IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ags/aaea14/170617.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Do input subsidies reduce poverty among smallholder farm households? Evidence from Zambia

Author

Listed:
  • Mason, Nicole M.
  • Tembo, Solomon T.

Abstract

Many of the ‘new’ agricultural input subsidy programs (ISPs) in sub-Saharan Africa list raising farm incomes and reducing rural poverty among their objectives, but are ISPs achieving these objectives? We use data from two nationally-representative surveys of smallholder farm households in Zambia to estimate the effects of an increase in ISP fertilizer on household incomes, poverty severity, and the probability of household income falling below the US$2 and US$1.25/capita/day poverty lines. Results suggest that although ISP fertilizer raises smallholder incomes, the increase is not large or widely distributed enough to substantively reduce the probability or severity of poverty.

Suggested Citation

  • Mason, Nicole M. & Tembo, Solomon T., 2014. "Do input subsidies reduce poverty among smallholder farm households? Evidence from Zambia," 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota 170617, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    • Handle: RePEc:ags:aaea14:170617
    DOI: 10.22004/ag.econ.170617
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://ageconsearch.umn.edu/record/170617/files/Mason%20_%20Tembo%202014%20Do%20input%20subsidies%20reduce%20poverty%20among%20smallholder%20farm%20households_%20Evidence%20from%20Zambia%20v1%20final.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.22004/ag.econ.170617?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Nicole M. Mason & Thomas S. Jayne & Robert J. Myers, 2015. "Smallholder Supply Response to Marketing Board Activities in a Dual Channel Marketing System: The Case of Zambia," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 66(1), pages 36-65, February.
    2. Megill, David J., 2005. "Recommendations for Adjusting Weights for Zambia Post-Harvest Survey Data Series and Improving Estimation Methodology for Future Surveys," Food Security Collaborative Working Papers 54470, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    3. Chirwa, Themba G., 2010. "Program evaluation of agricultural input subsidies in Malawi using treatment effects: Methods and practicability based on propensity scores," MPRA Paper 20878, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    4. Ricker-Gilbert, Jacob & Mason, Nicole M. & Darko, Francis & Jayne, Thomas S. & Tembo, Solomon, 2013. "What are the Effects of Input Subsidies on Maize Prices? Evidence from Malawi and Zambia," Food Security Collaborative Working Papers 154938, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    5. Jacob Ricker-Gilbert, 2014. "Wage and employment effects of Malawi's fertilizer subsidy program," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 45(3), pages 337-353, May.
    6. Shenggen Fan & Ashok Gulati & Sukhadeo Thorat, 2008. "Investment, subsidies, and pro‐poor growth in rural India," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 39(2), pages 163-170, September.
    7. Karl Pauw & Ulrik Beck & Richard Mussa, 2014. "Did Rapid Smallholder-Led Agricultural Growth Fail to Reduce Rural Poverty?: Making Sense of Malawi's Poverty Puzzle," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2014-123, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    8. Nicole M. Mason & Thomas S. Jayne, 2014. "Fertiliser subsidies and smallholder commercial fertiliser purchases: crowding out, leakage, and policy implications for Zambia," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 65(2), pages 527-528, June.
    9. Foster, James & Greer, Joel & Thorbecke, Erik, 1984. "A Class of Decomposable Poverty Measures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(3), pages 761-766, May.
    10. Chirwa, Ephraim & Dorward, Andrew, 2013. "Agricultural Input Subsidies: The Recent Malawi Experience," OUP Catalogue, Oxford University Press, number 9780199683529.
    11. Chamberlain, Gary, 1984. "Panel data," Handbook of Econometrics, in: Z. Griliches† & M. D. Intriligator (ed.), Handbook of Econometrics, edition 1, volume 2, chapter 22, pages 1247-1318, Elsevier.
    12. Mundlak, Yair, 1978. "On the Pooling of Time Series and Cross Section Data," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 46(1), pages 69-85, January.
    13. Mason, Nicole M. & Jayne, Thomas S. & Walle, Nicolas van de, 2013. "Fertilizer Subsidies and Voting Patterns: Political Economy Dimensions of Input Subsidy Programs," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 149580, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    14. Papke, Leslie E. & Wooldridge, Jeffrey M., 2008. "Panel data methods for fractional response variables with an application to test pass rates," Journal of Econometrics, Elsevier, vol. 145(1-2), pages 121-133, July.
    15. Bola Amoke Awotide & Aziz Karimov & Aliou Diagne & Tebila Nakelse, 2013. "The impact of seed vouchers on poverty reduction among smallholder rice farmers in Nigeria," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 44(6), pages 647-658, November.
    16. Jeffrey M Wooldridge, 2010. "Econometric Analysis of Cross Section and Panel Data," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 2, volume 1, number 0262232588, December.
    17. Ricker-Gilbert, Jacob E. & Mason, Nicole M. & Jayne, Thomas S. & Darko, Francis Addeah & Tembo, Solomon, 2013. "What are the effects of input subsidy programs on equilibrium maize prices? Evidence from Malawi and Zambia," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 149259, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    18. Papke, Leslie E & Wooldridge, Jeffrey M, 1996. "Econometric Methods for Fractional Response Variables with an Application to 401(K) Plan Participation Rates," Journal of Applied Econometrics, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 11(6), pages 619-632, Nov.-Dec..
    19. Mason, Nicole M. & Ricker-Gilbert, Jacob, 2013. "Disrupting Demand for Commercial Seed: Input Subsidies in Malawi and Zambia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 75-91.
    20. Nicole M. Mason & Melinda Smale, 2013. "Impacts of subsidized hybrid seed on indicators of economic well-being among smallholder maize growers in Zambia," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 44(6), pages 659-670, November.
    21. T.S. Jayne & David Mather & Nicole Mason & Jacob Ricker-Gilbert, 2013. "How do fertilizer subsidy programs affect total fertilizer use in sub-Saharan Africa? Crowding out, diversion, and benefit/cost assessments," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 44(6), pages 687-703, November.
    22. Rodney Lunduka & Jacob Ricker-Gilbert & Monica Fisher, 2013. "What are the farm-level impacts of Malawi's farm input subsidy program? A critical review," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 44(6), pages 563-579, November.
    23. Sitko, Nicholas J. & Bwalya, Richard & Kamwanga, Jolly & Wamulume, Mukata, 2012. "Assessing the Feasibility of Implementing the Farmer Input Support Programme (FISP) Through an Electronic Voucher System in Zambia," Food Security Collaborative Policy Briefs 123210, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    24. Jacob Ricker-Gilbert & Nicole M. Mason & Francis A. Darko & Solomon T. Tembo, 2013. "What are the effects of input subsidy programs on maize prices? Evidence from Malawi and Zambia," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 44(6), pages 671-686, November.
    25. Burke, William J. & Jayne, Thomas S. & Sitko, Nicholas J., 2012. "Can the FISP More Effectively Achieve Food Production and Poverty Reduction Goals?," Food Security Collaborative Policy Briefs 123208, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    26. Pauw, Karl & Beck, Ulrik & Mussa, Richard, 2014. "Did rapid smallholder-led agricultural growth fail to reduce rural poverty? Making sense of Malawi's poverty puzzle," WIDER Working Paper Series 123, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    27. Jayne, Thomas S. & Mason, Nicole M. & Burke, William J. & Shipekesa, Arthur M. & Chapoto, Antony & Kabaghe, Chance, 2011. "Mountains of Maize, Persistent Poverty," Food Security Collaborative Policy Briefs 118476, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    28. Otsuka, Keijiro & Cordova, Violeta & David, Cristina C, 1992. "Green Revolution, Land Reform, and Household Income Distribution in the Philippines," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 40(4), pages 719-741, July.
    29. Nicole M. Mason & T.S. Jayne & Rhoda Mofya-Mukuka, 2013. "Zambia's input subsidy programs," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 44(6), pages 613-628, November.
    30. T.S. Jayne & Shahidur Rashid, 2013. "Input subsidy programs in sub-Saharan Africa: a synthesis of recent evidence," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 44(6), pages 547-562, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Anna Wolkenhauer, 2016. "Transformative social protection: findings from the Zambian child grant and farmer input support programmes," One Pager 338, International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth.
    2. Kristi Mahrt & Gibson Masumbu, 2015. "Estimating multidimensional poverty in Zambia," WIDER Working Paper Series 137, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    3. Kristi Mahrt & Gibson Masumbu, 2015. "Estimating multidimensional poverty in Zambia," WIDER Working Paper Series wp-2015-137, World Institute for Development Economic Research (UNU-WIDER).
    4. Ngoma, Hambulo & Mason, Nicole M. & Sitko, Nicholas, 2015. "Does Minimum Tillage with Planting Basins or Ripping Raise Maize Yields? Meso-panel Data Evidence from Zambia," Food Security Collaborative Working Papers 198701, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    5. Houssou, Nazaire & Andam, Kwaw S. & Collins, Asante-Addo, 2017. "Can better targeting improve the effectiveness of Ghana's Fertilizer Subsidy Program? Lessons from Ghana and other countries in Africa south of the Sahara," IFPRI discussion papers 1605, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    6. Zinnbauer, Maximilian & Mockshell, Jonathan & Zeller, Manfred, 2018. "Effects if Fertilizer Subsidies in Zambia: A Literature Review," MPRA Paper 84125, University Library of Munich, Germany.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mason, Nicole & Tembo, Solomon, 2015. "Do input Subsidies Reduce Poverty among Smallholder Farm Households? Panel Survey Evidence from Zambia," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 212233, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    2. Mason, Nicole M. & Tembo, Solomon T., 2015. "Do Input Subsidy Programs Raise Incomes and Reduce Poverty among Smallholder Farm Households? Evidence from Zambia," Food Security Collaborative Working Papers 198702, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    3. Nicole M. Mason & Ayala Wineman & Solomon T. Tembo, 2020. "Reducing poverty by ‘ignoring the experts’? Evidence on input subsidies in Zambia," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 12(5), pages 1157-1172, October.
    4. Jayne, Thomas S. & Mason, Nicole M. & Burke, William J. & Ariga, Joshua, 2018. "Review: Taking stock of Africa’s second-generation agricultural input subsidy programs," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 1-14.
    5. Fujimoto, Takefumi & Suzuki, Aya, 2021. "Do Fertilizer and Seed Subsidies Strengthen Farmers' Market Participation? the Impact of Tanzania NAIVS on Farmers' Purchase of Agricultural Inputs and Their Maize-Selling Activities," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315044, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    6. Nicole M. Mason & Thomas S. Jayne & Nicolas van de Walle, 2017. "The Political Economy of Fertilizer Subsidy Programs in Africa: Evidence from Zambia," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 99(3), pages 705-731.
    7. Nicole M. Mason & Ayala Wineman & Lilian Kirimi & David Mather, 2017. "The Effects of Kenya's ‘Smarter’ Input Subsidy Programme on Smallholder Behaviour and Incomes: Do Different Quasi-experimental Approaches Lead to the Same Conclusions?," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(1), pages 45-69, February.
    8. Holden, Stein T., 2018. "The Economics of Fertilizer Subsidies," CLTS Working Papers 9/18, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Centre for Land Tenure Studies, revised 16 Oct 2019.
    9. Wossen, Tesfamicheal & Abdoulaye, Tahirou & Alene, Arega & Feleke, Shiferaw & Ricker-Gilbert, Jacob & Manyong, Victor & Awotide, Bola Amoke, 2017. "Productivity and Welfare Effects of Nigeria's e-Voucher-Based Input Subsidy Program," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 251-265.
    10. Jayne, T.S. & Mason, Nicole M. & Burke, William J. & Ariga, Joshua, 2016. "Agricultural Input Subsidy Programs in Africa: An Assessment of Recent Evidence," Food Security International Development Working Papers 245892, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    11. Mason, Nicole M. & Jayne, T.S. & Mofya-Mukuka, Rhoda, 2013. "A Review of Zambia’s Agricultural Input Subsidy Programs: Targeting, Impacts, and the Way Forward," Food Security Collaborative Working Papers 162438, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    12. Sibande, Lonester & Bailey, Alastair & Davidova, Sophia, 2017. "The impact of farm input subsidies on maize marketing in Malawi," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 190-206.
    13. Morgan, Stephen N. & Mason, Nicole M. & Levine, N. Kendra & Zulu-Mbata, Olipa, 2019. "Dis-incentivizing sustainable intensification? The case of Zambia’s maize-fertilizer subsidy program," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 54-69.
    14. Mason, N. & Morgan, S. & Levine, N.K. & Zulu-Mbata, O., 2018. "Dis-incentivizing sustainable intensification? The case of Zambia s fertilizer subsidy program," 2018 Conference, July 28-August 2, 2018, Vancouver, British Columbia 277491, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    15. Harou, Aurélie P., 2018. "Unraveling the effect of targeted input subsidies on dietary diversity in household consumption and child nutrition: The case of Malawi," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 124-135.
    16. Sibande, Lonester & Bailey, Alastair & Davidova, Sophia, 2015. "The impact of farm input subsidies on household welfare in Malawi," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 212830, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    17. Zinnbauer, Maximilian & Mockshell, Jonathan & Zeller, Manfred, 2018. "Effects if Fertilizer Subsidies in Zambia: A Literature Review," MPRA Paper 84125, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    18. Mason, Nicole M. & Wineman, Ayala & Kirimi, Lilian & Mather, David, 2016. "The Effects of Kenya’s ‘Smarter’ Input Subsidy Program on Smallholder Behavior and Incomes: Do Different Quasi-Experimental Approaches Lead to the Same Conclusions?," Food Security Collaborative Working Papers 232090, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    19. Jongwoo Kim & Nicole M. Mason & David Mather & Felicia Wu, 2021. "The effects of the national agricultural input voucher scheme (NAIVS) on sustainable intensification of maize production in Tanzania," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 72(3), pages 857-877, September.
    20. Takeshima, Hiroyuki & Liverpool-Tasie, Lenis Saweda O., 2015. "Fertilizer subsidies, political influence and local food prices in sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from Nigeria," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 54(C), pages 11-24.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Agricultural and Food Policy; Food Security and Poverty; International Development;
    All these keywords.

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ags:aaea14:170617. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: AgEcon Search (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/aaeaaea.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.