The vision of the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) is to contribute to lifting 11.6 million people in sub-Saharan Africa out of poverty by 2020 as stated in its Refreshed strategy. One challenge that the Institute’s social science team has been grappling with is how IITA will track, measure, and demonstrate the influence of IITA technologies and adoption rates on poverty reduction.
Dr Victor Manyong, IITA Director for East Africa and Leader of the IITA social science research group, at a TED-X talk in Ibadan, Nigeria, shed light on the way his team is going about this task. “By 2020, we may have reached and even exceeded the target of 11.6 million that we have set but we might not be able to claim this success because we have no empirical data to show,” he said. “One of the biggest challenges here is to bring together studies on adoption rates and poverty reduction, by demonstrating that it was really our work that contributed to poverty reduction.”
Progress on measuring IITA’s impact on poverty reduction
Dr Manyong said the team had conducted studies which clearly demonstrated the impact of IITA’s past interventions on poverty reduction. Where data over time existed, studies before and after intervention were conducted to determine the differences in poverty levels associated with the adoption of IITA’s technologies. Where data over time did not exist, IITA also compared poverty levels between those who were exposed to a technology and those who were not.
One such study using the before- and-after approach was conducted in the Great Lakes region of Eastern and Central Africa to evaluate the impact of the project Consortium for Improving Agriculture based Livelihoods in Central Africa (CIALCA). By comparing poverty levels at the start of the project in 2006 and again in 2015, using the headcount index indicator, it became clear that the project had contributed to reducing the number of poor people in Rw anda and eastern DRC (people living on less than 1.25 USD/day/person) by over 8 percentage points in Rw anda and over 13 percentage points in eastern DRC. This was established by calculating the difference-in-difference in poverty levels between those that had adopted the various technologies being piloted by the project and those that had not.
The other study used the with- and-without approach and looked at the impact on poverty of adopting improved varieties of cassava in selected cassava-growing districts of four countries – DRC, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, and Zambia – under the project Support to Agricultural Research for Development of Strategic Crops in Africa (SARD-SC). Using the propensity score matching (PSM) analysis and looking at the poverty levels between the adopters and non-adopters of the cassava varieties, the research team found that the adoption of improved varieties had contributed to getting about 220,000 farmers out of poverty.
“In the two studies, an estimated half a million farmers could be said to have moved out of poverty as a result of being associated with our technologies. The challenge now,” Dr Manyong said, “is to validate the above preliminary results through more rigorous analyses, to replicate these studies for all of IITA’s m andate crops and projects, and to ensure that those who have been lifted off poverty remain above the poverty line and further reduce the poverty gap and the severity of poverty among smallholders.”
Lessons from assessing adoption of R4D innovations
Dr Manyong also used examples of past adoption studies to highlight key lessons learnt by the Institute over time in the process of adoption of R4D innovations.
A study on the adoption and impact of improved maize varieties in Eastern Zambia under the project Sustainable Intensification of Maize-Legume Systems for the Eastern Province of Zambia (SIMLEZA), (Khonje et al. World Development. 2015) established that the adoption of improved maize varieties had increased crop income and household wealth and reduced the probability of poverty.
The importance of releasing research technologies in a good policy environment was highlighted by a study on the impact of a cassava program at the farm level in DRC (Rusike et al. Food Policy. 2014) which found that weak policies were a major impediment to the adoption of improved varieties. Markets also are a crucial factor, according to a study on the role of institutions in modernizing the yam sector in West Africa, (Mignouna et al. IAAE. 2015), and so are farmers’ groups (Ainembabazi et al. IAAE. 2015), which were found to speed up significantly the adoption of technologies by smallholder farmers.
He also shared insights on a new study that will look into the challenges of adoption studies of improved cassava varieties in Nigeria. It will be the first large-scale adoption study for cassava in Nigeria which will include interviews with 2500 households and use DNA-based varietal identification, GPS-assisted area measurement, and gender-differentiated end-user perspectives. The study in dissemination will be conducted in areas where 80% of the Nigerian cassava production is located. It will provide data on real adoption rates, factors driving adoption and dis-adoption, and gendered criteria for preferences in varietal attributes which will help IITA in its efforts to develop improved technologies and in particular new varieties. It will also contribute to the development of replicable tools and methods that the Institute can use in other adoption studies.
While reiterating his support for the IITA vision, Dr Nteranya Sanginga, IITA DG, said the future direction of IITA’s research would move away from crop improvement alone. He enjoined scientists to redefine their research strategies and plan for the socioeconomic assessment of projects so the exact numbers reached on the fields can be easily noted.
“Sustainable development, poverty reduction, and business and employment creation are the future for the Institute and will ensure IITA stays relevant and continues to receive funding,” Dr Sanginga said.
For more information:
Andrea Gros, Head of Communication, IITA HQ, a.gros@cgiar.org
About IITA www.iita.org
IITA is one of the world’s leading research partners in finding solutions for hunger, malnutrition, and poverty. Its award-winning research-for-development (R4D) approach addresses the development needs of tropical countries. IITA works with partners to enhance crop quality and productivity, reduce producer and consumer risks, and generate wealth from agriculture. IITA is a non-profit organization founded in 1967 in Nigeria and governed by a Board of Trustees. IITA works on the following crops: cowpea, soybean, banana/plantain, yam, cassava, and maize. It is a member of CGIAR, a global agriculture research partnership for a food secure future.
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