Financing and Policy

Christine Lamanna and Todd Rosenstock of the World Agroforestry Centre in Kenya will develop a strategy that combines local knowledge and a Bayesian network model to prioritize agricultural policy using Tanzania’s Agriculture and Food Security Investment Plan as a case study. Agriculture is responsible for nearly one third of Africa’s gross domestic product, yet productivity suffers from limited infrastructure and lack of access to markets and financing.

Kindie Tesfaye-Fantaye of the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center in Mexico will develop a computational model that incorporates the variable characteristics of households and farms to better predict the outcomes of agricultural interventions in Ethiopia in order to inform policy choices. Agriculture is central to the Ethiopian economy; it accounts for almost 50% of the gross domestic product and 80% of total employment, yet the industry struggles with limited infrastructure and environmental challenges.

Benedict Mongula of the University of Dar es Salaam in Tanzania will analyze two apparently conflicting national agricultural policies centered on either large-scale agriculture or smallholder farmers and determine how to combine them to benefit all stakeholders for inclusive agricultural transformation. Agriculture is central to the Tanzanian economy, yet its impact is limited by a lack of infrastructure, education, and market access.

Andy Jarvis of CIAT (International Center for Tropical Agriculture) in Colombia will test a new feedback approach, involving cycles of five simple questions asked to relevant stakeholders, to see whether it can promote the success of agricultural projects in developing countries. Involving local farmers in the design and implementation of agricultural projects is important but mostly bypassed because it is time-consuming and often impractical.