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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.

Erick Boy

researcher spotlight

Erick Boy

Erick Boy is the Chief Nutritionist in the HarvestPlus section of the Innovation Policy and Scaling Unit. As head of nutrition for the HarvestPlus Program since 2008, he has led research that has generated scientific evidence on biofortified staple crops as efficacious and effective interventions to help address iron, vitamin A, and zinc deficiency in sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and South Asia.

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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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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

Markets, Trade, and Institutions

Nicholas Minot

Nonresident Senior Fellow

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Bio

Nicholas Minot is a Nonresident Senior Fellow in the Markets, Trade, and Institutions Unit. Since joining IFPRI in 1997, he has conducted research on the impact of trade policy on poverty, agricultural market reform in Africa, value chains, income diversification, spatial patterns in poverty, high-value agriculture, food price transmission, and public grain reserves. He is currently working on studies of vulnerability to higher world food prices, grain reserves, and trade policy in Zambia; agricultural transformation in Ethiopia; and the effect of rising rice prices on poverty in eight countries.

Before joining IFPRI, Nick taught at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, worked as a policy adviser in Zimbabwe, and served as a survey analyst in Rwanda. He also conducted research on agricultural marketing in Bolivia, Cameroon, and Peru; on small enterprises in Laos; and on household budgets in Paraguay. He received his PhD and MSc in agricultural economics from Michigan State University and his BA in international development from Brown University.

Languages: English, French, Spanish

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Publications

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Report

Cointegration analysis of sesame prices in Ethiopian commodity exchange warehouses

2024Tazeze, Aemro; Kassie, Girma T.; Abate, Gashaw T.; Worku, Yonas; Asnake, Woinishet; Minot, Nicholas
Details

Cointegration analysis of sesame prices in Ethiopian commodity exchange warehouses

This study examines the cointegration of sesame market prices in eight Ethiopian Commodity Exchange (ECX) warehouses and its implications for improving the functioning of sesame markets. We analyzed 489 weekly market price data points for each of the eight ECX warehouses, covering the period from end of 2014 to mid-2024. We estimate the Multivariate Vector Error Correction Model (ECM) to analyze short- and long-term spatial price adjustments across warehouses. Of the eight warehouses, six showed significant spatial integration. The VECM results showed effective price transmission and strong short- and longterm market relationships. Short-term dynamics particularly revealed complex interactions. These findings highlight the varying impacts of price fluctuations between warehouses and the need to understand these interactions for better strategic decision making, resource allocation, and pricing strategy refinement. Furthermore, accelerating the speed of price pass through is vital to improve the livelihoods of sesame farmers in Ethiopia.

Year published

2024

Authors

Tazeze, Aemro; Kassie, Girma T.; Abate, Gashaw T.; Worku, Yonas; Asnake, Woinishet; Minot, Nicholas

Citation

Tazeze, Aemro; Kassie, Girma T.; Abate, Gashaw T.; Worku, Yonas; Asnake, Woinishet; and Minot, Nicholas. 2024. Cointegration analysis of sesame prices in Ethiopian commodity exchange warehouses. CGIAR Initiative on Rethinking Food Markets Technical Report December 2024. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/169871

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Southern Africa; Market Prices; Commodity Markets; Farmers; Livelihoods; Sesame Seed; Food Security

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-NC-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

Rethinking Food Markets

Record type

Report

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Brief

Integrated coffee sales standard: IPSR Innovation Profile

2024Calero, A.; Minot, Nicholas; Wiegel, Jenny; Reyes, Byron; Ceballos, Federico; Colindres, Mirian
Details

Integrated coffee sales standard: IPSR Innovation Profile

Interlinking extension and coffee markets through a novel and transparent standard for coffee sales to improve vertical coordination, positively impacting farm productivity, coffee quality, and price transmission. An app is used to communicate the quality test results to farmers. Integrating technical assistance with coffee sales by quality and weight is new to Honduras’s competitive and fragmented coffee supply chains. The innovation bundle would be demanded, monitored by exporters, and implemented by intermediaries. The traceability scheme will also facilitate compliance with the (EU) regulations on zero deforestation and child-labor-free agricultural supply chains.

Year published

2024

Authors

Calero, A.; Minot, Nicholas; Wiegel, Jenny; Reyes, Byron; Ceballos, Federico; Colindres, Mirian

Citation

Calero, J., Minot, N., Wiegel, J., Reyes, B., Ceballos, F. and Colindres, M. 2024. Integrated coffee sales standard: IPSR Innovation Profile. First edition, June 2024. Montpellier: CGIAR System Organization. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/155329

Keywords

Coffee; Markets; Extension

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-NC-4.0

Source

Source record

Project

Rethinking Food Markets

Record type

Brief

Resource thumbnail

Working Paper

Assessing the impact of rice price stabilization policies in Bangladesh: Results from a stochastic spatial equilibrium model

2024Minot, Nicholas; Hossain, Shahadat; Kabir, Razin; Dorosh, Paul A.; Rashid, Shahidur
Details

Assessing the impact of rice price stabilization policies in Bangladesh: Results from a stochastic spatial equilibrium model

Rice plays a central role in the diet in Bangladesh and as a source of income for farmers. Although Bangladesh has largely liberalized international trade in rice, it maintains a public food distribution system to stablize prices, distributing an average of 2 million tons of rice per year at a cost of almost US$ 800 million per year. This study explores whether alternative policies could achieve similar stabilization at a lower cost. It uses a stochastic spatial-equilibrium model of rice markets to simulate monthly prices in eight regions of the country. Stochastic shocks are used to simulate fluctuations in regional production, replicating historical patterns at the region-season level, as well as inter-regional correlation in production shocks. It also simulates fluctuation in world rice prices, mimicking the mean, variance, and serial correlation of historical wholesale prices of rice in Delhi. Public procurement and distribution follow historic averages by month and region. Private storage is represented by a simplified version of rational expectations models, in which net storage is a non-linear function of availability in the previous month. One set of simulations tests alternative levels of distribution, finding that cutting distribution to 1 million tons would have minimal effects on the level of rice price stability. Another set of simulations tested different import tariff levels, including the baseline rate of 25%1. We find that lower tariffs result in both lower rice prices and less price instability, as world rice prices tend to be more stable than local prices. Simulating a buffer stock with different price bands shows that a narrow band can achieve high price stability but at a high fiscal cost. A 20 T/kg (USD 0.26/kg) price band generates similar price stabilization at a lower cost compared to current policy. However, it is difficult to set the “right” purchase and sale price, and many simulations result in exhausting reserves or reaching warehouse capacity. An adaptive buffer stock, in which the price is adjusted as the stock runs too low or too high, solves some of these problems. In general, the study finds that current procurement and distribution patterns do not match well with the regional and monthly patterns of surplus and deficit, possibly reflecting multiple and conflicting goals of the public food distribution system.

Year published

2024

Authors

Minot, Nicholas; Hossain, Shahadat; Kabir, Razin; Dorosh, Paul A.; Rashid, Shahidur

Citation

Minot, Nicholas; Hossain, Shahadat; Kabir, Razin; Dorosh, Paul A.; and Rashid, Shahidur. 2024. Assessing the impact of rice price stabilization policies in Bangladesh: Results from a stochastic spatial equilibrium model. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2252. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/141799

Country/Region

Bangladesh

Keywords

Asia; Southern Asia; Equilibrium; Price Stabilization; Stochastic Models; Rice; Tariffs

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Record type

Working Paper

Blogs

The importance of the agricultural transformation agency in Ethiopia
IFPRI Blog
 | 
May 24, 2024

The importance of the agricultural transformation agency in Ethiopia

By Tamsin Zandstra, Gashaw Tadesse Abate, Shahidur Rashid, and Nicholas Minot

IFPRI’s work in catalyzing innovation.

A new rapid assessment tool for food security risks posed by global price shocks
IFPRI Blog
 | 
December 07, 2023

A new rapid assessment tool for food security risks posed by global price shocks

By Nicholas Minot and Rob Vos

Introducing the Food Import Vulnerability Index (FIVI).

Events

ICTforAg 2024: Localizing impact
IFPRI at External Event

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May 28, 2024, 9:00 – 5:00 pm

ICTforAg 2024: Localizing impact

Event: May 28, 2024 – 9:00am to 5:00pm EDT. This event explores the localization of ICT, responsible AI in agriculture, the potential for AI to increase farm profitability, empowering citizen science, and harnessing digital solutions for sustainable and regenerative farming practices.

Tropentag 2023
IFPRI at External Event

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September 20 to 22, 2023

Tropentag 2023

Event: September 20, 2023 – 8:30 AM to September 22, 2023 – 6:10 PM CEST. IFPRI is participating and will be featured in this years’ annual interdisciplinary conference on research in tropical and subtropical agriculture, natural resource management and rural development (TROPENTAG).

31st International Conference of Agricultural Economists (ICAE)
IFPRI at External Event

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August 17 to 31, 2021

31st International Conference of Agricultural Economists (ICAE)

Virtual Event: AUG 17, 2021 – 08:00 AM to AUG 31, 2021 08:00 PM EDT. IFPRI is participating in the 31st Conference of Agriculture Economists organized by the International Association of Agricultural Economists (IAAE). 

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News

November 20, 2019 | In the News

Food loss and waste and key to achieving SDG 2

Financial Nigeria published an article on how Nigeria is dealing with food loss and waste. An IFPRI report was quoted about food loss in developing countries. “Food loss during production, trade, and processing tends to outweigh food waste occurring at the retail and consumer stages of the supply chain.”

October 09, 2018 | In the News

Great Expectations from Ethiopia’s Wheat Initiative (Thomson Reuters Foundation News)

Thomson Reuters Foundation News published an op-ed by several IFPRI researchers including Gashaw Tadesse Abate, Tanguy Bernard, Alan de Brauw, and Nicholas Minot, who examined the impact of Ethiopia’s Wheat Initiative on farmers’ yields to understand how programs can boost wheat yields in underperforming areas. 

July 05, 2018 | Press Release

Modern Technologies Increase Ethiopian Small Farmers’ Wheat Yields by 14 percent

Washington, D.C: Usage of certified seeds, improved farming techniques and a guaranteed market for the wheat crop led to an increase in smallholder Ethiopian farmers’ wheat yields by an average 14 percent, according to a new study by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).     “Overall, the 14 percent increase in yields is relatively substantial, since farmers were encouraged to simply use existing […]

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