May 13, 2013 by Phil Pardey - 0 comments

Economics of Science and Technology Policy: Course Announcement

L-R: Liebenberg, Beddow, UP Dept. Head Johann Kirsten, and Pardey

The Collaborative Masters of Agricultural and Applied Economics (CMAAE) program brings together students from 7 African universities. As part of this program, the University of Minnesota, Department of Applied Economics is offering a course on the economics of science and technology policy joint with the Department of Agricultural Economics, Extension and Rural Development at the University of Pretoria, South Africa.

Tags: Productivity Measures, Spillovers, Production

Apr 24, 2013 by Beliyou Haile - 0 comments

Africa RISING in the Field: Malawi and Zambia

If there is one consensus in agriculture development it is the idea that crops will need to produce more from existing agricultural land in the coming decades. In other words, agriculture will need to be intensified.

Apr 22, 2013 by Cindy Cox - 0 comments

D8 Open Data for Agriculture: G8 Side Event at IFPRI

Open Data is a hot topic in agricultural development–so hot that G8 leaders are holding an International Conference on Open Data for Agriculture on April 29 and 30. The following day, May 1, IFPRI will share its own wealth of Open Data at "D8".

Tags: Agricultural Development, Agricultural Statistics, Targeting/Priority Setting, Research Policy

Apr 12, 2013 by Jason Beddow - 0 comments

Photo credit: CIMMYT

Right-sizing Stem Rust Research

Stem rust is a potentially devastating fungal disease that can kill wheat plants and small grain cereals, but more typically reduces foliage, root growth, and grain yields. The pathogen multiplies rapidly, and its spores can be dispersed by wind over thousands of kilometers.

Tags: Agricultural Productivity, Agricultural Research, Agricultural Research Investment, Agroecology, Cereals, Crop Diseases, Crop Production, Crop Yields, Pest Resistance, Stem Rust, UG99, Weather and Climate, Wheat Production, Yield Analysis, Pests and Diseases, Research Policy, Farming, Productivity, Policy

Mar 7, 2013 by Jagger Harvey - 0 comments

Photo credit: James Karanja, KARI

Aspergillus and Aflatoxin in African Maize Farms

May 28-June 1, 2012 (Dar es Salaam, Tanzania): As part of a multidisciplinary and multinational collaboration, a team of researchers representing several research institutions met to discuss the growing aflatoxin problem in sub-Saharan Africa.

Tags: Aflatoxins, Africa, Agricultural Pests, Kenya, Maize Production, Pest Management, Tanzania, Farming

Feb 13, 2013 by Cindy Cox - 0 comments

Brookings Institution Uses HarvestChoice’s Sub-National Poverty Data to Critique World Bank

Does the World Bank help the poorest of the poor? One of Washington’s oldest think tanks uses our sub-national poverty data to find out.

Tags: Economic Assistance, HarvestChoice, Mapping, Poverty, Targeting/Priority Setting, World Bank, Income and Poverty, Research Policy

Aug 9, 2012 by Ulrike Wood-Sichra - 0 comments

Tool Pool Report: The Crop Reporter’s Data

This post is part of a series on HarvestChoice data methodology. Today’s tool: the Crop Reporter.

Tags: Agricultural Prices, Agricultural Statistics, Crop Production, Crops, FAOSTAT, World

Aug 8, 2012 by Darren Kriticos - 0 comments

Akuku, Kriticos, Ochungo, Yonow, Kiplimo

Livestock Pests and Disease: Counting Their Economic Costs

Thousands of pests and diseases affect our major livestock species, with impacts on livestock production varying in space and time.

Tags: Africa, Agricultural Pests, Livestock, Livestock Diseases, Livestock Production, Models, Pest Distributions, Pest Management, Pests and Diseases

Aug 4, 2012 by Darren Kriticos - 0 comments

Chilo partellus larvae by J van den Berg

Two for the Price of One: Training Crop Pest Modelers While Building New Maps

To improve our collective capacity to model and measure the economic costs of pests, weeds and diseases of the major food crops of the world, CSIRO and HarvestChoice-UMN are delivering a series of ecological modeling workshops.

Tags: Agricultural Pests, Climate Change, CLIMEX, Crop Diseases, Models, Pest Distributions, Pest Modeling, Spatial Analysis, Weeds, Pests and Diseases

Jul 23, 2012 by Elizabeth Cross - 0 comments

Solving Goldilocks’s Quandary

It sounds a little like the popular fairytale. A researcher searches out datasets only to find them too small or too incomplete, too this or not enough that...the perfect fit of appropriate scale, detail and reliability eluding her (or his) desires. The researcher begins to sympathize and thinks to herself, maybe Goldilocks wasn’t so spoiled after all.

Tags: Africa, Agricultural Census, East & Central Africa, Farm Income, Livestock, Research Methodology, Spatial Analysis, Surveys, Uganda

Jul 16, 2012 by Susana Crespo - 0 comments

Lablab, Egyptian Bean or Pulse? Reclassifying Crops for SPAM Conformity

Picture it. You're working at HarvestChoice processing incoming crop statistics and you come across some figures for harvested area of dolichos in Kenya.

Tags: Crop Models, Crops, FAOSTAT, International Model for Policy Analysis of Agricultural Commodities (IMPACT), Models, Spatial Allocation, Spatial Production Allocation Model (SPAM), Production, Farming
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