High Value Crop Commercialization and Women’s Empowerment in Sub-Saharan Africa: Panel Insights Reinforced by Double Machine Learning and Quasi-Experiments

We examine how agricultural commercialization relates to women’s empowerment across Ethiopia, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda, and Nigeria using LSMS-ISA household panels (2010–2020), a modified A-WEAI (5DE), two-way fixed effects, Double Machine Learning, and propensity-score matched difference-in-differences. Entry into markets (extensive margin) is consistently associated positively with empowerment where identification is strongest: PSM-DiD shows noticeable gains when households begin selling any crops—especially in Ethiopia, Malawi, Tanzania and Nigeria—and positive correlations when existing sellers add cash crops to sales in Malawi (Ethiopia marginal).

Towards inclusive and sustainable vegetable value chains in Odisha

The Hidden Middle—the segment of agrifood systems that connects farmers to consumers through aggregation,
storage, logistics, and processing—has long been overlooked in both research and policy. Yet this is where most
value addition, employment, and efficiency gains actually occur. When midstream actors function well, food
systems are more resilient, markets are more stable, and small producers gain predictable access to buyers and
inputs. When they do not, costs rise, losses increase, and opportunities for inclusive growth dissipate.

Social Learning and Peer Influence in Smallholder Commercialization

This paper examines how peer behavior influences small-scale producers’ (SSPs) decisions to purchase inputs and sell outputs in six sub-Saharan African countries. Using comparable nationally representative panel data and a correlated random effects framework, we assess the extent and shape of social interactions driving input and output market participation.

Informe Anual 2025

Documento realiza un recorrido por el trabajo realizado durante este año. Se divide en las secciones: proyectos, actividades, publicaciones, academia Rimisp, comunicaciones, consejo internacional y redd de donantes y socios de Rimisp.

Encuesta de Producción Sostenible (EPS)

Esta iniciativa es ejecutada por Rimisp por encargo de INDAP y el Banco Interamericano de Desarrollo (BID), en el marco de una investigación conjunta con la Universidad de Notre Dame (EE.UU.). El proyecto consiste en el levantamiento de información mediante la aplicación presencial de la Encuesta de Producción Sostenible, dirigida a usuarios y usuarias de INDAP, seleccionados en 90 comunas rurales del país.