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tackling-food-insecurity

Is dirt cheap? The economic costs of failing to meet soil health requirements on smallholder farms

This article explores the constraints on agricultural productivity in smallholder maize farming in Uganda, emphasizing the critical role of soil suitability. It provides multidimensional soil suitability profiles for these farms, quantifies lost production due to suboptimal land use, and identifies groups of farmers most affected. Using data from Eastern Uganda, the study assesses maize yields and soil attributes. It reveals that farmers with highly suitable soil could potentially increase yields by up to 86%, while those with marginally suitable land may only achieve a 59% increase, given current technology. Importantly, the research highlights disparities in potential gains among different income groups, with poorer households facing more significant limitations.

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Guidebook series

 

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Policy Research Working Papers

 

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Latest blogs

What to do when disaster strikes (your survey)

We conducted 50,000 interviews in Sub-Saharan Africa on COVID-19 vaccination since 2020 – here’s what we learned

The climate implications of ending global poverty

Developing a Women’s Empowerment Metric for National Statistical Systems

COVID-19 vaccine uptake in Sub-Saharan Africa

Building gender aware data systems is critical to create a level playing field for women and girls

Advancing gender equality through intra-household survey data collection on asset ownership and labor

New insights on gender differences in land rights in Sub-Saharan Africa

Taking the right turns: Harnessing available evidence and guidelines to bridge gaps in gender data production

Less-educated workers among the most affected by the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa

Price and weather shocks: results from the eighth round of the High-Frequency Phone Survey

Taking the right turns: Harnessing available evidence and guidelines to bridge gaps in gender data production

What do you want to be? Youth aspirations in the time of the COVID-19 crisis

Sustainedly high levels of COVID-19 vaccine acceptance in five Sub-Saharan African countries

Agricultural Survey Design: Lessons from the LSMS-ISA and Beyond

Just published! A practical guide for measuring labor in household surveys

 

See All
TITLEISSUED ON
COVID-19 in Nigeria : Frontline Data and Pathways for PolicyNov, 2021
Measuring Women and Men’s Work : Main Findings from a Joint ILO and World Bank Study in Sri Lanka Sep, 2021
People and Forest Interface: Contribution of Liberia’s Forests to Household Incomes, Subsistence, and ResilienceAug, 2020
Methodological Experiment on Measuring Asset Ownership from a Gender Perspective: Technical ReportApr, 2016
Methodological Experiment on Measuring Asset Ownership from a Gender Perspective (Vol. 2): Appendix AApr, 2016
Methodological Experiment on Measuring Asset Ownership from a Gender Perspective (Vol. 3): Appendix BApr, 2016
Methodological Experiment on Measuring Asset Ownership from a Gender Perspective (Vol. 4): Appendix CApr, 2016
A measured approach to ending poverty and boosting shared prosperity: concepts, data, and the twin goalsAug, 2014
Levelling the field: improving opportunities for women farmers in AfricaMar, 2014
Investing in the livestock sector: why good numbers matter -a sourcebook for decision makers on how to improve livestock dataJan, 2014
Bangladesh - Poverty assessment: assessing a decade of progress in reducing poverty, 2000-2010 Jun, 2013
Livestock and livelihoods in rural Tanzania: a descriptive analysis of the 2009 national panel surveyJun, 2012
What Do You Want to Be : Youth Aspirations in the Time of the COVID-19 Crisis : Evidence from Three Sub-Saharan Countries 
Measuring Women and Men’s Work : Summary of Main Findings and Recommendations from a Joint ILO and World Bank Study in Sri Lanka
Financial Inclusion in Ethiopia : Key Findings from the Ethiopia Socioeconomic Survey 2018-2019 : Survey Brief
Gender and Tax Incidence of Rural Land Use Fee and Agricultural Income Tax in Ethiopia
Mali EAC-I 2017: Revenues from Crop Production
Mali EAC-I 2017: Household Income Sources
Mali EAC-I 2017: Characteristics of Livestock Keeping
Mali EAC-I 2017: Socio-demographic characteristics of household
Measuring Food Consumption in Household Surveys
Gender and Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa
Shocks and Coping in Sub-Saharan Africa
Comparing dynamics of multidimensional and consumption based poverty in Ethiopia
Dynamics of multidimensional poverty and wellbeing in Ethiopia
Dynamics of wasting and underweight in Ethiopian children
Once poor always poor? Exploring poverty dynamics in Ethiopia
Nonfarm enterprises in Ethiopia: Are they really smoothing consumption?
Farm-Level Pathways to Improved Nutritional Status
Livestock and Livelihoods in Tanzania: Can the Sector Deliver on Growth and Poverty Reduction?
Child Anthropometrics and Malnutrition in Malawi
Child Anthropometrics and Malnutrition in Uganda
Gender and Agricultural Productivity in Malawi
Measuring Conflict in Micro-Level Surveys
Measurement, Farm Size and Productivity
Using Mobile Phones to Collect Panel Data
Reliability of Recall in Agricultural Data
Tracking in Panel Household Surveys
Livestock and Livelihoods in Tanzania: Can the Sector Deliver on Growth and Poverty Reduction?
Sources of Income for Households in Nigeria
Gender Dimensions to Livelihoods in Nigeria
Community Characteristics from the Nigeria General Household Survey – Panel
Use of Financial Services in Nigeria
Explaining Gender Differentials in Agricultural Production in Nigeria
Gender Dimensions in Nigerian Agriculture
Yam consumption and production in Nigeria
Results from the 2011-2012 Ethiopia Rural Socioeconomic Survey
Anthropometric Data-Comparing ERSS and DHS
Child Anthropometrics and Malnutrition - ERSS Wave 1
Gender Differentials in Agricultural Production
Wellbeing in Ethiopia
Food Counts: Measuring Food Consumption and Expenditures in Household Consumption and Expenditure Surveys

    Assessing COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy and barriers to uptake in Sub-Saharan Africa

    Addressing gaps in data on drinking water quality through data integration and machine learning: evidence from Ethiopia

      The evolution of COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy in Sub-Saharan Africa: evidence from panel survey data

      Are Vaccination Campaigns Misinformed ? Experimental Evidence from COVID-19 in Low- and Middle-Income Countries

      Structural transformation and the gender pay gap in Sub-Saharan Africa

      What Makes Public Sector Data Valuable for Development?

      Climate variability, agricultural technologies adoption, and productivity in rural Nigeria: a plot-level analysis

      The Climate Implications of Ending Global Poverty 

      Did a successful fight against COVID-19 come at a cost? Impacts of the pandemic on employment outcomes in Vietnam

      Gender norms, landholdership, and rural land use fee and agricultural income tax in Ethiopia

      Data Gaps, Data Incomparability, And Data Imputation: A Review of Poverty Measurement Methods for Data‐Scarce Environments

      Mapping the World Population One Building at A Time
      Vulnerability in Drylands Today
      The Cost of the Gender Gap in Agricultural Productivity in Malawi, Tanzania, and Uganda
      The Effects of Smallholder Agricultural Involvement on Household Food Consumption and Dietary Diversity
      Measuring the Contribution of Livestock to Household Livelihoods: A Livestock Module for Multi-topic Household Surveys
      Livestock Assets, Livestock Income and Rural Households: Evidence from Household Surveys
      A Comparison of CAPI and PAPI through a Randomized Field Experiment
      TITLEISSUED ONAUTHORS
      Is dirt cheap? The economic costs of failing to meet soil health requirements on smallholder farmsOct 2023Sydney Gourlay, Talip Kilic
      Closing the data gap in agriculture through sustainable investment in the data value chain: Realizing the vision of the 50x2030 InitiativeMar, 2022Alberto Zezza, Sydney Gourlay, Vasco Molini
      Measure for Measure: Comparing Survey Based Estimates of Income and Consumption for Rural HouseholdsFeb, 2022Gero Carletto, Marco Tiberti, Alberto Zezza
      High-frequency phone surveys on COVID-19: Good practices, open questionsDec, 2021Sydney Gourlay, Talip Kilic, Antonio Martuscelli, Philip Wollburg,Alberto Zezza
      Acceptance of COVID-19 vaccines in sub-Saharan Africa: evidence from six national phone surveys. Dec, 2021Shelton Kanyanda, Yannick Markhof, Philip Wollburg, Alberto Zezza
      Representativeness of individual-level data in COVID-19 phone surveys: Findings from Sub-Saharan AfricaNov, 2021Joshua Brubaker, Talip Kilic, Philip Wollburg
      Recall length and measurement error in agricultural surveysApr, 2021Philip Wollburg, Marco Tiberti, Alberto Zezza
      Better data, higher impact: improving agricultural data systems for societal changeJul, 2021Calogero Carletto
      Accounting for drinking water quality in measuring multidimensional poverty in EthiopiaDec, 2020

      Alemayehu Azeze Ambel, Harriet Kasidi Mugera, Robert E. S. Bain

      Physical activity and sedentary time in a rural adult population in Malawi compared with an age-matched US urban populationOct, 2020Michael Pratt, James F Sallis, Kelli L Cain, Terry L Conway, Amparo Palacios-Lopez, Alberto Zezza, Chad Spoon, Carrie M Geremia, Isis Gaddis, Akuffo Amankwah, Jed Friedman, Talip Kilic
      Do trees on farms improve household well-being? evidence from national panel data in UgandaSept, 2020Daniel C Miller, Juan Carlos Muñoz-Mora, Laura V Rasmussen, Alberto Zezza
      Welfare Dynamics With Synthetic Panels: The Case of the Arab World In TransitionOct, 2018Hai‐Anh H. Dang, Elena Ianchovichina
      Varied Patterns of Catch-Up in Child Growth: Evidence from Young LivesOct, 2018Paul Anand, Jere R.Behrman, Hai-Anh H.Dang, Sam Jones
      Shelter from the Storm? Household-Level Impacts of, and Responses to, the 2015 Floods in MalawiOct, 2018Nancy McCarthy, Talip Kilic, Alejandro de la Fuente, Joshua M. Brubaker
      Poverty Dynamics in India between 2004 and 2012: Insights from Longitudinal Analysis Using Synthetic Panel DataAug, 2018Hai-Anh H. Dang, Peter F. Lanjouw
      Micro-Level Welfare Impacts of Agricultural Productivity: Evidence from Rural MalawiFeb, 2018Francis Addeah Darko, Amparo Palcios-Lopez, Talip Kilic, Jacob Ricker-Gilbert
      Varietal Identification in Household Surveys: Results from Three Household-Based Methods Against the Benchmark of DNA Fingerprinting in Southern EthiopiaFeb, 2018Frédéric Kosmowski, Abiyot Aragaw, Andrezj Kilian, Alemayehu Ambel
      Assessing the Representativeness of a Smartphone Based Household Travel Survey in Dar Es Salaam, TanzaniaJan, 2018P. Christopher Zegras, Menghan Li, Talip Kilic, Nancy Lozano-Gracia, Ajinkya Ghorpade, Marco Tiberti, Ana I. Aguilera, Fang Zhao
      Not Your Average Job: Measuring Farm Labor in TanzaniaJan, 2018Vellore Arthi, Kathleen Beegle, Joachim De Weerdt, Amparo Palacios-López
      Is Poverty in Africa Mostly Chronic or Transient? Evidence from Synthetic Panel DataJan, 2018Hai‐Anh H. Dang, Andrew L. Dabalen
      Can Incentives Improve Survey Data Quality in Developing Countries? Results From a Field Experiment in IndiaNov, 2017Guy Stecklov, Alexander Weinreb, Calogero Carletto
      On the Ground Or in the Air? A methodological Experiment on Crop Residue Cover Measurement in EthiopiaOct, 2017Frédéric Kosmowski, James Stevenson, Jeff Campbell, Alemayehu Ambel, Asmelash Haile Tsegay
      Food counts. Measuring food consumption and expenditures in household consumption and expenditure surveys (HCES). Introduction to the special issue.Oct, 2017Alberto Zezza, Calogero Carletto, John L.Fiedler, Pietro Gennari, Dean Jolliffe
      Cheaper, Faster, and More Than Good Enough: Is GPS the New Gold Standard in Land Area Measurement?Oct, 2017Calogero Carletto, Sydney Gourlay, Siobhan Murray, Alberto Zezza
      Do Returns to Education Depend on How and Whom You Ask?Oct, 2017Pieter Serneels, Kathleen Beegle, Andrew Dillon
      Well Begun, but Aiming Higher: A Review of Vietnam’s Education Trends in the past 20 Years and Emerging ChallengesOct, 2017Hai‐Anh H. Dang, Paul W. Glewwe
      Same Question Different Answer: Experimental Evidence on Questionnaire Design's Impact on Poverty Measured by ProxiesSep, 2017Talip Kilic, Thomas Pave Sohnesen
      Blending Top-Down Federalism with Bottom-Up Engagement to Reduce Inequality in EthiopiaAug, 2017Qaiser Khan, Jean-Paul Faguet, Alemayehu Ambel
      Examining Changes in Maternal and Child Health Inequalities in EthiopiaAug, 2017Alemayehu A. Ambel, Colin Andrews, Anne M. Bakilana, Elizabeth M. Foster, Qaiser Khan, Huihui Wang
      Composition of Household Income and Child Nutrition Outcomes: Evidence from UgandaApr, 2017Angeli Kirk, Talip Kilic, Calogero Carletto
      Small Area Estimation of Child Undernutrition in Ethiopian WoredasApr, 2017Thomas Pave Sohnesen, Alemayehu Azeze Ambel, Peter Fisker, Colin Andrews, Qaiser Khan
      Missing(ness) in Action: Selectivity Bias in GPS-Based Land Area MeasurementsApr, 2017Talip Kilic, Alberto Zezza, Calogero Carletto, Sara Savastano
      How Much of The Labor in African Agriculture Is Provided by Women?Feb, 2017Amparo Palacios-Lopez, Luc Christiaensen, Talip Kilic
      Are African Households (Not) Leaving Agriculture? Patterns of Households’ Income Sources in Rural Sub-Saharan AfricaFeb, 2017Benjamin Davis, Stefania Di Giuseppe, Alberto Zezza
      Food Price Changes and Household Welfare: What Do We Learn from Two Different Approaches?Dec, 2016Luca Tiberti, Marco Tiberti
      Welfare Dynamics Measurement: Two Definitions of a Vulnerability Line and Their Empirical ApplicationJul, 2016Hai-Anh H. Dang, Peter F. Lanjouw
      Nonfarm Enterprises in Rural Ethiopia: Improving Livelihoods by Generating Income and Smoothing Consumption?Jun, 2016Julia Kowalski, Alina Lipcan, Katie McIntosh, Remy Smida, Signe Jung Sørensen, Ilana Seff, Dean Jolliffe
      Dynamics of Wasting and Underweight in Ethiopian ChildrenJun, 2016Chris Cintron, Ilana Seff, Sarah Baird
      A Profile of Food Insecurity Dynamics in Rural and Small Town EthiopiaJun, 2016Anna D’Souza, Dean Jolliffe
      Once Poor Always Poor? Exploring Consumption- and Asset-Based Poverty Dynamics in EthiopiaJun, 2016Kashi Kafle, Kevin McGee, Alemayehu Ambel, Ilana Seff
      Multidimensional Poverty Dynamics in Ethiopia: How Do They Differ From Consumption-Based Poverty Dynamics?Jun, 2016Ilana Seff, Dean Jolliffe
      Dynamics of Poverty and Wellbeing in Ethiopia: An Introduction to a Special Issue of the Ethiopian Journal of EconomicsJun, 2016Dean Jolliffe, Alemayehu Ambel, Tadele Ferede, Ilana Seff
      Caught in A Productivity Trap: A Distributional Perspective on Gender Differences in Malawian AgricultureJun, 2015Talip Kilic, Amparo Palacios-López, Markus Goldstein
      Gender and Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa: Introduction to the Special IssueMay, 2015Talip Kilic, Paul Winters, Calogero Carletto
      Gender and Agricultural Productivity: Implications of the Farm Input Subsidy Program in MalawiMay, 2015Wendy Karamba, Paul Winters
      Decomposition of Gender Differentials in Agricultural Productivity in EthiopiaApr, 2015Arturo Aguilar, Eliana Carranza, Markus Goldstein, Talip Kilic, Gbemisola Oseni
      The Nexus Between Gender, Collective Action for Public Goods, And Agriculture: Evidence from MalawiApr, 2015Nancy McCarthy, Talip Kilic
      Rural Policies, Price Change and Poverty in Tanzania: An Agricultural Household Model-Based AssessmentMar, 2015Luca Tiberti, Marco Tiberti
      Decentralized Beneficiary Targeting in Large-Scale Development Programs: Insights from The Malawi Farm Input Subsidy ProgramOct, 2014Talip Kilic, Edward Whitney, Paul Winters
      Maternal Education, Linkages and Child Nutrition in the Long and Short-Run: Evidence from the Ethiopia Demographic and Health SurveysAug, 2014Alemayehu Ambel, Wei-Chiao Huang
      Conflict, Food Price Shocks, and Food Insecurity: The Experience of Afghan HouseholdsOct, 2013Anna D'Souza, Dean Joliffe
      Should African Rural Development Strategies Depend on Smallholder Farms? An Exploration of The Inverse Productivity HypothesisSep, 2013Donald F. Larson, Keijiro Otsuka, Tomoya Matsumoto, Talip Kilic
      Fact or Artefact: The Impact of Measurement Errors on the Farm Size-Productivity RelationshipJul, 2013Calogero Carletto, Sara Savastano, Alberto Zezza
      Towards Better Measurement of Household Food Security: Harmonizing Indicators and The Role of Household SurveysMar, 2013Calogero Carletto, Alberto Zezza, Raka Banerjee
      Explaining Variation in Child Labor StatisticsMay, 2012Andrew Dillon, Elena Bardasi, Kathleen Beegle, Pieter Serneels
      Non-Traditional Crops, Traditional Constraints: Long-Term Welfare Impacts of Export Crop Adoption Among Guatemalan Smallholders?Nov, 2011Calogero Carletto, Talip Kilic, Angeli Kirk
      Rising Food Prices and Coping Strategies: Household-level Evidence from AfghanistanAug, 2011Anna D'Souza, Dean Joliffe
      Do Labor Statistics Depend on How and to Whom the Questions Are Asked?Jun, 2011Elena Bardasi, Kathleen Beegle, Andrew Dillon, Pieter Serneels
      Moving Up the Ladder? The Impact of Migration Experience on Occupational Mobility in AlbaniaJun, 2011Calogero CarlettoTalip Kilic
      Rural Household Access to Assets and Markets: A Cross-Country ComparisonJun, 2011Alberto Zezza, Paul Winters, Benjamin Davis, Gero Carletto, Katia Covarrubias, Luca Tasciotti, Esteban Quiñones
      International migration and nutritional outcomes in TajikistanFeb, 2011Carlo Azzarri, Alberto Zezza
      Investing Back Home: Return Migration and Business Ownership in AlbaniaJun, 2009Talip Kilic, Calogero Carletto, Benjamin Davis, Alberto Zezza
      Assessing the Impact of Massive Out-Migration on AgricultureMay, 2009Nancy McCarthy, Calogero Carletto, Talip Kilic, Benjamin Davis
      Rural Non-Farm Income and Its Impact on Agriculture: Evidence from AlbaniaFeb, 2009Talip Kilic, Calogero Carletto, Juna Miluka, Sara Savastano
      Dynamics of Poverty and Wellbeing in Ethiopia An Introduction to a Special Issue of the Ethiopian Journal of EconomicsAug, 2006Cristopher B. Barrett, Michael R. Carter, Peter D. Little

      Books

      Designing Household Survey Questionnaires for Developing Countries: Lessons from 15 Years of the Living Standards Measurement Study

      Margaret Grosh, Paul Glewwe

      The World Bank
      The objective of this book is to provide detailed advice on how to design multi-topic household surveys based on the experience of past household surveys. The book will help identify define objectives, identify data needed to analyze objectives, and draft questionnaires to collect such data. 

      Volume 1 (PDF) | Volume 2 (PDF) | Volume 3 (PDF)

       

      Agriculture in Africa: telling facts from myths

      Luc Christiaensen, Lionel Demery

      The World Bank
      This book is the outcome of stylized facts set agendas and shape debates. In rapidly changing and data-scarce environments, they also risk being ill-informed, outdated, and misleading. Following higher food prices since the 2008 world food crisis, robust economic growth and rapid urbanization, and climatic change, is conventional wisdom about African agriculture and rural livelihoods still accurate?

       

       

      Brochures