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Project
Quality upgrading in Myanmar's rice sector
Linking developing countries’ agricultural producers to foreign markets often requires upgrading product quality (Gereffi (1999), Verhoogen (2008), Atkin et al. (2017)). Typical interventions seek to target a single point along the chain, such as improving fertiliser access to farmers or providing processors credit to upgrade technology. For agricultural goods, achieving...
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Competitiveness analysis of the Rwanda textile industry
The National Industrial Research Development Agency (NIRDA) engaged a local consultant to gather data on the garments value chain with a view to analysing its competitiveness in an international perspective, and developing recommendations to support productivity upgrading. This project will make use of the data collected to design a framework for analysing and tracking...
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Digital information channels in the Rwandan potato value chain
There are several challenges in modernising agricultural value chains in developing countries. A substantial one is the high unit cost of connecting a vast and remote population of small-scale growers (henceforth, growers) to markets and useful information. The introduction of information and communication technology (ICT) into this sector holds great promise for...
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Relaxing seasonal constraints to improve labour productivity: Scaling-up with a private sector partner (country wide project)
In Zambia, small-scale agriculture employs the vast majority of the rural population, despite low levels of productivity and farming income. Most small-scale farms run out of food and cash four to five months after the harvest. Consequently, farmers engage in costly strategies to finance consumption until the next harvest, most commonly selling family labour off-farm in the...
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Relaxing seasonal constraints to improve labour productivity: Scaling-up with a private sector partner
In Zambia, small-scale agriculture employs the vast majority of the rural population, despite low levels of productivity and farming income. Recent studies have demonstrated that small scale farmers are most likely to deviate from their original production plan during the “hungry season” that precedes the harvest. Since harvest occurs once a year, most of these farmers...
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Worker well-being and productivity in the Bangladesh garment sector
Recent research suggests stress may affect worker productivity and thereby the accumulation of other forms of human capital. The garment sector is the largest employer of female workers in Bangladesh, the majority of whom have migrated from outside the area where the factories are located. These urban and peri-urban areas are characterised by inadequate basic services and...
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The role of mobile-based trade credit on business development
Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are the backbone of most economies. They are flexible in responding to new opportunities and possess potential for rapid growth. As a result, SMEs are believed to serve as engines for innovation, employment, and social mobility. In developing countries, SMEs represent a particularly large part of the economy. However, data...
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Trade shocks and production networks in Uganda
The structure of firm networks matters. Given a certain network structure, it influences the amount of value created in an economy and determines an economy’s resilience to shocks. However, the structure is also likely to be endogenous to economic policy decisions. As such, it is difficult to disentangle the causal effect of a given network and the formation of that...
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Quality upgrading and contract enforcement in Uganda's coffee sector
There has long been interest in the process of structural transformation, moving from subsistence agriculture to the production of manufactured goods (Lewis, 1954). Improving the value of agricultural exports is often considered an important first step in this process. More broadly, there has been growing interest in quality upgrading in developing country markets and firms...
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Understanding non-tariff barriers and regional integration in the East African Community
Non-tariff barriers may be particularly prohibitive to small traders, and therefore may have the unintended consequence of concentrating market power at the border. This can influence the degree of competition in domestic markets within each country. The result is that border policies may affect businesses, farmers, and consumers throughout the country through not only the...