Institution: International Service for National Agricultural Research (ISNAR)

E-mail: d.bigman@cgiar.org

Biosummary:

B.A. in economics and statistics and M.A. in economics and mathematics (cum laude) at the Hebrew University, Israel. Ph.D in economics and M.Sc. in environmental engineering at the Johns Hopkins University. From 1977 to 1979 – Research Officer at the International Monetary Fund. From 1979 through 1994 – Lecturer, Senior Lecturer and Professor at the Department of Agricultural Economics of the hebrew University. During these years, had sabbaticals at the World Bank (1984), Berkeley University (1988), and the International Monetary Fund (1992-3). From 1994 to 1998 – Senior Researcher at the Africa region of the World bank. Since January 1999 – Senior Researcher at ISNAR. Published 7 books and more than 70 articles.

Title: Targeting agricultural R&D for poverty reduction: general principles and an illustration for Sub-Saharan Africa. Co-author: Michael Loevinsohn

Theme: 1A

Abstract:

The impact of agricultural R&D has a clear geographical dimension depending upon the spatial distribution of the commodities or the factor inputs that are the subject of the research and upon the rate of adoption of the new technology in the different regions. Geographical attributes -- including the agro-climatic and environmental conditions, the distance to the urban centers or to the sea outlet and the quality of the access roads -- are also the key for determining the standard of living, the pace of economic development and the prevalence of poverty in countries, regions and communities that rely on agriculture as their main source of livelihood. The paper has two objectives:

• Make use of GIS techniques in order to incorporate data from a variety of sources on the agro-climatic, environmental, distance and other spatial attributes of the region, the district or even the community. Use these data, together with income and expenditure data from Household surveys, in order to estimate the distribution of poverty across these areas.
• Develop a methodology for incorporating these estimates within the framework of IMPACT ANALYSIS, that is being used for evaluating the impact of agricultural R&D on farmers’ income across agro-climatic areas, in order to determine priorities for agricultural R&D programs which take into account their impact on poverty.