Subscribe

Back

Who we are

With research staff from more than 60 countries, and offices across the globe, IFPRI provides research-based policy solutions to sustainably reduce poverty and end hunger and malnutrition in developing countries.

Ahmed Akhter

researcher spotlight

Akhter Ahmed

Akhter Ahmed is a Senior Research Fellow in the IFPRI’s Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion Unit and Country Representative for IFPRI Bangladesh. He has worked on strategies for agricultural and rural development, social protection, and women’s empowerment to reduce poverty, food insecurity, and undernutrition in developing countries including Bangladesh, China, Egypt, India, Malawi, the Philippines, and Turkey.

Back

What we do

Since 1975, IFPRI’s research has been informing policies and development programs to improve food security, nutrition, and livelihoods around the world.

Research topics

Projects and impact

Modeling tools

Project microsites

What’s new

Where we work

Back

Where we work

IFPRI currently has more than 600 employees working in over 80 countries with a wide range of local, national, and international partners.

IFPRI Regional Programs

IFPRI Country Programs

Research by country and region

Subscribe

experts

Natural Resources and Resilience

Dawit Mekonnen

Nonresident Fellow

Follow

Dawit

at:

ORCiD
profile

Bio

Dawit Mekonnen is a Nonresident Fellow in the Natural Resources and Resilience Unit. His research interests include productivity and efficiency analysis, water economics, agricultural input systems, and impact evaluation of development projects. Dawit’s current work in sub-Saharan Africa focuses on understanding the impact of irrigation on agricultural productivity, nutrition, health, and women’s empowerment. His research in South Asia focuses on water governance and energy use in agriculture in the context of the water-energy-food nexus. Prior to graduate school, he served as a research officer at IFPRI’s Addis Ababa office and as a lecturer at the Department of Economics at Haramaya University in Ethiopia. He completed his PhD in Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Georgia, and holds MSc and BA degrees in Economics from Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia.

Publications

Google Scholar

RePec

ResearchGate

Publications

Resource thumbnail

Working Paper

Seeds of change: The impact of Ethiopia’s direct seed marketing approach on smallholders’ seed purchases and productivity

2025Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Abate, Gashaw T.; Yimam, Seid; Benfica, Rui; Spielman, David J.; Place, Frank
Details

Seeds of change: The impact of Ethiopia’s direct seed marketing approach on smallholders’ seed purchases and productivity

Several factors contribute to the limited use of improved seed varieties in Ethiopia. Among those, on the supply side, is the restricted availability of seeds in the volume, quality, and timeliness required by farmers, partly due to inadequate public and private investment in the sector. Beginning in 2011, the Government of Ethiopia introduced a novel experiment—the direct seed marketing approach—to reduce some of the centralized, state-run attributes of the country’s seed market and rationalize the use of public resources. Direct seed marketing was designed to incentivize private and public seed producers to sell directly to farmers rather than through the state apparatus. This study is the first quantitative evaluation of the impact of direct seed marketing on indicators of a healthy seed system: access to quality seeds and farm-level productivity. Using a quasi-experimental difference-in-differences approach suitable to handling variation in treatment timing, the study finds that direct seed marketing led to an increase of 15 percentage points in the proportion of farmers purchasing maize seed, an increase of 45 percent in the quantity of maize seed purchased per hectare, and an increase of 18 percent in maize yield. However, there are differences across crops, with the effects of direct seed marketing on wheat seed purchases and yields being statistically insignificant. These crop-specific differences in performance are likely explained by differences in the reproductive biology of maize (particularly maize hybrids) and wheat, which tend to incentivize commercial activity in hybrid maize seed markets more than in self-pollinating wheat or open-pollinated maize markets. These differences suggest a need for nuanced policy responses, institutional arrangements, and market development strategies to accelerate the adoption of improved varieties.

Year published

2025

Authors

Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Abate, Gashaw T.; Yimam, Seid; Benfica, Rui; Spielman, David J.; Place, Frank

Citation

Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Abate, Gashaw T.; Yimam, Seid; Benfica, Rui; Spielman, David J.; and Place, Frank. 2025. Seeds of change: The impact of Ethiopia’s direct seed marketing approach on smallholders’ seed purchases and productivity. Policy Research Working Paper 11078. Washington, DC: World Bank Group. https://hdl.handle.net/10986/42903

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Farmers; Maize; Seeds; Smallholders

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Seed Equal

Record type

Working Paper

Resource thumbnail

Working Paper

Do public works investments in watershed rehabilitation and small-scale irrigation improve nutrition and resilience? Evidence from bureau for humanitarian assistance interventions in support of Ethiopia’s productive safety net program

2024Balana, Bedru; Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Arega, Tiruwork; Ringler, Claudia; Bryan, Elizabeth; Yami, Mastewal; Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum; Wondwosen, Abenezer
Details

Do public works investments in watershed rehabilitation and small-scale irrigation improve nutrition and resilience? Evidence from bureau for humanitarian assistance interventions in support of Ethiopia’s productive safety net program

Between 2017 and 2021, the Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance (BHA) of the United States Agency for International Development supported public works in the areas of watershed rehabilitation and small-scale irrigation under Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Program (PSNP). The investments aimed to improve food security and nutrition and to increase the resilience capacities of households through improved natural resource systems and asset development. However, there is little evidence about how these water-related investments supported household food security, nutritional outcomes, and resilience. This study used a mixed-methods approach to fill some of these knowledge gaps. Econometric results show that households in BHA intervention areas had smaller food gaps, and this association is statistically significant. Similarly, households that adopted small-scale irrigation and water harvesting techniques on their own plots show significantly better nutritional outcomes than those that did not. The results further suggest that in general the households in BHA areas are more resilient than those in non-BHA woredas. However, higher resilience capacities are associated with agricultural water management on own plots rather than with public works in communal lands. Thus, if household security, nutrition and resilience are key goals of program interventions, then programs need to grow intentionality in developing assets, and particularly irrigation.

Year published

2024

Authors

Balana, Bedru; Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Arega, Tiruwork; Ringler, Claudia; Bryan, Elizabeth; Yami, Mastewal; Taffesse, Alemayehu Seyoum; Wondwosen, Abenezer

Citation

Balana, Bedru; Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Arega, Tiruwork; Ringler, Claudia; Bryan, Elizabeth; et al. 2024. Do public works investments in watershed rehabilitation and small-scale irrigation improve nutrition and resilience? Evidence from bureau for humanitarian assistance interventions in support of Ethiopia’s productive safety net program. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2308. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/168643

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Eastern Africa; Public Works; Public Investment; Watershed Management; Small-scale Irrigation; Nutrition; Resilience; Social Safety Nets; Food Security

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

NEXUS Gains

Record type

Working Paper

Resource thumbnail

Working Paper

Irrigation schemes in Ethiopia’s Awash River Basin: An examination of physical, knowledge, and governance infrastructures

2024Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Yimam, Seid; Arega, Tiruwork; Alemu, Tekie; Gonfa, Kidist H.; Ringler, Claudia
Details

Irrigation schemes in Ethiopia’s Awash River Basin: An examination of physical, knowledge, and governance infrastructures

Using a representative sample of irrigation schemes, the study documents the physical, knowledge, and governance infrastructures of irrigation schemes in Ethiopia’s most intensively used river basin, the Awash. The findings show that about 20 percent of the equipped area of irrigation schemes in the basin is not being irrigated, while the number of actual beneficiaries on average exceeds the number of planned beneficiaries. The results also show significant knowledge gaps among irrigation scheme managers, extension agents, and leaders of water users’ associations (WUAs): 96 percent of them do not know the total water withdrawals or the irrigation water requirement per season. About 14 percent of the surveyed irrigation schemes have neither traditional water committees nor WUAs, and only 21 percent are organized in legally registered WUAs despite a substantial number of identified benefits of these organizations. Moreover, only 58 out of 489 irrigation schemes have women committee members. Many schemes lack a clear strategy for covering maintenance costs: almost 40 percent of schemes collect contributions from members only when the system fails, while 17 percent report no contributions for maintenance at all suggesting considerable risk of system deterioration and failure. The results challenge some of the assumptions about irrigation infrastructure in Ethiopia and confirm and quantify other assumptions in the literature.

Year published

2024

Authors

Mekonnen, Dawit Kelemework; Yimam, Seid; Arega, Tiruwork; Alemu, Tekie; Gonfa, Kidist H.; Ringler, Claudia

Citation

Mekonnen, Dawit K.; Yimam, Seid; Arega, Tiruwork; Alemu, Tekie; Gonfa, Kidist H.; and Ringler, Claudia. 2024. Irrigation schemes in Ethiopia’s Awash River Basin: An examination of physical, knowledge, and governance infrastructures. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2287. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/158200

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Irrigation Schemes; Infrastructure; Awash River; River Basins; Advisory Officers; Water User Associations; Women

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

NEXUS Gains

Record type

Working Paper

Blogs

Modeling the optimal energy solutions for irrigation in Ethiopia
IFPRI Blog
 | 
September 23, 2022

Modeling the optimal energy solutions for irrigation in Ethiopia

By Dawit Mekonnen and Hua Xie

The best places for grid-based, solar, and diesel powered equipment.

Events

IFPRI @ 27th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP27)
IFPRI at External Event

 | 

November 6 to 18, 2022

IFPRI @ 27th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP27)

Hybrid Event: November 6, 2022 – 4:00 AM to November 18, 2022 – 8:30 PM EST. IFPRI is participating in the 27th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP27) in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt.

Accelerating clean energy access in rural areas
IFPRI Program/Country Event

 | 

October 5, 2021, 8:00 – 9:00 am

Accelerating clean energy access in rural areas

Virtual Event: OCT 5, 2021 – 08:00 AM to 09:00 AM EDT. This webinar will present research that can help countries enhance smallholder access to clean energy and address climate adaptation/ mitigation challenges. 

World Water Week 2021
IFPRI at External Event

 | 

August 23 to 27, 2021

World Water Week 2021

AUG 24, 2021 – 06:00 PM to 7:00 PM EDT. This session will showcase new insights into the multiple and synergistic roles of water in food systems and for the nutrition that was deliberated during the 2021 UN Food Systems Summit. 

View all Events

News

April 29, 2020 | In the News

Agriculture and Rural Electrification in Ethiopia could Unlock US$4 Billion for the National Economy (Yahoo Life) 

Yahoo Life reported on a study conducted by the Rocky Mountain Institute, IFPRI, and with the support of the Ethiopian Ministry of Water, Irrigation, and Energy and the Agricultural Transformation Agency (ATA) which outlines the synergies between rural electrification and agricultural productivity, processing, and businesses, and the value that can flow from closely linking the two. Republished in  RMI.org, Africa […]

April 28, 2020 | In the News

How rural electrification is transforming Ethiopia’s agriculture sector (CNBC Africa) 

CNBC-Africa interviewed Research Fellow Dawit Mekonnen about his coauthored study, Capturing the productive use dividend valuing the synergies between rural electrification and smallholder agriculture in Ethiopia. Mekonnen discussed the synergies between rural electrification and agricultural productivity, processing, and businesses in Ethiopia. 

September 09, 2016 | In the News

Irrigation on rise in Africa as farmers face erratic weather (Reuters)

IFPRI Senior Research Fellow Ruth Meinzen-Dick and Research Fellow Dawit Mekonnen were both mentioned in a Reuters article about irrigation. Published on the heels of World Water Week, the article was picked up by The Daily Mail and other outlets. The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) estimates that more than a million hectares of […]

View all News