Year 3 Annual Workplan: Projet de Recherche sur les Politiques de Sécurité Alimentaire au Mali (PRePoSAM)

Policies matter because they affect agricultural performance in fundamentally important ways. In Mali, a wide range of laws, regulations, and programs affect land tenure, water infrastructure and access, plant and animal health, availability of new agricultural technologies, transport costs, electricity availability and pricing, labor markets, input prices, and trade. Together, these policy incentives shape the investment, production, and marketing decisions of farmers and agribusinesses. Decisions by key private sector actors drive agricultural growth trajectories. Sound policies become a critical pre-requisite for broad-based, sustainable agricultural productivity gains and improved food security for Malian citizens. The PRePoSAM project contributes to improved agricultural policies through four major sets of activities: collaborative research, policy outreach, focused short-term training, and capacity building. These efforts center on MSU faculty working with Malian scientists at several local institutions, including the Institut d'Economie Rurale (IER), the Institut Polytechnique Rural de Formation et de Recherche Appliquée (IPR/IFRA), the Cellule de Planification et des Statistiques du Secteur Développement Rural (CPS/SDR), and the Observatoire du Marché Agricole (OMA). Substantively, the PRePoSAM team proposes to concentrate policy outreach during the coming year on two priority policy topics: fertilizer subsidies and pesticide policy. The team believes that key stakeholders in government and in the private sector are aware of shortcomings in the implementation of these policies and are willing to entertain change. The ongoing research findings will shortly attain sufficient critical mass to help shape the policy reflections under way in these two areas. During 2017, PRePoSAM collaborators produced 9 research papers, 6 policy briefs, and supervised 5 IPR student theses, 1 MSU master's thesis, and 3 PhD candidates. The team made significant progress towards improving understanding of soil fertility and fertilizer response rates under various farming conditions, including the relationship of soil fertility with the gender differentials in productivity and fertilizer use. Overall, the collaborators produced two research reports, two policy briefs, and a journal publication on this topic, with another article currently under review and one planned for submission later this year. The research team investigated intra-household differences in farm productivity and fertilizer use efficiency, using the data set collected in the Sudan Savanna. In comparison with previous studies, the team found little evidence that intra-household allocation of fertilizer is inefficient. Gender and generational gaps in productivity persist but lessen as the team controlled for land quality. Findings suggest that women's fields may be less fertile, but differentials may also reflect distinctive objectives and modes of production. In 2017, MSU researchers assessed the impact of fertilizer subsidies on maize and sorghum productivity in southern Mali. The authors found that in the good rainfall years of 2014/15, Mali's fertilizer subsidy program contributed to increasing maize and sorghum yields by 10% and 13%, respectively. However, the authors caution that these results need to be expanded to other crops, zones, and rainfall conditions. This work led to PB51 and to a peer-reviewed publication in Development in Practice. The PRePoSAM team proposes to concentrate policy outreach during the coming year on two priority policy topics: fertilizer subsidies and pesticide policy. The team will focus on improving understanding of soil fertility and fertilizer response rates under various farming conditions, including the relationship of soil fertility with the gender differentials in productivity and fertilizer use. The team will also investigate intra-household differences in farm productivity and fertilizer use efficiency, using the data set collected in the Sudan Savanna. The PRePoSAM project aims to promote an improved agricultural policy environment in Mali. The project contributes to improved agricultural policies through four major sets of activities: collaborative research, policy outreach, focused short-term training, and capacity building. The team proposes to concentrate policy outreach during the coming year on two priority policy topics: fertilizer subsidies and pesticide policy. The team will focus on improving understanding of soil fertility and fertilizer response rates under various farming conditions, including the relationship of soil fertility with the gender differentials in productivity and fertilizer use.