Smallholder Income and Land Distribution in Africa: Implications for Poverty Reduction Strategies

This paper provides a micro-level foundation for discussions of income and asset allocation within the smallholder sector in Eastern and Southern Africa, and explores the implications of these findings for rural growth and poverty alleviation strategies in the region. Results are drawn from nationally-representative household surveys in five countries between 1990 and 2000: Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Mozambique, and Zambia. The paper addresses five major points: (1) why geographically-based poverty reduction or targeting strategies-e.g., focusing on marginal areas-is likely to miss a significant share of the poor in any particular country regardless of targeting efficiency in these areas; (2) why current enthusiasm for community-driven development approaches will require serious attention to how resources are allocated at local levels; (3) why sustained income growth for the poorest strata of the rural population will depend on agricultural growth in most countries, even though the poor generally lack the land and other productive resources to respond directly or immediately to policies and investments to stimulate agricultural growth; (4) why agricultural productivity growth, while most easily generating gains for better-off smallholder farmers, is likely to offer the best potential for pulling the poorest and land-constrained households out of poverty; and (5) why meaningful poverty alleviation strategies in many countries will require fundamental changes to make land more accessible to smallholder farmers. This could be accomplished through various processes, including improvement in land rental markets or perhaps land redistribution. We briefly elaborate on each of these findings.Food Security and Poverty, Land Economics/Use,

Smallholder Income and Land Distribution in Africa: Implications for Poverty Reduction Strategies

Farm Management, Food Security and Poverty, Downloads July 2008-July 2009: 15,

The effects of household income composition on food consumption in Malawi

This analysis uses panel data methods to assess how food consumption and dietary diversity are affected by changes in household income composition, diversity, and liquidity in rural Malawi. Fixed-effects model estimates reveal several results. First, food consumption and dietary diversity increase with overall income, but at a decreasing rate. Second, while no relationship is found between changes in income per capita of different sources (composition effects), and food consumption per capita, there is a differentiated impact on calorie intake changes and dietary diversity outcomes. Third, overall, there is no statistically significant effect of income diversity on changes in food consumption, but a positive association is found with dietary diversity. As such, income diversity driven by crop diversification leads to greater consumption of calories from roots, pulses, and fruits; and a drop in balanced diets, while income diversification away from agriculture yields greater dietary diversity. Finally, household liquidity, incentivized by off-farm diversification through wage labor market participation and selfemployment, promotes dietary diversity via higher consumption of calories from non-staple foods, notably those dependent on market acquisitions, such as animalbased proteins, vegetables, and fruits. These results are corroborated with those from the Seemingly Unrelated Regression Model. There are several policy and programmatic implications. First, income composition, diversity and liquidity are important dimensions to consider when focusing beyond household food security. Second, efforts to promote and sustain income growth are critical for food consumption growth and dietary diversity but increases in income alone are not enough. Policies and investments that ensure a diversified portfolio of economic activities are likely to result in better consumption and dietary diversity outcomes. Promoting crop diversification at the farm level coupled with nutrition sensitive programming, including extension and crop support programs is critical to increase and sustain consumption and better dietary quality. Third, as balanced diets in the Malawian context require a combination of staple foods sourced through crop and livestock home production, including goats, poultry and small domestically raised animals and protein-rich foods typically purchased in the market, as well as a degree of liquidity achieved through increased generation of cash income. Finally, programmatic efforts are needed to reduce gender gaps in access to resources, strengthening nutrition education more broadly, and ensure availability of balanced diets in school feeding programs potentially linked through local procurement.PRIFPRI3; 2 Promoting Healthy Diets and Nutrition for all; 4 Transforming Agricultural and Rural EconomiesInnovation Policy and Scaling (IPS); Transformation Strategie

Agricultural transformation and Africa’s economic development

PRIFPRI4; CRP2PIMCGIAR Research Program on Policies, Institutions, and Markets (PIM