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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.

researcher spotlight

Ruth Meinzen-Dick

Ruth Meinzen-Dick is a Senior Research Fellow in the Natural Resources and Resilience Unit. She has extensive transdisciplinary research experience in using qualitative and quantitative research methods. Her work focuses on two broad (and sometimes interrelated) areas: how institutions affect how people manage natural resources, and the role of gender in development processes. 

Where we work

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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.

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experts

Development Strategies and Governance

Bedru Balana

Senior Research Fellow

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Bio

Bedru Balana is a research fellow in the Natural Resources and Resilience Unit, based in IFPRI’s Nigeria office. He is an agricultural economist with extensive experience in applied microeconomic research to inform agricultural development and food policies in Africa. His core research areas include technical and institutional constraints to investments in smallholder agriculture, agricultural markets, rural finance, agricultural technology adoption, climate-smart agriculture, livelihoods and poverty, and food and nutrition security in developing countries. He currently leads and manages large research-for-development (R4D) projects, oversees the planning and implementation of household surveys, and delivers capacity strengthening trainings. Through his supervision, mentorship, and communication with research staff, local partners, and collaborators, Bedru ensures timely completion of project activities, and his engagement with program implementers, policymakers, and donors helps inform the design and delivery of programs and policies that can sustainably enhance food security and reduce poverty in low-income countries. He has published more than 50 articles in high-impact, peer-reviewed international journals as well as book chapters, policy briefs, and technical reports. He has experience in Ethiopia, Kenya, Ghana, Uganda, Nigeria, and Burkina Faso, where he undertakes several agriculture development research, policy dialogue, and capacity strengthening activities. Prior to joining IFPRI, Bedru worked in different academic and development research organizations including Mekelle University (Ethiopia), James Hutton Institute (UK), and in two CGIAR centers (IWMI and IFPRI). He earned both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in economics from Addis Ababa University, and a PhD in agricultural economics from the Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium.

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Publications

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Brief

Take-up of cash loans vs. agricultural input loans: A pilot study

2024Ambler, Kate; Balana, Bedru; Bloem, Jeffrey R.; Maruyama, Eduardo; Olanrewaju, Opeyemi
Details

Take-up of cash loans vs. agricultural input loans: A pilot study

Smallholder farmers must invest in agricultural inputs (i.e., seeds, chemicals, equipment, land, and labor) during the planting season before earning income from the sale of agricultural produce after harvest. Credit can help relax liquidity constraints. In rural Nigeria, access to credit is limited, especially formal credit from financial institutions. Less than a third of households in rural Nigeria report using credit and only two percent of rural households borrowed credit from formal financial institutions (EFInA 2020). The rest is borrowed informally from friends, family, or local money lenders. Credit can take many different forms. For example, credit can take the form of a cash loan, where funds are provided to a borrower to make an investment of any kind. Another common form of credit is when specific goods, for instance agricultural inputs, are provided in advance to a payment. In both cases, the borrower must pay back both the loan amount, and any interest incurred from the loan. We partnered with Crop2Cash, a digital financial technology startup company operating in Nigeria, to test take-up for these two forms of credit.

Year published

2024

Authors

Ambler, Kate; Balana, Bedru; Bloem, Jeffrey R.; Maruyama, Eduardo; Olanrewaju, Opeyemi

Citation

Ambler, Kate; Balana, Bedru; Bloem, Jeffrey R.; Maruyama, Eduardo; and Olanrewaju, Opeyemi. 2024. Take-up of cash loans vs. agricultural input loans: A pilot study. Rethinking Food Markets Initiative Project Note September 2024. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/152224

Country/Region

Nigeria

Keywords

Southern Africa; Western Africa; Smallholders; Farm Inputs; Income; Agriculture; Credit; Loans

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Rethinking Food Markets

Record type

Brief

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Conference Paper

What role does conflict play in fertilizer use and maize yield response in Nigeria?

2024Amare, Mulubrhan; Andam, Kwaw S.; Balana, Bedru; Olanrewaju, Opeyemi; Edeh, Hyacinth
Details

What role does conflict play in fertilizer use and maize yield response in Nigeria?

While increased use of inorganic fertilizer has been recommended to achieve increased maize productivity, studies on the effects of violent conflicts have also demonstrated the possible moderating influence of conflict on agricultural input use. However, the various pathways and extent through which affects fertilizer use and maize yield response to fertilizer use remain poorly understood. In this study, we used the ACLED geocoded longitudinal dataset based on the Nigeria LSMS-ISA panel survey to assess the impact of violent conflicts on fertilizer use and maize yield response in Nigeria. Understanding this effect of conflict on fertilizer use and maize yield response could be relevant to better understand smallholders resource use decisions in the context of other countries experiencing similar violent and serves as building block for understanding how factors outside the control of agronomic field experiments affect economic incentives for fertilizer use and yield of smallholder farmers.

Year published

2024

Authors

Amare, Mulubrhan; Andam, Kwaw S.; Balana, Bedru; Olanrewaju, Opeyemi; Edeh, Hyacinth

Citation

Amare, Mulubrhan; Andam, Kwaw S.; Balana, Bedru; Olanrewaju, Opeyemi; and Edeh, Hyacinth. 2024. What role does conflict play in fertilizer use and maize yield response in Nigeria? Presented at the International Conference of Agricultural Economists in New Delhi, India on August 3, 2024.

Country/Region

Nigeria

Keywords

Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Western Africa; Fertilizer Application; Maize; Yields; Conflicts; Inputs

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Conference Paper

Resource thumbnail

Conference Paper

Can participation in agricultural programmes improve youth agribusiness performance? Insights from the Enable Programme in East Africa

2024Adeyanju, Dolapo; Ejima, Joseph; Balana, Bedru; Mburu, John
Details

Can participation in agricultural programmes improve youth agribusiness performance? Insights from the Enable Programme in East Africa

This study addresses the gap in understanding the impact of agribusiness empowerment programmes on youth business performance in developing countries, taking the case of the ENABLE-TAAT programme in Kenya and Uganda. A multistage sampling technique was used in obtaining primary agribusiness-level data from a sample of 1003 young agripreneurs from the study countries. An Endogenous Treatment Effect Regression (ETER) model was used to identify factors influencing programme participation and impact on youth agribusiness performance. Results show that marital status, agribusiness experience, asset value, credit access, residence, prior programme awareness, and perception were the key determinants of participation. The ETER results chow that participation in the programme significantly increased youth’s agribusiness income by 7 percent and food security by 76 percent, with participants having higher asset value than non-participants. Based on these findings, we suggest policy interventions or programmes focusing on youth agribusiness empowerment, particularly those that target young actors along different agricultural value chains. We also suggest interventions geared towards mitigating constraints to credit access by young agripreneurs to ease barriers to working capital and business innovation. To increase access and participation, we recommend strategies to improve youth perception and raise awareness of these programmes. JEL Codes: J000, J430, Q190

Year published

2024

Authors

Adeyanju, Dolapo; Ejima, Joseph; Balana, Bedru; Mburu, John

Citation

Adeyanju, Dolapo; Ejima, Joseph; Balana, Bedru; and Mburu, John. 2024. Can participation in agricultural programmes improve youth agribusiness performance? Insights from the Enable Programme in East Africa. 32nd International Conference of Agricultural Economists Conference, August 2-7, 2024, New Delhi, India. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/151516

Country/Region

Uganda; Kenya

Keywords

Eastern Africa; Agro-industrial Sector; Youth Employment; Enterprises; Credit; Income; Food Security; Assets

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Links

https://doi.org/10.22004/ag.econ.344394 Source record

Project

National Policies and Strategies

Record type

Conference Paper

Events

WFP Climate Impact Evaluation Forum
IFPRI at External Event

 | 

October 7 to 9, 2024

WFP Climate Impact Evaluation Forum

Extreme weather events pose one of the biggest threats to global food security. Increasingly, climate disasters like floods, droughts, and cyclones, are striking regions previously unaccustomed to such crises. In the Asia Pacific region, the United Nations World Food Programme work hand-in-hand with several partners to support vulnerable communities preparing, responding, and recovering from climate shocks […]

Africa Food Systems Forum 2024 Summit
IFPRI at External Event

 | 

September 2 to 6, 2024

Africa Food Systems Forum 2024 Summit

The Africa Food Systems Forum 2024 annual summit will be a timely opportunity to convene diverse stakeholders, including world leaders, investors, academia, farmers’ organizations, and the private sector, to spotlight innovations, technologies, best practices, business models, policy delivery mechanisms, and investments to accelerate food systems transformation in Africa and beyond, with youth and women at […]

WFP Impact Evaluation Forum
IFPRI at External Event

 | 

December 4 to 7, 2023

WFP Impact Evaluation Forum

Event: December 4, 2023 – 09:00 AM to December 7, 2023 – 6:30 PM CET. IFPRI is participating in the first United Nations World Food Programme Impact Evaluation Forum in Rome, Italy.

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News

August 27, 2022 | In the News

FG inaugurates six-year policy to promote innovation, investment in agric sector (The Cable) 

The Cable (Nigeria) published an article announcing the six-year national agricultural technology and innovation policy (NATIP) from 2022 to 2027 to enhance agribusiness in the country. The policy also aims to increase resilience and digital agriculture, thereby, promoting agricultural investments.   Bedru Balana, country program leader, IFPRI, said women and youth should be mainstreamed across the […]

August 26, 2022 | In the News

Untapped potential in agriculture can help food security – USAID/Nigeria (News Agency Nigeria) 

News Agency Nigeria posted an article on the launch of the National Agricultural Technology and Innovation Policy (NATIP) 2022 – 2027.  Agriculture is important to the growth and development of the economy, adding that in 2020, agriculture contributed over 25 percent to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). The new policy is a deliberate effort by […]

July 26, 2019 | In the News

Irrigation earns flood-prone farmers US$4,344 a hectare (SciDev.Net)

Promoting flood-recession agriculture could reduce seasonal migration during the dry season, helping farmers increase production, income, and food security. 

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