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With research staff from more than 70 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

David Spielman

David Spielman is the director of IFPRI’s Innovation Policy and Scaling Unit and has been with the institute since 2004. His research agenda covers a range of topics including agriculture and rural development policy; agricultural science, technology, and innovation; plant genetic resources and seed systems; agricultural extension and advisory services; and community-driven rural development.

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

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experts

Markets, Trade, and Institutions

Berber Kramer

Senior Research Fellow

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Bio

Berber Kramer is a Senior Research Fellow in the Markets, Trade, and Institutions Unit, based in Nairobi, Kenya. Her research focuses on financial inclusion, technology adoption, gender, and adaptation to climate change. She leads a research program that aims to strengthen agricultural insurance and finance in Ethiopia, India, and Kenya through digital innovations in the design of financial services. Berber also leads an area of research around understanding drivers of farmers’ decision to use genetic innovations, and around evidence use for demand-driven and impact-oriented breeding. She has a PhD in economics from the Tinbergen Institute, the Netherlands.

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Publications

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Journal Article

Empowerment unveiled: Gender dynamics and the impact of nutrition-sensitive agriculture interventions among ethnic minority groups in northern Vietnam

2026Nguyen Thi, Lan Thuy; van den Berg, Marrit; Stomph, TjeerdJan; Nabuuma, Deborah; Kramer, Berber
Details

Empowerment unveiled: Gender dynamics and the impact of nutrition-sensitive agriculture interventions among ethnic minority groups in northern Vietnam

Gender equality and women’s empowerment are key global agendas, yet women often face marginalization compared to men. Nutrition-sensitive agriculture interventions (NSAs) often aim to benefit women but their impacts on women’s empowerment remain unclear. This study focuses on: 1) assessing the empowerment levels of women and men from three ethnic minorities in rural northern Vietnam (Thai, H’Mong and Dao) with the Project-level women’s empowerment in agriculture index (Pro-WEAI); 2) examining the potential of NSA to improve women’s empowerment during COVID-19 pandemic; and 3) applying an intersectional lens by analyzing how empowerment and treatment effects vary by ethnic subgroups. We conducted a Randomized controlled trial (RCT) involving around 600 rural households from 36 clusters that were randomly assigned to one of the following three treatment arms: receiving agriculture and nutrition training; receiving seed provision on top of the training; and a control group. We found that both men and women experienced disempowerment, due to ethnicity and systemic ethnical marginalization. While no significant gender discrimination in resource access was found, women faced limited mobility, overburdened workload and diminished agencies. Empowerment experiences varied across ethnicities. The NSAs improved women’s mobility and group membership, yet carried different implications across ethnicities, potentially due to the interaction between the intervention, initial contextual conditions and the COVID-19 pandemic. Nevertheless, NSAs alone cannot achieve structural empowerment. Meaningful and lasting empowerment requires integrated approaches that address interconnected social, political, and cultural factors.

Year published

2026

Authors

Nguyen Thi, Lan Thuy; van den Berg, Marrit; Stomph, TjeerdJan; Nabuuma, Deborah; Kramer, Berber

Citation

Nguyen Thi, L.T.; van den Berg, M.; Stomph, T.; Nabuuma, D.; Kramer, B. (2025) Empowerment unveiled: Gender dynamics and the impact of nutrition-sensitive agriculture interventions among ethnic minority groups in northern Vietnam. Journal of Rural Studies 122: 103948. ISSN: 0743-0167

Keywords

The Socialist Republic of Viet Nam; Asia; South-eastern Asia; Agriculture; Agricultura; Gender Equity; Equidad De Género; Igualdad Social; Families; Social Equality; Agencies; Relación Intrafamiliar

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jrurstud.2025.103948 Source record

Project

Market Intelligence

Record type

Journal Article

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Journal Article

Basis risk, social comparison, perceptions of fairness, and demand for insurance: A field experiment in Ethiopia

2026Kramer, Berber; Porter, Maria; Wassie, Solomon B.
Details

Basis risk, social comparison, perceptions of fairness, and demand for insurance: A field experiment in Ethiopia

Index insurance lowers agricultural risk but covers only covariate risks. Since farmers do not have complete insurance, they may develop mistrust of insurance when experiencing crop losses and not receiving payouts. Although recent innovations in remote sensing enable the provision of more complete insurance including coverage for idiosyncratic risks, such insurance introduces differences in payouts within social networks, which might be considered unfair, introduce jealousy, and depress insurance demand. We conduct a lab-in-the-field experiment with farmers in Ethiopia to examine whether providing complete insurance coverage affects perceived fairness and insurance demand. We also examine effects of informing farmers about neighbors’ payout experiences. We find that such social comparison increases perceived fairness of index insurance. Providing complete crop insurance increases perceived fairness of outcomes and willingness to pay for insurance, without introducing jealousy over neighbors receiving different payouts. These results are concentrated among men and those with little insurance knowledge.

Year published

2026

Authors

Kramer, Berber; Porter, Maria; Wassie, Solomon B.

Citation

Kramer, Berber; Porter, Maria; and Wassie, Solomon B. Basis risk, social comparison, perceptions of fairness, and demand for insurance: A field experiment in Ethiopia. Journal of Risk and Insurance. Article in press. FIrst published online July 31, 2025. https://doi.org/10.1111/jori.70015

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Agriculture; Farmers; Insurance; Remote Sensing

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1111/jori.70015 Source record

Project

Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security

Record type

Journal Article

Resource thumbnail

Working Paper

See it grow: A randomized evaluation of a digital innovation to improve crop insurance contract design

2025Kramer, Berber; Cecchi, Francesco; Levine, Madison; Waithaka, Lilian
Details

See it grow: A randomized evaluation of a digital innovation to improve crop insurance contract design

Insurance has great potential to increase productive investments, but agricultural insurance markets remain thin, in part because asymmetric information limits the viability of indemnity-based contracts. This paper evaluates a digital innovation—picture-based insurance (PBI)—that uses smartphone images of insured crops to indemnify crop damage. Through a cluster randomized trial in seven counties in Kenya, we compare subsidized PBI to subsidized weather index-based insurance (WBI) and to a control group offered unsubsidized WBI. We find that moving from index-based to indemnity-based insurance substantially increases take-up, particularly among women and farmers in drought-prone areas, indicating that innovations in contract design can broaden coverage in inclusive ways. Insurance coverage significantly increases fertilizer use in both treatments, confirming that uninsured risk constrains agricultural investment. However, despite higher take-up, PBI increases total fertilizer use as much as WBI. Using a Heckman selection model to correct for endogenous adoption, we show that this is not only due to incentive effects but also to multidimensional selection: PBI attracts farmers who, in the absence of insurance, would have invested less in fertilizer. After adjusting for this compositional change, differences in fertilizer use per farmer enrolled in WBI and PBI are not statistically significant. We conclude that higher take-up rates of digital indemnity-based insurance may not automatically translate into proportionally larger farm investments, but since increased coverage is concentrated among the relatively more vulnerable, it may contribute to complementary objectives such as inclusivity, equity, and resilience. Contract design and targeting, therefore, remain central to effective insurance product development.

Year published

2025

Authors

Kramer, Berber; Cecchi, Francesco; Levine, Madison; Waithaka, Lilian

Citation

Kramer, Berber; Cecchi, Francesco; Levine, Madison; and Waithaka, Lilian. 2025. See it grow: A randomized evaluation of a digital innovation to improve crop insurance contract design. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2396. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/179846

Country/Region

Kenya

Keywords

Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Eastern Africa; Digital Innovation; Crop Insurance; Agricultural Insurance; Insurance; Technology Adoption; Risk; Information

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

Events

Agricultural Insurance: Innovations, Policies, and Pathways to Scale
IFPRI Policy Seminar

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April 16, 2026, 11:00 – 12:30 pm

Agricultural Insurance: Innovations, Policies, and Pathways to Scale

Also streaming on Please type your questions into the chat box with name, affiliation, and country. The event video, presenter slides, and podcast will be available in the days following the event. Farm households face numerous risks that can discourage investments and trap them in poverty. Insurance should be a useful tool to reduce these […]

2025 Agricultural & Applied Economics Association (AAEA) Annual Meeting
IFPRI at External Event

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July 27 to 29, 2025

2025 Agricultural & Applied Economics Association (AAEA) Annual Meeting

IFPRI is participating in the 2025 Agricultural & Applied Economics Association (AAEA) Annual Meeting on July 27– July 29, 2025. The Agricultural & Applied Economics Association (AAEA) is a not-for-profit association serving the professional interests of members working in agricultural and broadly related fields of applied economics. AAEA members are primarily employed by academic departments […]

IFPRI @ CGIAR Science Week
IFPRI at External Event

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April 7 to 12, 2025

IFPRI @ CGIAR Science Week

When humanity has faced its greatest challenges, science and innovation have provided solutions. Today, major and connected global challenges threaten the sustainability of food, land, and water systems, with the most vulnerable people and communities at greatest risk. Recognizing the urgency of these challenges, CGIAR and the Kenyan Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization (KALRO) are […]

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News

March 13, 2026 | Press Release

IFPRI–Dvara E‑Registry climate-smart agriculture lending innovation selected for global climate finance incubation

IFPRI and Dvara E‑Registry’s Insurance‑Backed Loans for Climate‑Smart Agriculture initiative has been selected by the Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance as one of eight solutions entering its 2026 incubation cycle.

November 11, 2025 | In the News

Smartphones, women’s rights and coupons: new trends that can boost insurance for African farmers (The Conversation)

IFPRI’s Berber Kramer and Ruth Hill discuss how new, innovative forms of insurance could help insure farmers against weather shocks, and how South Africa’s G20 presidency can support these initiatives.

July 16, 2019 | In the News

Making crop insurance work for Indian farmers

Live Mint published an overview article on crop insurance. The article highlighted an IFPRI study that demonstrates how to capitalize on the availability of low-cost internet and the rising use of smartphones. The novel picture-based insurance (PBI) product welds technology with weather index-based insurance (WBI).

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Research

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Awards

  • TW Schultz Award, 2018, International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE) 30th Conference of Agricultural Economists