessing some type of extension service.

Security challenges continue to hinder crop commercialization in Myanmar. Conditions vary across states and regions, with the Delta—the country’s rice bowl—experiencing relatively better security conditions. Farmers in conflict-affected areas face greater obstacles to commercialization, including reduced availability of agricultural inputs.

Rice productivity and profitability in Myanmar: Assessment of the 2025 monsoon season

We analyzed rice productivity and profitability data for the 2025 monsoon season from the Myanmar Agriculture Performance Survey (MAPS), conducted at the beginning of 2026. The survey covered plots managed by 2,734 rice producers across all states and regions of the country. As no MAPS survey was conducted during the 2024 monsoon season, we compare performance changes with those observed in 2023. Our findings reveal the following:

1. National rice productivity, measured on farmers’ largest plots, declined by an average of 8 percent during the 2025 monsoon compared to 2023. This lower productivity was primarily driven by reduced incentives for production as shown by reduced labor inputs, with more farmers adopting broadcasting methods, as well as an increased incidence of natural shocks, notably floods and heavy rains.
2. The Delta agro-ecological zone, the country’s principal rice-producing area, experienced a 7 percent decline in rice productivity in 2025 compared to 2023, while the Coastal agro-ecological zone recorded the largest decline among all zones, with yields falling by 22 percent. This sharp reduction was partly driven by poor performance in Rakhine State, which was largely cut off from commercial input and output markets in 2025, considerably reducing the use of modern inputs in rice production.
3. Thirty-six percent of paddy farmers reported being affected by climatic or other production shocks during the 2025 monsoon season. Floods, reported by 10 percent of farmers, and heavy rains, reported by 15 percent, had significant adverse effects on yields. Among affected farmers, paddy yields declined by 34 percent and 15 percent, respectively.
4. Significant changes in rice cultivation input costs were observed between the 2023 and 2025 monsoon seasons. Prices of urea, the most important chemical fertilizer used by rice farmers, increased by 23 percent, while mechanization costs, measured through plowing costs, increased by 55 percent. Wages recorded the sharpest increases, likely reflecting escalating rural labor scarcity. Wages increased by 88 percent for men and 83 percent for women. Overall input expenditures per acre of rice cultivated increased by 63 percent.
5. Farmgate paddy prices declined by 6 percent, reflecting changes in international rice prices between the 2023 and 2025 monsoon seasons.
6. Given rising input costs and declining paddy prices, paddy farming profits declined substantially and reached their lowest level in the last six years. Nominal profits per acre fell by 40 percent between 2023 and 2025.
7. Commercially obtained inputs are significantly associated with higher rice yields. A doubling of commercial input expenditures is associated with a 34 percent increase in yields, while a doubling of chemical fertilizer use is associated with a 9 percent increase in yields, ceteris paribus. The use of organic fertilizer is also positively and significantly associated with higher yields, with users obtaining yields that are 4 percent higher on average.

The outlook for paddy production in 2026 appears highly uncertain due to several factors:
1. The Iran war: High fuel prices, as well as constrained fuel availability resulting from the Iran war, are likely to complicate transportation, irrigation, and agricultural mechanization, thereby affecting preparation for the next monsoon season. Fertilizer prices have also risen sharply and are expected to remain elevated for the foreseeable future (Arita et al. 2026), with likely negative consequences for use rates and profitability for paddy production during the 2026 monsoon (USDA 2026).
2. Weather conditions: Adverse weather conditions, as observed during the 2025 monsoon, can significantly affect yields. Most climate models predict El Niño conditions during the second half of 2026. These conditions are typically associated with drier-than-average rainfall, which could lead to lower rice yields.
3. Evolution of insecurity: Insecurity is associated with reduced access to agricultural inputs and higher input costs where inputs remain available, thereby reducing profitability for farmers in these areas.
4. Labor scarcity: Labor availability is expected to remain constrained during the next monsoon season due to significant out-migration (linked to the Military Service Law).

These findings point to three key implications for Myanmar’s rice sector:
1. Ensuring access to agricultural inputs: Myanmar’s rice sector is highly commercialized, and access to commercial inputs is crucial for its performance. Risks associated with the Iran war, particularly regarding fuel and chemical fertilizer availability and prices, pose serious challenges for the functioning of the sector. While some commercial inputs could potentially be partially substituted with local production factors, such as agricultural labor replacing mechanized operations or organic fertilizers substituting for chemical fertilizers, a lack of access to these commercial inputs would nevertheless have major implications for rice production and national food security. Where feasible, encouraging such substitution may help mitigate some of these impacts.
2. Expanding access to climate-resilient seeds and other climate-smart agricultural technologies: As farmers are increasingly relying on self-preserved paddy seeds, there is an urgent need for them to have access to and to promote improved, high-yielding, and stress-tolerant rice varieties. Our findings show that farmers affected by floods and droughts experience substantially lower yields than unaffected farmers. Given the expected increase in weather-related shocks associated with climate change, as well as anticipated El Niño conditions, wider adoption of adapted seed varieties as well as other climate-smart agricultural technologies will be critical.
3. Ensuring profitability in rice farming: Rice farming profitability was severely stressed in 2025. This raises concerns about production incentives for the upcoming monsoon season, particularly as input costs continue to rise while rice prices – at least internationally – remain stagnant. Adjustment of the dual exchange rate system that currently depresses output prices would be beneficial. Ensuring adequate rice availability in the country may also require expanded access to credit schemes, or targeted input voucher programs for poorer smallholders, to sustain production and national food security.

Myanmar Agricultural Performance Survey Round Six: Note on Sample Characteristics and Weighting

The Myanmar Agricultural Performance Survey (MAPS) is a nationally and sub-nationally representative phone survey with the objective of collecting bi-annual data on agricultural indicators including crop production and sales, input use, crop marketing, farm and livestock assets, and farm services. The Myanmar Household Welfare Survey (MHWS) is a nationally and sub‐nationally representative phone survey with the objective of collecting bi-annual data on household and individual welfare indicators, including poverty, food security, dietary quality, subjective wellbeing, and coping strategies. MAPS is a sub-sample survey with farming households from MHWS. This note is for the sixth round of MAPS. MAPS Rounds 1, 3, and 5 were conducted between January and March 2022 and 2024 and collect recall data on monsoon production. MAPS Round 2, 4 and 6 were conducted between June and September 2022 and 2024 and collect recall data on dry season production (post/pre-monsoon season).

Phone surveys have several shortcomings including representativeness, enumerator trust, measurement error, and shortened survey length. To help ensure representativeness of our sample we set targets for MHWS data collection from rural, female, lower-educated, and farming households. While there are weaknesses of phone surveys, there are also advantages, particularly in Myanmar. Previous face-to-face socioeconomic surveys in Myanmar failed to reach many townships across the country either due to conflict or remoteness. Round 6 of MAPS includes 259 out of 324 townships.

In this note, we provide details on the data collection and sample characteristics of the sixth-round of MAPS. First, we briefly describe the modules present in MAPS data. Second, we discuss the household sampling design of MHWS and each MAPS round and the differences between the datasets. Third, we discuss the calculation of weights for MAPS and provide descriptives of the weighted sample. Most comparisons throughout the paper are between MAPS round 4 and MAPS round 6 because both surveys were carried out following the post/pre-monsoon season.

Myanmar Agricultural Performance Survey Round Seven: Note on Sample Characteristics and Weighting

The Myanmar Agricultural Performance Survey (MAPS) is a nationally and sub-nationally representative phone survey with the objective of collecting bi-annual data on agricultural indicators including crop production and sales, input use, crop marketing, farm and livestock assets, and farm services. MAPS is a sub-sample survey that includes farming households from MHWS. There are seven Rounds of MAPS. MAPS Rounds 1, 3, and 5 were conducted between January and March 2022 and 2024 and collect recall data on monsoon production. MAPS Round 2, 4, 6, and 7 were conducted between June and October 2022 and 2025 and collect recall data on dry season production (post/pre-monsoon season).

Phone surveys have several shortcomings including representativeness, enumerator trust, measurement error, and shortened survey length. To help ensure representativeness of our sample we set targets for MHWS data collection from rural, female, lower-educated, and farming households. While there are weaknesses of phone surveys, there are also advantages, particularly in Myanmar. Previous face-to-face socioeconomic surveys in Myanmar failed to reach many townships across the country either due to conflict or remoteness. Round 7 of MAPS includes 240 out of 324 townships.

In this note, we provide details on the data collection of the seventh-round of MAPS. First, we briefly describe the modules present in MAPS data. Second, we discuss the household sampling design of MHWS and each MAPS round and the differences between the datasets. Third, we discuss the calculation of weights for MAPS and provide descriptives of the weighted sample. Most comparisons throughout the paper are between MAPS Round 6 and MAPS Round 7 because both surveys were carried out following the post/pre-monsoon season.

Intensification without empowerment? Gendered time burdens in India's livestock sector

This paper provides a nationally representative assessment of changes in women’s work in livestock rearing in rural India using unit-level data from the Time Use Surveys (TUS) 2019 and 2024. By situating the analysis within debates on the feminization of agriculture, the study examines shifts in participation and time allocation in livestock rearing among rural working-age individuals (15–59 years). While women’s participation in economic work increased modestly between 2019 and 2024, this expansion continues to coexist with a persistently high burden of unpaid domestic and caregiving services. Within agriculture, livestock emerges as a relatively more dynamic and gendered domain of work.

Using the 2016 International Classification of Activities for Time-Use Statistics (ICATUS), livestock activities are disaggregated into own use and market-oriented livestock activities. Descriptive evidence shows that women’s participation in livestock activities increased from 11 percent in 2019 to 15 percent in 2024, with a particularly notable rise in market-oriented livestock activities across several states and agroecological zones. Although crop husbandry continues to dominate agricultural employment, both incidence and intensity of participation of women in livestock rearing has visibly increased.

Regression results indicate a positive and significant year effect for total livestock and livestock activities, but not for livestock own-use activities, suggesting that the observed increase is primarily associated with market-oriented engagement rather than subsistence expansion. Education exhibits a strong negative association with livestock time use, especially for women, indicating that livestock remains a fallback activity under constrained employment options. Gelbach decomposition further shows that changes in age composition and educational attainment account for a substantial share of the explained variation, while monthly per capita consumption expenditure has a stronger and more consistently significant association with women’s livestock time use than men’s. Overall, the findings point to incremental change within a persistently gendered structure of rural time allocation.

Varietal adoption, turnover, and concentration for major crops in Ethiopia: Evidence from household surveys and field sample genotyping

Although continuous genetic improvement of crops cultivated by smallholder farmers is a well-known route to increasing agricultural productivity, our understanding of varietal adoption, turnover, and concentration in farmers’ fields is limited. Often, the greatest challenge to our understanding lies in the measurement approach (farmer self-reports versus DNA fingerprinting), as well as in the analysis and interpretation of the available data. To address this issue, we explore variety-level data on four main crops (wheat, maize, teff, and common bean) in Ethiopia. We estimate the area-weighted average varietal age (AWAVA) of each crop using data from a nationally representative sample survey of farm households and a unique genotyping dataset based on seed samples collected from the fields of sampled farm households. We also calculate indices to explore the concentration of varieties in farmers’ fields, which serves to substantiate the varietal age analysis. Overall, results show considerable variation in average varietal age across crops, ranging from 12.5 years for wheat to 28.2 years for common bean. Analysis of area shares of individual varieties for each crop indicates that slower varietal turnover (i.e., higher varietal age) is driven by the continued dominance of older varieties, despite the presence of newer varieties in the market. Slow varietal turnover in the presence of new varieties suggests the need for greater investment in the systems and markets through which seed is distributed to farmers. This includes stronger coordination of research and extension activities, improvement of variety-specific popularization and marketing efforts, and continued experimentation in seed sector development in Ethiopia.

Antimicrobial and other aquamedicine use for disease treatment in pond-based commercial tilapia farms in Bangladesh

This study addresses the limited information on use of antimicrobials and other chemical use in commercial tilapia farms in Bangladesh. A retrospective cross-sectional survey was conducted in November 2022 in the Mymensingh district, a major tilapia production hub. Nearly half of the farms (46.6%) experienced fish mortality during the last production cycle, and 75.0% of farmers did not seek professional assistance during disease outbreaks. Among those who did, 68.0% relied on chemical or drug suppliers for guidance rather than veterinary experts. Biosecurity practices were inadequate, with 98.3% not implementing four basic monitored measures: disinfection of vehicles, footwear, hands, and equipment. Awareness of antimicrobial use (AMU) risks among respondents was low, with 56.0% unaware of its negative impacts and 88.8% unfamiliar with antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Antibiotic use was low, with only 15.5% of farms reporting antibiotic treatments, primarily oxytetracycline hydrochloride (23.8%), enrofloxacin (19.0%), and erythromycin–sulphadiazine–trimethoprim (19.0%). However, other chemicals with antimicrobial properties, such as disinfectants, were more commonly applied, reported by 39.7% of farms for disease management. The use of both antimicrobial and non-antimicrobial medicine varied significantly by location, being significantly less likely observed in Tarakanda (p < 0.05) and Fulbaria (p < 0.01), suggesting location-specific differences in disease management. The presence of clinical signs was significantly associated with increased use of both antimicrobials, non-antimicrobial medicine and use of overall aquamedicine (p < 0.001), while longer cultivation durations showed a weak association with reduced AMU. Imprudent use of antimicrobials and other chemicals may pose One Health risks, including disruption of pond microbial ecosystems, AMR development, chemical residues, and occupational hazards. In-depth qualitative studies are needed to further understand and optimize antimicrobial and other chemical use practices and determine how tilapia farmers may benefit from improved biosecurity, training, and veterinary access.

IFPRI Malawi maize market report, April 2026

Average retail prices of maize declined by most measures, with lowest prices registered in the Southern Region.

Driven by increased domestic supply of newly harvested maize and cheap imports, maize retailed mostly below the government-mandated minimum farmgate price.

Farming in crisis: Livelihood challenges and resilience in conflict-affected Sudan: Insights from the Sudan 2024 Smallholder Farmers Survey

Sudan’s agricultural sector in 2026 is facing unprecedented challenges due to the ongoing conflict, economic instability, and climate-related shocks. These overlapping crises have severely disrupted farming activities, market systems, and rural livelihoods across the country. The situation is particularly critical for smallholder farmers, who form the backbone of Sudan’s food production and rural economy.

This report assesses the state of agriculture in conflict-affected Sudan, with a focus on input use, crop production, market access, and farming household-level challenges. It draws data from the Sudan 2024 Smallholder Farmers Survey, conducted across 13 of Sudan’s 18 states. The survey covered both the 2023/24 winter cropping season and preparations for the 2024 summer season.

The findings reveal that Sudan’s agriculture sector has been severely disrupted by the ongoing conflict. Migration and displacement due to the conflict are reshaping the structure of farming households, while asset losses, reduced cultivated land, and declining livestock holdings undermine their resilience. Household incomes have contracted sharply. Engagement in agricultural activities has dropped, while reliance of farming households on non-agricultural businesses, casual labor, and humanitarian assistance has increased. Food insecurity has reached alarming levels—fewer than one in four households are food secure, while over half are severely food insecure. Food-insecure households are most prevalent in conflict-affected states, such as South Kordofan, North Kordofan, and Blue Nile.

However, improvements were seen in access to input and output markets and the adoption of agricultural inputs in the 2023/24 winter season compared to the 2023 summer season. Farmers reported better availability of improved seed and fertilizer and more reliable input markets and crop-selling channels. However, these gains are overshadowed by growing uncertainty—a large portion of farmers indicated that they did not plan to cultivate crops during the 2024 summer season. Farmer’s access to finance and external assistance remained highly constrained. Farming households that used credit primarily relied on informal credit sources. More than three-quarters reported receiving no external assistance in 2024. Where support is available, its distribution remains uneven, with conflict-affected areas facing severe delivery challenges.

Farmers report widespread exposure to both idiosyncratic and covariate shocks such as illness, flooding, theft, and violence—all of which compound their vulnerability. The coping strategies they use include selling household goods, reducing agricultural investment, or liquidating assets. Such choices provide short-term relief but jeopardize their long-term recovery. Perceptions of insecurity remain widespread, particularly in states experiencing active conflict.

Overall, the findings paint a picture of a farming sector under extreme strain in Sudan. Without urgent, state-specific, and conflict-sensitive interventions, rural livelihoods will continue to deteriorate, further threatening national food security. The report concludes with recommendations to strengthen humanitarian support, revitalize agricultural input and finance systems, protect the assets of farming households, restore markets, and invest in building the resilience of farming households to both conflict and climate risks. Tailored interventions are needed to address state-level disparities, including food and security support in the Kordofan region, water and health services in Red Sea and Kassala states, and agricultural inputs in Aj Jazirah and River Nile. Long-term strategies must also invest in climate-smart agriculture, strengthen social protection systems, and ensure conflict-sensitive approaches that protect farmers and rebuild trust in rural communities.

The rise of ganyu in Malawi

A quiet but important transformation is taking place in Malawi’s rural labor markets. Increasingly, rural Malawians are working fewer hours on their own farms and spending more time in ganyu – an informal labor arrangement based on day- or piece‑work, typically requiring very low levels of skill and offering low and uncertain pay. While ganyu has long existed in Malawi, its scale and role in rural livelihoods have changed markedly. It is no longer merely a short‑term coping strategy but has become a central source of employment for a growing share of the rural population.

This shift is especially pronounced among men, young people, and individuals with little land and limited formal education. At the same time, those who rely more heavily on ganyu are finding it increasingly difficult to secure adequate and stable access to food. The rapid expansion of ganyu has important implications for the kind of policies that will advance inclusive development in Malawi.

Presentations for Success Pathways for Scaling Biofortified Crops

C’est la Vie! How a popular West African edutainment series changed minds, but not behaviours

A West African TV series in Senegal led to short- and medium-term gains in knowledge and attitudes around violence against women and sexual and reproductive health, though impacts on behaviours were limited, and a podcast version extending content during COVID-19 was ineffective.

The impact of a nutrition-sensitive graduation model on child nutrition: Experimental evidence from Ethiopia

This brief reports on a three-arm cluster randomized controlled trial of 3,015 households evaluating the effectiveness of SPIR II, a nutrition-sensitive graduation model implemented in Ethiopia. The full treatment package—combining nutrition-focused behavior change communication (BCC), village economics and savings associations, monthly maternal cash transfers of US$20, and a one-time livelihood grant of US$300—generates large, sustained improvements in child diet quality, household consumption, livestock holdings, and formal savings. A substantial reduction in childhood stunting (7 percentage points) is observed in the same sub-arm; BCC alone improves caregiver nutrition knowledge but does not lead to improved child feeding or growth. The benefit-cost ratio is nearly two, suggesting the program more than pays for itself.

Gender, youth, and growth: Unpacking the productivity–transformation nexus in Rwanda

The relationship between labor productivity and economic transformation, and their combined impact on labor market dynamics, remains insufficiently understood and highly country specific. This study applies an economywide analytical framework, using Rwanda as a case study, to examine how youth and women’s productivity influence economic growth and structural transformation, and how this transformation process, in turn, affects these groups.

The results indicate that labor productivity gains—whether economywide or concentrated among youth—shift growth toward the industrial and service sectors, while growth in the agricultural sector is minimal. Increases in productivity of women’ labor generate more balanced growth across sectors and substantially enhance women’s industrial participation. Productivity gains of youth labor induce stronger structural shifts, as young workers move from agriculture to expanding industrial and service sectors, though this transition partially displaces adult workers.

In general, labor income in these simulations rises broadly in line with GDP, with youth and women benefiting most under targeted scenarios. Sector-specific growth strategies yield distinct distributional effects, however: industry-led growth benefits women and adults, while service-led growth favors the versatile youth. Overall, productivity-driven structural transformation in Rwanda fosters welfare gains, although potential trade-offs between inclusiveness across gender and age groups and aggregate economic performance warrant further investigation. In conclusion, policy design in Rwanda should ensure that gains in aggregate economic growth are balanced with inclusive outcomes for women, youth, and adults.

Myth: Are subsidies the solution for “costly” small-scale irrigation technologies?

A common claim we hear in discussions about small-scale irrigation is that the technologies are simply too expensive, and that subsidies are therefore the only way to make them viable for smallholders. It’s a familiar argument--and on the surface, it sounds perfectly reasonable. If you search online, you’ll quickly find headlines reinforcing this idea. In India, farmers are described as unable to switch to solar-powered irrigation because the upfront costs are too steep; and in Kenya, affordability is raised as the key challenge to adoption. But once we look at actual field evidence, we find that reducing costs is far from the main—or only—solution for supporting smallholders in accessing irrigation technologies, and that subsidies are a blunt instrument for reducing farmers’ costs.

Polycrises across the food-energy-waterenvironment nexus - Entry points for action from the Agrifood Innovation and Resilience Unit at IFPRI

IFPRI’s research on true cost accounting: Unlocking the true value of food for sustainable agrifood systems

Sustainable agrifood systems must ensure food security and nutrition while balancing economic, social, and environmental objectives. Yet food costs more than the consumer price, due to hidden costs to human health, the environment, and social and economic equality. Estimates suggest that these unaccounted‑for costs exceed US$11 trillion annually, representing nearly 10% of global GDP. Redesigning agrifood systems requires a clear understanding of external costs to inform policies that balance health, economic, social, and environmental goals.

True Cost Accounting (TCA) methods measure and economically value the environmental, health, and social impacts of agrifood systems. By making these externalities visible, TCA supports more informed decision-making for governments, businesses, farmers, financial institutions, donors, and consumers. Without levers like TCA to align agrifood systems with climate, health, and equity agendas, policymakers enact policies drawn from incomplete or overly generalized analyses.

Measuring artisanal fisheries using remote sensing: A deep-learning model piloted in Hadramawt

An innovative remote sensing study piloted in two sites (Mukalla and Qusayir) in Hadramawt Governorate, Yemen, reveals the following key findings:

Deep learning using very high resolution satellite imagery can accurately detect small artisanal fishing boats.
The YOLO11 Oriented Bounding Boxes model performs best, with an overall accuracy of 96.9 percent, and enables measuring boat size and identifying boat types.
Mukalla’s fleet numbered around 800 operational boats in 2021–2024, most of which were houris, while sanbuqs accounted for 6.9 percent. Qusayir’s fleet numbered 450 boats, all of which were houris.
The composition of the combined Mukalla and Qusayir fleets by boat type and length class is similar to the composition of Hadramawt’s entire fleet, as shown by a recent landing site survey.
Approximated fish-catch capacities of the Mukalla and Qusayir fleets indicate that current boat sizes are not a notable constraint to increasing the productivity of these artisanal fisheries.
The proposed remote sensing approach is an important first step toward development of a cost-effective tool for monitoring and analyzing artisanal fishing activities in Southern Yemen and beyond.

Scaling biofortified wheat production for agrifood and nutritional security in eastern India: Evidence from five years of multi-location field evaluations in Bihar

Hidden one-stop shops in transforming agrifood value chains: Agro-input retailers in Myanmar

Artificial intelligence-assisted dietary assessment in adolescent girls in Sri Lanka: Validity against weighed food records and comparison with 24-hour recalls

Background
Reliable dietary data for adolescents in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) are limited due to high costs and estimation errors in traditional dietary assessment methods. Although technology-assisted dietary assessment tools are becoming popular, few have been validated in LMICs.

Objectives
This study validated the PlantVillage Food Recognition Assistance and Nudging Insights (FRANI), an artificial intelligence-assisted mobile application for dietary assessment, against weighed food records (WFR) and multipass 24-h recalls (24HR) among adolescent girls aged 14‒18 y (n = 60) in urban/semi-urban communities in Sri Lanka.

Methods
Dietary intake was assessed over 2 non-consecutive days using 3 methods: FRANI, WFR, and 24HR. The equivalence of nutrient intake was evaluated using mixed-effect models accounting for repeated measures by comparing intake ratios (FRANI/WFR and 24HR/WFR) with 10%, 15%, and 20% equivalence bounds. The concordance correlation coefficient was utilized to assess the agreement between methods.

Results
FRANI demonstrated equivalence with WFR at the 10% bound for energy and vitamin A; 15% for protein, fiber, iron, and zinc; and 20% for fat, niacin, and folate intakes. Comparisons between 24HR and WFR found that no nutrients fell within the 10% bound. Energy, protein, fat, iron, niacin, and vitamin A intakes were equivalent at 15% bound, whereas fiber, calcium, folate, and vitamin C intakes were equivalent at 20% bound. Concordance correlation coefficient ranged from 0.49 to 0.89 for FRANI compared to WFR, and 0.44 to 0.84 for 24HR compared with WFR. Omission errors were 2% for FRANI and 12% for 24HR, and intrusion errors were 7% and 9%, respectively.

Conclusions
PlantVillage FRANI application accurately estimated nutrient intakes of adolescent girls in Sri Lanka compared to the WFR. Its performance was at least comparable to the traditional 24HR method, supporting its potential as a scalable alternative for dietary assessment in similar LMIC populations.

Relevance of more stringent discharge standards for acute malnutrition treatment: A pooled analysis of post-treatment relapse in 21 studies

Phenology-aligned multi-task temporal fusion framework for satellite-based triple-seasonal rice yield estimation in Southeast Asia

Accurate seasonal rice yield estimation across Southeast Asia’s intensive cropping systems remains challenging due to complex phenological patterns and heterogeneous environmental conditions. This study develops a phenology-aligned multi-task temporal fusion (MTTF) framework for satellite-based seasonal rice yield estimation in Vietnam’s triple-cropping systems from 2001 to 2020. The multi-task learning treats each cropping season (winter–spring, summer–autumn, monsoon) as related but distinct tasks, enabling knowledge sharing while preserving season-specific characteristics. The framework integrates multi-source time-series data, including climate variables (e.g., temperature, precipitation), satellite-based vegetation indices (e.g., NDVI, EVI, NIRv, GCVI, LSWI), productivity indicators (e.g., SIF, GPP), and static soil properties (e.g., clay content, organic carbon, bulk density) through parallel Transformer encoders and late fusion strategies. To address temporal misalignment across heterogeneous cropping calendars, we developed an automated phenology-based crop season detection method that synchronizes time-series inputs to key growth stages rather than calendar dates. MTTF achieved high performance (R2 = 0.75, RMSE = 0.63 Mg·ha−1, and rRMSE = 12.0%), outperforming baseline models including Transformer, AtBiLSTM, ANN, XGBoost, and Random Forest. The multi-task learning approach outperformed both global models (single predictor for all seasons) and local models (separate predictors for each season), demonstrating particular benefits for data-scarce seasons like monsoon rice. Phenology alignment enhanced temporal consistency across all models. Multi-modal data fusion significantly improved performance, with satellite-based vegetation measurements contributing more significantly than climate variables according to SHAP analysis. The proposed framework provides a robust approach for operational rice yield monitoring across intensive cropping systems, with implications for assessing food security and agricultural policy in monsoon regions.

Multi-stakeholder platforms for enabling agroecological transitions: Configurations and lessons from seven agroecological living landscapes

Agroecological transition (AET) of agrifood systems is a multidimensional process involving diverse stakeholders. Participatory innovation and co-creation of knowledge are also at the heart of agroecology. Deliberately designed Multi-stakeholder platforms (MSPs) are collaborative spaces conducive to driving this type of collaboration and change. However, how these processes are operationalized is poorly documented. This study contributes to filling this gap by highlighting how MSPs can be important vehicles for enabling AETs. As part of the CGIAR Initiative on Agroecology, Agroecological Living Landscapes (ALLs) were set up as MSPs specifically focusing on co-creation of agroecological innovations. By examining different ALL configurations in seven countries, we analyze MSP attributes that can enable and shape AETs at different stages or “levels” of the transition pathway. We find that MSPs can advance different levels of the transition pathway simultaneously by working on multiple innovations involving various stakeholder coalitions. MSPs navigate complex environments, with diverse stakeholders playing multiple policy and non-policy roles to support AETs. The results also illustrate the intersection between MSP configuration and AET objectives, such as policy change, agroecology market support, and scaling adoption. Finally, we discuss the non-linear nature of AET pathways and political economy considerations for stakeholder engagement in MSPs.

Leveraging social protection to strengthen women’s and girls’ climate-resilience in agrifood systems

Women and girls (WGs) have important roles in making agrifood systems more climate resilient. However, systemic inequalities in access to resources, technologies, information, services, and networks, alongside limited agency and restrictive gender norms, reduce their capacity to adapt to and mitigate climate change. WGs’ constraints on adaptation bear implications on the wellbeing of WGs, their households, and the sustainability of agrifood systems. With growing recognition that social protection helps promote WGs’ resilience in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) at large scale, stakeholders are interested in developing social protection programs that are responsive to both climate change and gender inequality. However, little is known about effective approaches. We develop a conceptual framework on how social assistance – the most prevalent type of social protection programming in many LMICs – affects WGs’ coping, adaptive, and mitigative responses to climate hazards. We reflect on the emerging evidence and propose recommendations on program design features that may more effectively promote WGs’ climate resilience in agrifood systems. We additionally highlight important directions for future research to guide practice.

Strengthening women’s resilience and participation in climate governance in the agrifood sector through public policies: A strategic review of literature

Women are uniquely vulnerable to climate change but play a critical role in enhancing the climate resilience of the agrifood sector. Based on a rapid review of academic and grey literature, this paper synthesizes the state of knowledge on the level of integration of gender aspects in climate change policies and women’s involvement in policy processes in the Global South. It examines women’s participation in climate change governance, strategies for enhancing this participation, and policy approaches to strengthen women’s resilience while addressing gender inequalities. Findings show that public policies often employ quotas, incentives, and capacity building initiatives to boost women’s participation in governance. However, meaningful engagement in higher-level decision-making remains limited, with quotas sometimes resulting in superficial involvement. Facilitating women’s access to agrifood resources, human capital, and economic opportunities, as well as addressing harmful gender norms, are identified as effective strategies to build resilience. Despite these promising approaches, gaps remain in the implementation and evaluation of policies aimed at enhancing women’s resilience and participation. The paper concludes by recommending outcome-oriented research and robust evaluations of public policy effectiveness in improving women’s climate resilience and governance roles.

Repairing the mosaic: The political economy of landscape-level agroecological transitions in India

An evolving landscape for nexus governance in transboundary basins: Recognizing and harnessing the growing role of multistakeholder platforms

Synergizing climate change adaptation and mitigation in agriculture through crop switching: A sustainable pathway to ensure China's food security by the 2050s

Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) has become a vital approach to adapting to and mitigating climate change while safeguarding food security. Future climate change is projected to shift suitable cropping areas northward in China. Guided by the CSA framework, this study establishes a refined spatial linear optimization model for multi-cropping at national and provincial scales to explore the potential of crop switching in synergizing climate change adaptation and mitigation under the RCP4.5 and RCP6.0 scenarios in the 2050s. Results indicate that under national planning compared to the future baseline scenario without spatial crop reallocation, an adaptation optimization strategy increases crop production by 24.1% to 24.6% and achieves staple crop self-sufficiency (wheat, maize, rice, and soybean) by the 2050s under RCP4.5 and RCP6.0, but at the cost of a 19.2% to 23.3% increase in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Alternatively, the mitigation optimization strategy can reduce direct cropland GHG emissions(CH4 and N2O) by 30.8%(86.0% from CH4)to 52.0% (79.9% from CH4) while maintaining crop production. While trade-offs exist, specific weighting regions of the Pareto front reveal co-benefits, including crop production (+4.0% to +21.4%), economic profits (+13% to +28.3%), reduced GHG emissions (-52% to -16.2%), and irrigation water savings (-12.8% to -0.7%). Acknowledging implementation constraints alongside modeling uncertainties, these optimal outcomes indicate that, carefully designed crop-switching strategies such as expanding soybean cultivation in North China and replacing rice with wheat, maize, and soybean in the Yangtze River Plain could both enhance climate adaptation and mitigation and help meet China’s food demand in the 2050s without cropland expansion.

Optimizing school meals in Ghana: Integrating new food and nutrient standards with aspects of affordability, cultural acceptability and environmental sustainability

Objectives:
To optimize school food baskets in Ghana to meet newly proposed food and nutrition targets while considering cultural acceptability and cost.

Design:
Modeling study. Data on existing school meal menus was collected from various regions to provide baseline inputs. Linear programming (LP) was used to model school meal baskets that satisfied minimum nutrient and food targets for school meals while meeting cost and acceptability constraints. Five LP models were tested, each varying in budget constraints and acceptability/food-based parameters.

Results:
Baseline school food baskets were significantly deficient in energy, protein, iron, zinc, vitamin A, folate, vitamin B12 and vitamin C compared to food and nutrient standards for school meals in Ghana. Optimization resulted in school food baskets that met cost, nutrient and food-based/acceptability targets but with substantial deviations from baseline. Achieving nutritional adequacy within cost limits increased reliance on animal-source foods and led to higher environmental impacts, indicating trade-offs between nutrition, affordability, and environmental sustainability.

Conclusion:
The study underscores LP’s potential for enhancing school meals in Ghana but highlights the need for increased financial investment for reaching dietary goals. Addressing local realities and cultural preferences is essential for implementing effective, sustainable school meal strategies and improving child health.

Haunted by tariffs and trade wars: A positive trade policy for US agriculture

US farmers have been among the biggest beneficiaries of US free trade agreements and the postwar creation of a rules-based global trading system. Under recent administrations, however, farmers have been disadvantaged by the US shift away from forging such trade pacts. Agriculture has also been one of the sectors most affected by the volatility and uncertainty of the first and second Trump administrations’ high tariffs and trade wars. Both Trump administrations have compensated farmers for lost export revenue, but such a trade policy is not a sustainable long-term solution and cannot replace a more positive policy that improves trade rules and expands farmers’ market access abroad.

Women’s Empowerment Metric for National Statistical Systems (WEMNS): Development and psychometric assessment of a face-to-face survey module

Data to monitor progress towards gender-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) remain limited. A comprehensive, concise set of metrics is needed for routine national data collection to monitor progress toward these goals. Our team developed and tested the Women’s Empowerment Metric for National Statistical Systems (WEMNS) survey module for use by national statistical offices and survey organizations in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) to measure women’s and men’s empowerment. This paper summarizes the process of developing the WEMNS module and presents detailed results of a psychometric assessment of face-to-face surveys in Bangladesh, Malawi, and Nepal. Exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) in the pooled sample confirmed that most of the 13 item sets had adequately identified factor structures aligned with specific empowerment constructs and gender-related SDGs. In multi-group CFA assessing measurement equivalence of item sets across gender and countries, configural invariance was observed for 9 of 13 item sets across genders and across country settings. At least partial scalar invariance was observed for one item set across genders and no item sets across country settings. Spearman pairwise correlations among WEMNS factor scores derived from final CFA models showed weak associations, suggesting item sets were weakly related and distinct. Overall, Spearman pairwise correlations of 13 WEMNS-derived factor scores with external measures for basic needs, resources, agency, and subjective well-being were weak, but five moderately high correlations were conceptually aligned. In sum, the WEMNS measures require refinement and further psychometric assessment to confirm their use to make valid comparisons of empowerment across country settings and gender.

Child hemoglobin trajectories across the first 10 years of life and association with child cognition and academic achievement at 10-11 years

Background
Anemia is a global health concern, though the importance of changes in hemoglobin (Hb) and cognitive outcomes in childhood remains unclear.
Objective
We examined the association between child Hb trajectories and anemia with cognitive development and academic achievement at 10-11y.
Methods
We used prospective data from Vietnamese children (n=831) born to women who participated in a micronutrient supplementation trial (PRECONCEPT). Hb was measured at 3mo, 6mo, 1y, 2y and 10-11y. Multivariable linear regression models assessed the association between Hb trajectories and anemia with cognitive development (full-scale intelligence quotient- FSIQ), and academic achievement (mathematics and reading) at 10-11y, adjusting for maternal (intervention, education, age, mental health), child (age, sex), and household (home environment, socioeconomic status) characteristics.
Results
Three child Hb trajectories were identified (low-6.4%, middle-52.2% and high-41.4%). Compared to the middle and high trajectory groups, children in the low trajectory had the lowest Hb levels at 3 months (Hb: 9.7g/dL) and through age 10-11y (11.2g/dl). Children in the low-Hb trajectory had lower FSIQ (89.8 vs 93.2), math (12.1 vs 13.5) and reading (17.8 vs 19.0) scores compared to the high-Hb trajectory. These differences were attenuated in adjusted models. Children in the low and middle Hb trajectories had non-significantly lower FSIQ (-0.93; 95% CI: [-4.57, 2.71] and (-1.13 [-2.92, 0.66]), reading scores (-0.01 [-1.36,1.34]) and -0.46 [-1.13,0.21]) and math scores (-0.57 [-1.15,0.01] and -0.65 [-1.82, 0.51]). Anemia status at 10-11y was negatively associated with FSIQ (-3.82 [-6.68, -0.76]) and math scores (-1.04 [-2.03, -0.05]) in adjusted models.
Conclusion
Child Hb trajectories across the first 10 years of life were largely established early in life and had weak associations with cognition and academic achievement at 10-11y. Anemia among 10-year-old children was associated with lower IQ and math scores, which underscores the importance of continued investment in nutrition programs among school-age children.

Preconception micronutrient supplementation positively affects offspring perceptual reasoning at 10-11 years of age: Follow-up of a randomized controlled trial in Vietnam

The future in mind: Aspirations and long-term outcomes in rural Ethiopia

The International Model for Policy Analysis of Agricultural Commodities and Trade (IMPACT): Model documentation for version 4

The International Food Policy Research Institute’s IMPACT model is a robust tool for analyzing global and regional challenges in food, agriculture, and natural resources. Continuously updated and refined since its initial development in the early 1990s, IMPACT version 4 represents the latest iteration of the model, offering an enhanced treatment of complex issues such as climate change, food security, and economic development. IMPACT 4 modeling system integrates climate, crop simulation, and water models into a comprehensive system, providing decision-makers with a flexible platform to assess the potential impacts of various scenarios on biophysical systems, socioeconomic trends, technologies, and policies.

National and sub-national delivery of balanced energy and protein (BEP) supplements to pregnant and lactating women in LMICs: Lessons from multi-country implementation case studies

The World Health Organization recommends the use of balanced energy protein (BEP) supplements during pregnancy in settings with a ≥ 20% prevalence of underweight women of reproductive age to reduce the risk of adverse health outcomes. Several countries are implementing BEP supplementation in varied formats. However, the implementation and monitoring of outcomes remain poor across countries. This qualitative study explores the experiences, opportunities, and challenges related to implementing national and sub-national BEP supplementation programs in nine countries (12 countries originally invited) to inform best practices. Methods: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 15 personnel involved in its implementation in Haiti, India, Malawi, Mexico, Nigeria, Pakistan, Rwanda, Senegal, and Sri Lanka between October 2024 and March 2025. The interviewees in each country were predominantly implementation experts but also government officials involved in the provision of BEP supplementation. The transcripts were analyzed thematically, focusing on acceptability, adoption, appropriateness, cost, feasibility, and sustainability of outcomes. Results: In non-humanitarian settings (five countries), BEP supplementation was commonly integrated into the governmental health system or social protection programs. However, humanitarian contexts (four countries) often relied on partner-led (e.g., UN organizations) implementation. Clear operational protocols, including behavioral change communication strategies, facilitated the implementation. Community-based organization partnerships strengthened adherence; however, implementation costs, stock shortages, and geographic inequities in coverage varied and were limiting factors in scale-up, primarily in humanitarian contexts. Conclusion: In sum, two distinct implementation pathways emerged: government-led models characterized by policy integration, national ownership, and more stable systems, and humanitarian or donor-led models shaped by crisis response, external dependency, and non-committal challenges. Successful implementation of BEP supplements depends on the presence of effective policies, context-adapted design, integration into health systems, consistent funding, and effective monitoring. There is a need for implementation research to generate evidence on best practices when implementing BEP supplementation programs.

Evaluating large-scale government investments in fertilizer adoption: The Ethiopian experience

We evaluate the impact of a large Government of Ethiopia intervention to raise fertilizer supply by establishing five fertilizer blending facilities supplying fertilizers tailored to local soil nutrient profiles. We rely on the phased geographic rollout of blending facility establishment to identify the causal effect on fertilizer use, application rates, crop yields, gross crop revenue, and household consumption. Combining effects of multiple treatment periods, each estimated using a doubly robust difference-in-difference model, we find that the blending facilities increased the probability that farmers adopt the new blended fertilizers by 22 percentage points and increased application rates by 17 kg/ha (baseline adoption was zero). The facilities mostly induced farmers who previously used DAP to switch to NPS, and we find large decreases in DAP adoption (by 22 percentage points, 47% of the control group base mean) and application rates (16 kg/ha, 52% of the control group base mean) yet no impact on overall fertilizer adoption or application rates. Though the new blended fertilizers were expected to perform better, there is no evidence they improved crop yields, crop gross revenue, or household consumption. The effect of the intervention was more pronounced (with larger increases in NPS use and larger decreases in DAP use) for farms located near demonstration plots, which the Government used to train farmers about the agronomic response to the new fertilizers. We confirm results using three large-scale longitudinal datasets and show that they are robust to choices of specification, treatment definition, and inference assumptions.

JEL classification: O12, O13, Q16, Q18

Climate stressors and rural incomes: Multi-country evidence on wealth, gender, and age disparities

Homestead food production improves women’s dietary diversity in Bangladesh

Millets are still not on our menu

A review of methods and tools for youth research in food, land and water systems

Youth participation is essential for fostering innovation in agri-food systems, ensuring food security, strengthening climate resilience and generating employment opportunities for young people. While there is growing advocacy for greater youth involvement in agrifood systems, we need better research methods and tools to understand how best to engage young men and women across all stages of value chains. This paper reviews existing resources that examine youth in agri-food systems, focusing on how current studies and tools assess key dimensions such as agency, access to resources, and the role of formal and informal institutions and structures, including gender and social norms. Using a structured search and screening process, we compiled and analyzed a wide range of publications and methodological tools, with a focus in developing countries. Overall, we found that while youth-related themes are increasingly recognized, substantial gaps remain in how these dimensions and themes are measured, documented and applied in practice. The findings highlight the need for more consistent methodological guidance and more comprehensive tools to support research and program design on youth in agri-food systems.

Presentations How does Trade Risk Influence Agricultural Policy?

Essential commodities prices, availability, and market actors’ perceptions: March 2026

Cereals and Flour
Lentils, Rice, and Pigeon Peas
Vegetables
Meat and Animal Products
Oilseeds, Cooking Oil, Sugar, and Fava Beans
Seeds
Fertilizers
Diesel and Petrol
Exchange Rates
Labor wages
Market Actors’ Perceptions

Papua New Guinea food price bulletin: April 2026

This bulletin reports on food price trends from major markets in Papua New Guinea (PNG), for the first quarter (Q1) of 2026 using the data collected by Fresh Produce Development Authority (FPDA). During the first quarter, at least one round of data per month was collected from all markets, except for Port Moresby in February (no data). In March, Banz and Port Moresby had two rounds each, while all other markets had one round.

This report analyzes month-over-month changes in Q1 2026 (January to March) and compares prices with the previous quarter (Q4 2025: October to December) and the same period in 2025 (Q1 2025). Prices are reported in real PGK per kilogram (i.e., adjusted for inflation using the FAO Consumer Food Price Index (PCI) and price gaps from July 2025 to March 2026 filled using a growth rate calculated from quarterly PCI data provided by the PNG National Statistical Office (June and September 2025)). This bulletin focuses on selected staples (sweet potato, taro, cassava, cooking banana and rice), vegetables (aibika, English cabbage, capsicum, carrot, and choko-tips) and fruits (lemon, orange, pawpaw and pineapple).

Horticulture sector in India: Trends, performance, and impact