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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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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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TOPIC

Risk and Insurance

Farming can be a risky endeavor. While farmers in developed countries have access to a range of financial instruments—including credit and insurance—to manage agricultural risks, many farmers in developing countries, and especially women and other marginalized groups, cannot fall back on these safety nets. For them, risk is one of the main barriers to expanding investments in agriculture.

IFPRI’s research aims to improve the availability, affordability, and quality of financial instruments designed to reduce the risk of agricultural investments, such as agricultural insurance, risk-contingent credit, or mobile banking systems that improve the functioning of informal insurance. This includes improving product design through use of digital technologies, bundling with risk-reducing agricultural technologies and practices and agro-advisories, and conducting rigorous impact evaluations of the cost-effectiveness of these innovations in enhancing resilience. A major focus of this research is on assessing how to make these financial instruments more gender responsive.

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This research, implemented together with partners, has led to the emergence of innovative products tailored to the local needs of both farmers and bankers and insurers, such as picture-based crop insurance and remote-sensing enabled risk-contingent credit.IFPRI’s research on risk and insurance is closely aligned with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), including SDG 1, SDG 2, and SDG 10, and the CGIAR Impact Areas on Poverty Reduction, Livelihoods, and Jobs and Gender Equality, Youth, and Social Inclusion.

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topics

Publications

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Working Paper

Impact of risk-contingent credit and traditional credit on smallholders’ agricultural investment and productivity: Experimental evidence from Kenya

2024Ndegwa, Michael K.; Shee, Apurba; Ward, Patrick S.; Liu, Yanyan; Turvey, Calum G.; You, Liangzhi
Details

Impact of risk-contingent credit and traditional credit on smallholders’ agricultural investment and productivity: Experimental evidence from Kenya

We use a multiyear, multi-arm randomized controlled trial implemented among 1,053 smallholders in Kenya to evaluate ex-ante investment and ex-post productivity and welfare benefits of two competing lending models: risk-contingent credit (RCC)—which embeds crop insurance with a loan product—and traditional credit (TC). We rely on local average treatment effects to demonstrate the effects of these alternative credit products on borrowers but report the intention-to-treat effects for their broader policy significance. Uptake of RCC increased treated households’ farm investments—specifically, adoption of chemical fertilizers—by up to 14 percent along the extensive margins and by more than 100 percent along the intensive margins, while TC’s effects were less in both magnitude and statistical significance. Neither type of credit product had a significant effect on the overall area cultivated under maize, hence enhancing agricultural intensification but not extensification. Ex-post, neither type of credit product had a strong direct effect on households’ productivity. We conclude that access to credit has potential to increase investment and productivity among smallholders, although improved productivity needs better measurement and extended intervention to be realized. To scale the potential effects of credit, derisking access to credit should be considered to expand access to credit.

Year published

2024

Authors

Ndegwa, Michael K.; Shee, Apurba; Ward, Patrick S.; Liu, Yanyan; Turvey, Calum G.; You, Liangzhi

Citation

Ndegwa, Michael K.; Shee, Apurba; Ward, Patrick S.; Liu, Yanyan; Turvey, Calum G.; and You, Liangzhi. 2024. Impact of risk-contingent credit and traditional credit on smallholders’ agricultural investment and productivity: Experimental evidence from Kenya. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2303. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute. https://hdl.handle.net/10568/163758

Country/Region

Kenya

Keywords

Africa; Eastern Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Credit; Productivity; Investment; Smallholders; Welfare; Risk

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Climate Resilience

Record type

Working Paper

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Journal Article

Using climate financing wisely to address multiple crises

2024Läderach, Peter; Desai, Bina; Pacillo, Grazia; Roy, Shalini; Kosec, Katrina; Ruckstuhl, Sandra; Loboguerrero, Ana Maria
Details

Using climate financing wisely to address multiple crises

A convergence of several risk drivers creates the compound crises we see across the globe today. At the same time, the global humanitarian community and national institutions in affected countries are increasingly resource constrained. In this context, existing financing mechanisms should be evaluated for their potential to create synergies between social protection, peace, and inclusion objectives on the one hand and climate resilience outcomes on the other. The existing international architecture of climate change mitigation and adaptation policy and financing holds, in principle, the potential to address not only its main purpose of climate action, but also to contribute to development outcomes and address multiple risk drivers. Examples of this exist, but for these mutual benefits to emerge, and for climate finance to contribute more significantly to crises prevention, the agendas must become more aligned. Aligning several factors may enable coherence: i) Timeframes, from short-term response to multi-year programming; ii) Planning and targeting, moving towards conflict-sensitive area-based approaches and universal access to services; iii) Institutional arrangements and partnerships, coordinated national planning and jointly implemented local action.

Year published

2024

Authors

Läderach, Peter; Desai, Bina; Pacillo, Grazia; Roy, Shalini; Kosec, Katrina; Ruckstuhl, Sandra; Loboguerrero, Ana Maria

Citation

Läderach, P.; Desai, B.; Pacillo, G.; Roy, S.; Kosec, K.; Ruckstuhl, S.; Loboguerrero, A.M. (2024) Using climate financing wisely to address multiple crises. PLOS Climate 3(2): e0000355. ISSN: 2767-3200

Keywords

Climate Change; Finance; Climate Services; National Planning; Risk Assessment; Stakeholders; Frameworks; Institutional Learning; Coordination

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open AccessCC-BY-4.0

Links

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pclm.0000355 Source record

Project

Climate Resilience

Record type

Journal Article

Article has an altmetric score of 27
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Conference Paper

Basis Risk, Social Comparison, Perceptions of Fairness and Demand for Insurance: A Field Experiment in Ethiopia

2024Kramer, Berber; Porter, Maria; Wassie Bizuayehu, Solomon
Details

Basis Risk, Social Comparison, Perceptions of Fairness and Demand for Insurance: A Field Experiment in Ethiopia

Index insurance is considered an important strategy to reduce agricultural risk and increase smallholder farmers’ investments. However, insured farmers may develop mistrust of insurance if they experience crop losses and do not receive a payout, for instance because index insurance covers only a subset of covariate risks. At the same time, insurance for idiosyncratic risks would introduce differences in payouts within social networks, which might be considered unfair, introduce jealousy, and further depress demand for insurance. We conduct lab-in-the-field experiments with farmers in Ethiopia to examine the effects of a novel insurance approach that ensures insurance payouts for farmers with crop losses due to idiosyncratic events. We also examine the effects of informing farmers about their neighbors’ experiences alongside their own. We find that such social comparison increases perceived fairness of weather index insurance. In addition, providing complete insurance coverage for crop losses increases farmers’ perceived fairness of outcomes and willingness to pay, without introducing jealousy over neighbors receiving different payouts. Finally, we find that the increase in willingness to pay for complete insurance is concentrated among men and risk averse respondents.

Year published

2024

Authors

Kramer, Berber; Porter, Maria; Wassie Bizuayehu, Solomon

Citation

Kramer, Berber; Porter, Maria; and Wassie Bizuayehu, Solomon. 2023. Basis risk, social comparison, perceptions of fairness and demand for insurance: A field experiment in Ethiopia. Paper presented at the 2024 AEA/ASSA Annual Meeting, January 5-7, 2024, San Antonia, TX. https://purl.umn.edu/339075

Country/Region

Ethiopia

Keywords

Africa; Sub-saharan Africa; Eastern Africa; Risk; Insurance; Demand; Risk Management; Crop Insurance

Language

English

Access/Licence

Open Access

Source

Source record

Project

Diversification in East and Southern Africa

Record type

Conference Paper

Blogs

How men and women cope with weather-related agricultural production risk: A case study of cereal and tomato farmers in Haryana, India
IFPRI Blog
 | 
November 22, 2024

How men and women cope with weather-related agricultural production risk: A case study of cereal and tomato farmers in Haryana, India

By Samyuktha Kannan and Berber Kramer

Addressing gender differences to build resilience.

From risk to resilience: How strategic government partnerships can enhance access to insurance-linked credit for smallholders in Zambia
IFPRI Blog
 | 
November 07, 2024

From risk to resilience: How strategic government partnerships can enhance access to insurance-linked credit for smallholders in Zambia

By Martina Mascarenhas, Anne G. Timu, and Liangzhi You

The power of bundled solutions

Harnessing telecommunications network data for rainfall monitoring in developing countries
IFPRI Blog
 | 
February 24, 2020

Harnessing telecommunications network data for rainfall monitoring in developing countries

By Noam David, Oliver Gao, and Yanyan Liu

Filling a key information gap can make it easier to provide insurance to smallholders.

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Events

Innovations in agricultural insurance: Lessons learnt about managing smallholder farmer risks
IFPRI Program/Country Event

 | 

October 26, 2021, 11:00 – 12:00 pm

Innovations in agricultural insurance: Lessons learnt about managing smallholder farmer risks

Virtual Event: OCT 26, 2021 – 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM EDT. This webinar will present an evaluation of how action oriented research on tools for improving smallholder farmers have spawned further interest by different sector actors. 

Challenges and Opportunities for Latin American Agriculture
IFPRI at External Event

 | 

October 10 to 11, 2019

Challenges and Opportunities for Latin American Agriculture

IFPRI is participating in an international seminar on Challenges and Opportunities for Agriculture in Latin America, which will be held on October 10th and 11th, 2019 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. This international seminar will discuss the difficulties and prospects for agriculture in Latin America, a region that currently accounts for a quarter of total exports […]

The 5th Global Science Conference on Climate-Smart Agriculture 2019
IFPRI at External Event

 | 

October 8 to 10, 2019

The 5th Global Science Conference on Climate-Smart Agriculture 2019

IFPRI is participating in the 5th Global Science Conference on Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA), which will be held from October 8-10, 2019. Since the term climate-smart agriculture (CSA) was coined in 2010, the biannual global science conferences on CSA have emerged as the key global forum for scientific exchange to underpin CSA implementation.  The conference will […]

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News

February 02, 2023 | In the News

A digital push for agri but with less funds (Live Mint) 

A new digital infrastructure for farmers and an accelerator fund to encourage startups were among the major announcements in India’s latest budget, writes Live Mint in a story. The digital public infrastructure for agriculture will be built as an open-source public good that will enable farmer-centric solutions. The proposed digital agri-stack will aid farmers with […]

November 20, 2022 | In the News

Policy paper on agricultural insurance on works (Kenya News Agency) 

Kenya News Agency reports on the recent workshop on innovation in Agricultural Risk Management in Kenya, quoting Peter Owoko, the Director of Agriculture Policy Research and Regulations at the Ministry of Agriculture, who underscored the need for innovations in product development and distribution. In the last three years, several Kenyan and international organizations have been […]

June 01, 2022 | In the News

Budget watchdog, all federal — Episode 22: The Farm Bill with special guest Dr. Joe Glauber (Taxpayer’s for Commonsense) 

Taxpayer’s for Commonsense produced a podcast with senior research fellow Joseph Glauber. Glauber talked about various parts of the Farm Bill, social protection, and crop insurance. Some of his comments included, “The farm bills have been around for a long, long time. We go back to the early 1930s with all the New Deal legislation […]

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Our experts

David Spielman

David Spielman

Director, Innovation Policy and Scaling (IPS), Innovation
Policy and Scaling

Francisco Ceballos

Francisco Ceballos

Research Fellow, Markets,
Trade, and Institutions, Latin America and the Caribbean

Berber Kramer

Berber Kramer

Senior Research Fellow, Markets,
Trade, and Institutions

Anne G. Timu

Anne G. Timu

Associate Research Fellow, Foresight
and Policy Modeling

Liangzhi You

Liangzhi You

Senior Research Fellow, Foresight
and Policy Modeling