Browsing by Author "Gotor, E."

Now showing 1 - 2 of 2
  • The impact of Bioversity International African Leafy Vegetables programme in Kenya
    Gotor, E.; Irungu, C. (Beech Tree Publishing, 2010)
    This article assesses the position of Bioversity International and its associates in the African Leafy Vegetables programme (ALV) and evaluates the effect of the programme on income of local farmers throughout four different areas in Kenya. For this assessment, a situation-based Ego, Alter and Researcher (EAR) instrument was used. This approach gathers data from three different perspectives and compares and analyzes all three. Bioversity staff members made up the Ego perspective. The Alter perspective consisted of Bioversity's external associates, which do not have a formal relationship. These groups were given in-depth interviews and the data was compared with project reports, peer-reviewed journals or other documents. The four study areas chosen were the Kisii district in Nyanza Province, the Tharaka-Nithi district in Eastern Province, the Kilifi district in Coast Province and peri-urban Nairobi. The first three sites were selected because of their extensive biodiversity in ALV and also their cultural diversity. Nairobi was included in the study because the second phase of the programme was focused around the city. The results indicated that Bioversity provided appropriate motivation and was an effective organizer of the ALV programme. There has been a significant increase in the cultivation, consumption and bartering of ALVs since 1997. Women remain the predominant force in a majority of ALV production. Typically those farms that sell ALVs have a slightly higher standard of living than those farms that do not sell ALVs.
  • Thumbnail Image
    Pathways from research on improved staple crop germplasm to poverty reduction for smallholder farmers
    Alwang, Jeffrey R.; Gotor, E.; Thiele, G.; Hareau, G.; Jaleta, M.; Chamberlin, J. (Elsevier, 2017-11-01)
    Innovations to improve staple crop germplasm can reduce poverty and otherwise improve farmer livelihoods through complex and multiple pathways. This paper reviews the evidence for one prominent pathway—through increased incomes (in cash and kind) for poor farmers who adopt the technology. An important determinant of poverty reduction is the ability of poor producers to adopt productivity-enhancing varieties, and the paper analyzes recent household-level data from two African countries to examine if poor producers face unique barriers to adoption. A second determinant of poverty reduction is the area available to plant these varieties and whether the intensity of adoption is great enough to significantly reduce poverty. The paper uses a double-hurdle estimation framework to model the adoption/area planted joint decision for maize farmers in Ethiopia and sweet potato farmers in Uganda. The focus of the analysis is the effect of poverty-related variables on adoption/area planted decisions. Farmer wealth, landholding, education, location, and access to support and information services are included to understand how correlates of poverty affect adoption decisions. We find evidence that landholding size is an important barrier to poverty reduction; poor farmers are able to adopt improved varieties, but their intensity is constrained by land availability. In Uganda, farmers at the 95th percentile of adoption area received about $0.13 per person per day from the incremental yield, covering < 50% of the mean household poverty gap. This gain only comes under optimistic assumptions and most adopters do not have sufficient area for the direct income effect to be large. The evidence suggests that direct, short-term impacts of increased productivity to increased income may be limited in magnitude. Nonetheless, we recognize that other, less direct pathways may be important, particularly over longer times. Impacts through indirect pathways are, however, more difficult to measure. This has implications for the design of M&E and the crafting of appropriate targets for outcomes of research on staple crops which should focus perhaps on the other pathways where poverty reduction is more probable.