Agriculture

Worker in African field

Smallholder farmers throughout the developing world rely on crops or livestock for income and food security. In fact, smallholder farms make up the vast majority (80%) of farms in the African continent, with approximately 33 million small farms of less than two hectares as of 2009.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations has discussed the potential of smallholder farmers in developing countries to contribute to increased food production and to lowerBowl of grain the gap between actual and economically attainable food production.

Improving the welfare for smallholder farmers has the potential to improve agricultural productivity and resulting levels of poverty.

Challenges facing smallholder farmers

Despite the increasing demand for food in both developed and developing counties, smallholder farmers face a number of challenges, from pest and disease outbreaks or animal diseases to poor rural infrastructure and limited access to credit.

There are particular challenges for women, who play a key role in agriculture but face constraints including owning smaller farms, which affects their access to credit using land as collateral, or being less educated, which limits their access to technical information for enhancing production. 

Our Work

AIR conducts rigorous impact evaluations of agricultural development projects to better understand how various types of programs can improve smallholder farmer income and food and nutrition security.

  • We draw from qualitative methods to assess the changes the interventions produce, conduct cost analyses, and evaluate the fidelity of program implementation.
  • We evaluate programs that aim to increase farmers’ access to knowledge, technology, and agricultural inputs.
  • We conduct evaluations of programs that aim to strengthen the capacity of smallholder farmers and Small and Medium Enterprises to accelerate value chain and private sector development.

Our clients include the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD); the International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie); CABI, which is funded in part by the UK Department for International Development; the International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC); and the Global Agriculture and Food Security Program (GAFSP)/IFC of the World Bank.

Our current work includes projects in Benin, Cameroon, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Madagascar, Mali, Uganda, and Zambia.

Latest Work

11 Aug 2017
Report

Quasi-experimental Impact Evaluation of IFAD’s AD2M Project in Madagascar

Farmers in western Madagascar live in an arid region that makes it difficult to survive on their own production. In such a dry region, it is important to understand whether large-scale investments in irrigation infrastructure can improve outcomes for smallholder farmers. The AD2M program created new irrigation infrastructure in areas that had not been irrigated, and rehabilitated existing irrigation infrastructure when possible. Our evaluation found meaningful improvements in the AD2M project beneficiaries’ agricultural productivity.
Project

Appui au Développement du Menabe et du Melaky, Madagascar (AD2M)

Western Madagascar suffers from frequent droughts and climate change exacerbates the variability of rainfall. With a significant majority of households in the region depending on rain-fed irrigation for their livelihoods, there are important consequences for health, nutrition, and education for all household members. To promote holistic rural development, the International Fund for Agricultural Development funded the program Appui au Developpement de Menabe et Melaky (AD2M). Among the many goals of the program, AD2M focused on creating irrigation infrastructure and the means to sustain it.
Project

Smallholder Dairy Commercialisation Programme

Smallholder dairy farmers in Kenya rely on livestock for income and food security. However, milk production is regularly threatened by a number of factors. The overall goal of the Smallholder Dairy Commercialisation Programme is to increase the income of poor rural households that depend substantially on production and trade of dairy products for their livelihoods. AIR is investigating the program's impacts and implementation.
Project

2SCALE/Contract Farming in Africa

Despite the increasing demand for food in both developed and developing counties, smallholder farmers are not able to integrate to local markets because of low capital, limited access to credit, and risk aversion. AIR is evaluating the 2SCALE agribusiness project, which was designed to help rural smallholders move from subsistence farming to farming as a business and supply agricultural products for local, national, regional, and international markets.
Project

Impact Evaluation of Plantwise, Kenya - CABI

Smallholder farmers rely on crops for income and food security, but their ability to generate income and maintain food security is threatened by a number of factors. Kenya’s Plantwise program is a global initiative that provides smallholder farmers with vital information on the maintenance of crop health and environmentally sustainable responses to adapt to climate change.
Project

Farmer Voice Radio

Farmer Voice Radio is a network of radio broadcasters, agricultural experts, and farmers to provide millions of small farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa a broad variety of agriculture-related radio programming. The network gives small farmers access to current information, useful resources, and new farming techniques to help them improve their productivity, livelihoods and well-being over the long-term.