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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.

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.

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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

Ruth Hill

Director, Markets, Trade, and Institutions

Bio

Ruth Hill is the Director of the Markets, Trade, and Institutions Unit in the Food and Nutrition Policy Department. She was previously a Lead Economist in the Poverty and Equity Global Practice at the World Bank, where she spent a decade leading work on the distributional impacts of climate change, fiscal policy, markets, and institutions. She also led the development of the World Bank’s Rural Income Diagnostics and conducted Poverty Assessments and Systematic Country Diagnostics in East Africa and South Asia. From 2019 to 2021, she was on external service as the Chief Economist at the UK government’s Centre for Disaster Protection. Before joining the World Bank in 2013, Ruth was a Senior Research Fellow at IFPRI, conducting impact evaluations on insurance and market interventions. She has published in the Journal of Development Economics, World Bank Economic Review, Economic Development and Cultural Change, Experimental Economics, the American Journal of Agricultural Economics, and World Development. She holds a doctorate in economics from the University of Oxford.

Markets, Trade, and Institutions

Publications

Resource thumbnail

Journal Article

Strengthening producer organizations to increase market access of smallholder farmers in Uganda

2021Hill, Ruth Vargas; Maruyama, Eduardo; Olapade, Markus; Frölich, Markus
Details

Strengthening producer organizations to increase market access of smallholder farmers in Uganda

Smallholder agriculture in Sub-Saharan Africa is largely exposed to pervasive market failures, translating into missed opportunities and sub-optimal economic behavior. These failures can partly be traced to the importance of economies of scale in procuring inputs and marketing produce, where smallholders face disproportionately high transaction costs. Producer organizations could help to lessen transaction costs; however, only a few farmers in Uganda sell through them. We introduce two interventions aimed at promoting marketing via producer organizations: cash on delivery, and information on sales, and analyze their impacts in an RCT design: We find that providing cash on delivery increases the probability that a member chooses to sell through the group, and hence the volumes bulked by each group. This increase in volumes appears to have enabled groups to secure higher prices for their produce. No significant effect could be found for providing information on sales.

Year published

2021

Authors

Hill, Ruth Vargas; Maruyama, Eduardo; Olapade, Markus; Frölich, Markus

Citation

Hill, Ruth Vargas; Maruyama, Eduardo; Olapade, Markus; and Frölich, Markus. 2021. Strengthening producer organizations to increase market access of smallholder farmers in Uganda. Agricultural and Resource Economics Review 50(3): 436-464. https://doi.org/10.1017/age.2021.19

Country/Region

Uganda

Keywords

Sub-saharan Africa; Africa; Eastern Africa; Constraints; Agriculture; Smallholders; Market Access; Producer Organizations; Information; Cash Flow

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1017/age.2021.19 Source record

Record type

Journal Article

Resource thumbnail

Journal Article

Delayed premium payment, insurance adoption, and household investment in rural China

2020Liu, Yanyan; Chen, Kevin Z.; Hill, Ruth Vargas
Details

Delayed premium payment, insurance adoption, and household investment in rural China

We conduct a randomized controlled trial to examine the impacts of delayed premium payment on insurance uptake and the subsequent investment decisions among smallholder farmers in rural China. Our results show uptake among those with the delayed payment option is 10% higher than and three times as high as among those without the option. We also find a positive impact of delayed premium payment and insurance adoption on household investment in production, especially higher risk activities.

Year published

2020

Authors

Liu, Yanyan; Chen, Kevin Z.; Hill, Ruth Vargas

Citation

Liu, Yanyan; Chen, Kevin Z.; and Hill, Ruth Vargas. 2020. Delayed premium payment, insurance adoption, and household investment in rural China. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 102(4): 1177-1197. https://doi.org/10.1002/ajae.12038

Country/Region

China

Keywords

Asia; Eastern Asia; Insurance; Production; Livestock Production; Investment; Households; Randomized Controlled Trials; Capacity Development; Smallholders; Remuneration; Animal Production

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1002/ajae.12038 Source record

Record type

Journal Article

Resource thumbnail

Journal Article

Ex ante and ex post effects of hybrid index insurance in Bangladesh

2019Hill, Ruth Vargas; Kumar, Neha; Magnan, Nicholas; Makhija, Simrin; de Nicola, Francesca; Spielman, David J.; Ward, Patrick S.
Details

Ex ante and ex post effects of hybrid index insurance in Bangladesh

This study assesses both the demand for and effectiveness of an index insurance product designed to help smallholder farmers in Bangladesh manage crop production risk during the monsoon season. Villages were randomized into either an insurance treatment or a comparison group, and discounts and rebates were randomly allocated across treatment villages to encourage insurance take-up and to allow for the estimation of the price-elasticity of insurance demand. Among those offered insurance, we find demand to be fairly price elastic, with discounts significantly more successful in stimulating demand than rebates. Purchasing insurance yields both ex ante risk management effects as well as ex post income effects on agricultural production practices. The risk management effects lead to an expansion of cultivated area with concomitant increases in agricultural input expenditures during the monsoon season. The income effects lead to more intensive rice production during the subsequent dry season, with more intensive use of both irrigation and fertilizers, resulting in higher yields and higher total rice production.

Year published

2019

Authors

Hill, Ruth Vargas; Kumar, Neha; Magnan, Nicholas; Makhija, Simrin; de Nicola, Francesca; Spielman, David J.; Ward, Patrick S.

Citation

Hill, Ruth Vargas; Kumar, Neha; Magnan, Nicholas; Makhija, Simrin; de Nicola, Francesca; Spielman, David J.; and Ward, Patrick S. 2019. Ex ante and ex post effects of hybrid index insurance in Bangladesh. Journal of Development Economics. 136(January 2019): 1-17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2018.09.003

Country/Region

Bangladesh

Keywords

Southern Asia; Asia; Insurance; Risk Reduction; Uncertainty; Capacity Development; Agriculture; Crop Insurance; Smallholders

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jdeveco.2018.09.003 Source record

Project

Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security

Record type

Journal Article

Events

4th International Conference on Financing for Development
IFPRI at External Event

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June 30 to July 3, 2025

4th International Conference on Financing for Development

IFPRI is pleased to participate in the Fourth International Conference on Financing for Development (FFD4). This conference provides a unique opportunity to reform financing at all levels, including to support reform of the international financial architecture and addressing financing challenges preventing the urgently needed investment push for the SDGs. FFD4 Conference will be held in […]

Fertilizer, soil health, and economic shocks: Policy lessons learned from recent events
IFPRI Policy Seminar

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June 11, 2025, 9:30 – 11:00 am

Fertilizer, soil health, and economic shocks: Policy lessons learned from recent events

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. Join us for a discussion of key findings from a recent special issue of Food Policy exploring the complex interactions between fertilizer use, soil health management, […]

2025 Global Food Policy Report | Food Policy: Lessons and Priorities for a Changing World
IFPRI Policy Seminar

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May 28, 2025, 9:00 – 12:30 pm

2025 Global Food Policy Report | Food Policy: Lessons and Priorities for a Changing World

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. Over the last 50 years, the world’s food systems have evolved tremendously amid major economic, environmental, and social changes. Throughout this period, policy […]

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News

September 03, 2024 | Press Release

Ruth Hill joins IFPRI as the new Director of the Markets, Trade, and Institutions Unit

Ruth Hill joins IFPRI as the new Director of its Markets, Trade, and Institutions (MTI) Unit, starting September 3, 2024.