PIM NEWS: MAY 2020

Issue #33, May 2020

As the world continues to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic, PIM is committed to supporting the research that will inform current and future recovery policies. In May, we issued a related call for research proposals to all CGIAR Centers. We received over 30 proposals and I am excited to share the following seven that have been selected:

• Gendered Labor Supply Responses to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Malawi - Kate Ambler (IFPRI)
• Phone Surveys to Assess the Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Food Security, Agriculture and Resilience in Bangladesh - Mehrab Bakhtiar (IFPRI)
• Assessing and Mitigating the Impacts of COVID-19 on fish supply chains in Nigeria - Ben Belton (WorldFish)
• Assessing Impact and Supporting Rapid Response in 21 African, Asian and Latin American Countries - Clemens Breisinger (IFPRI)
• “Dear brother farmer”: Gender, agriculture and digital extension during the COVID-19 pandemic in rural Tunisia with implications for the wider MENA region - Dina Najjar (ICARDA)
• Explore the Potential of Using Free Wi-Fi to Monitor and Assess Behavior Changes of Market Actors in Reaction to Particular Events - Louis Reymondin (Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT)
• Global Agricultural Value Chains, COVID-19 and Food Security: The Case of Cassava in Southeast Asia - Vanya Slavchevska (Alliance of Bioversity and CIAT)

Congratulations to the grantees and we look forward to seeing results of this very important research!

I am also excited to invite you to two events PIM is co-convening next week. Mark your calendars for the webinar looking at the impact of COVID-19 on Myanmar's economy (June 10, 10:00 PM EDT) and the IFPRI virtual event "Social Safety Nets and COVID-19: Can we protect food security and nutrition?" (June 11, 9:30 AM EDT)

Please read on and we hope you enjoy this newsletter!

Frank Place, PIM Director

See an excerpt with our featured recent publications below and read the full issue here>>

OFF THE PRESS

The role of crop production in the forest landscape restoration approach—Assessing the potential benefits of meeting the Bonn Challenge

Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems
De Pinto, Cenacchi, Robertson, Kwon, Thomas, Koo, Begeladze, and Kumar show how a full integration of crop production into restoration efforts could impact food production levels, food availability, forest carbon stocks, and greenhouse gas emissions. (Open Access)

Empowerment in agricultural value chains: Mixed methods evidence from the Philippines

Journal of Rural Studies
Malapit, Ragasa, Martinez, Rubin, Seymour, and Quisumbing measure empowerment using mixed methods in four Philippine value chains, finding that most women and men in all VCs are disempowered but gender gaps are small. (Open Access)

Trade policy and food security

In COVID-19 and trade policy: Why turning inward won’t work (eds. Richard E. Baldwin and Simon J. Evenett)
Martin and Glauber review the experience of quantitative restrictions during the price spikes of 2007–8 and argue that quantitative restrictions are a source of instability in both the exporting market and the world market. Policymakers should seek to avoid quantitative restrictions to the greatest extent possible. (Open Access)

Distortions to agricultural incentives: Evidence from Nigerian value chains

Review of Development Economics
Tokgoz, Allen, Majeed, Paris, Adeola, and Osabuohien analyze the import‐oriented palm oil value chain and the export‐oriented cacao value chain in Nigeria, estimating the price distortions from policies and their implications for production incentives at the regional level.

Managing climate risk through crop diversification in rural Kenya

Climatic Change
Ochieng J., Kirimi, Ochieng, D., Njagi, Mathenge, Gitau, and Ayieko employ panel data models and 31-year rainfall and temperature data to analyze the effects of climatic variability and change on small-scale farmers in Kenya, find widespread crop diversification used by small farms in warmer regions as a risk management strategy.

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