IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/pra/mprapa/84125.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Effects if Fertilizer Subsidies in Zambia: A Literature Review

Author

Listed:
  • Zinnbauer, Maximilian
  • Mockshell, Jonathan
  • Zeller, Manfred

Abstract

Fertilizer subsidies are again part of the policy agenda in Sub-Saharan Africa since the 1990s. Governments spend large shares of their agricultural budgets and their means to fight poverty on such programmes, but economists formulated doubts whether these investments will pay off. This paper reviews the existing literature on effects of fertilizer subsidies in Zambia, presents an analytical framework on input subsidies and compares the empirical evidence to the goals of the fertilizer subsidy. Major findings are that the subsidy programme has failed to substantially reduce poverty and to improve food security via decreased maize prices. Farm incomes have increased moderately, but the overall costs exceed the benefits by far. Reasons for this are identified as poor targeting, diversion and leakage. The paper concludes with a review of policy recommendations, mainly focused on improved targeting and diversification away from pure fertilizer subsidies.

Suggested Citation

  • Zinnbauer, Maximilian & Mockshell, Jonathan & Zeller, Manfred, 2018. "Effects if Fertilizer Subsidies in Zambia: A Literature Review," MPRA Paper 84125, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    • Handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:84125
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/84125/1/MPRA_paper_84125.pdf
    File Function: original version
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/84320/10/MPRA_paper_84320.pdf
    File Function: revised version
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/84371/10/MPRA_paper_84320.pdf
    File Function: revised version
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Foster, James & Greer, Joel & Thorbecke, Erik, 1984. "A Class of Decomposable Poverty Measures," Econometrica, Econometric Society, vol. 52(3), pages 761-766, May.
    2. Ricker-Gilbert, Jacob & Jayne, Thomas S., 2011. "What are the Enduring Effects of Fertilizer Subsidy Programs on Recipient Farm Households? Evidence from Malawi," Staff Paper Series 109593, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    3. Zhiying Xu & Zhengfei Guan & T.S. Jayne & Roy Black, 2009. "Factors influencing the profitability of fertilizer use on maize in Zambia," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 40(4), pages 437-446, July.
    4. T.S. Jayne & David Mather & Nicole Mason & Jacob Ricker-Gilbert, 2013. "How do fertilizer subsidy programs affect total fertilizer use in sub-Saharan Africa? Crowding out, diversion, and benefit/cost assessments," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 44(6), pages 687-703, November.
    5. Nicole M. Mason & Melinda Smale, 2013. "Impacts of subsidized hybrid seed on indicators of economic well-being among smallholder maize growers in Zambia," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 44(6), pages 659-670, November.
    6. Mason, Nicole & Tembo, Solomon, 2015. "Do input Subsidies Reduce Poverty among Smallholder Farm Households? Panel Survey Evidence from Zambia," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 212233, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    7. Ricker-Gilbert, Jacob & Mason, Nicole M. & Darko, Francis & Jayne, Thomas S. & Tembo, Solomon, 2013. "What are the Effects of Input Subsidies on Maize Prices? Evidence from Malawi and Zambia," Food Security Collaborative Working Papers 154938, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    8. Crawford, Eric & Kelly, Valerie & Jayne, T. S. & Howard, Julie, 2003. "Input use and market development in Sub-Saharan Africa: an overview," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 28(4), pages 277-292, August.
    9. Gerson, Kampungu k. & Han, Feng, 2013. "A Review of Different Types of Subsidies and How They Work in Theory," Asian Agricultural Research, USA-China Science and Culture Media Corporation, vol. 5(11), pages 1-4, November.
    10. Minde, Isaac J. & Jayne, Thomas S. & Crawford, Eric W. & Ariga, Joshua & Jones, Govereh, 2008. "Promoting Fertilizer Use in Africa: Current Issues and Empirical Evidence from Malawi, Zambia, and Kenya," Food Security International Development Policy Syntheses 54509, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    11. Mason, Nicole M. & Tembo, Solomon T., 2014. "Do input subsidies reduce poverty among smallholder farm households? Evidence from Zambia," 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota 170617, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    12. Nicole M. Mason & Thomas S. Jayne, 2014. "Fertiliser subsidies and smallholder commercial fertiliser purchases: crowding out, leakage, and policy implications for Zambia," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 65(2), pages 527-528, June.
    13. Ricker-Gilbert, Jacob E. & Mason, Nicole M. & Jayne, Thomas S. & Darko, Francis Addeah & Tembo, Solomon, 2013. "What are the effects of input subsidy programs on equilibrium maize prices? Evidence from Malawi and Zambia," 2013 Annual Meeting, August 4-6, 2013, Washington, D.C. 149259, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    14. Jacob Ricker-Gilbert & Nicole M. Mason & Francis A. Darko & Solomon T. Tembo, 2013. "What are the effects of input subsidy programs on maize prices? Evidence from Malawi and Zambia," Agricultural Economics, International Association of Agricultural Economists, vol. 44(6), pages 671-686, November.
    15. Jayne, Thomas S. & Mason, Nicole M. & Burke, William J. & Shipekesa, Arthur M. & Chapoto, Antony & Kabaghe, Chance, 2011. "Mountains of Maize, Persistent Poverty," Food Security Collaborative Policy Briefs 118476, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    16. Minde, I., 2008. "Promoting fertilizer use in Africa: current issues and empirical evidence from Malawi, Zambia and Kenya," IWMI Working Papers H042064, International Water Management Institute.
    17. Levine, N. Kendra & Mason, Nicole M. & Morgan, Stephen N., 2016. "Do input subsidies crowd in or crowd out other soil fertility management practices? Panel survey evidence from Zambia," 2016 Fifth International Conference, September 23-26, 2016, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia 246393, African Association of Agricultural Economists (AAAE).
    18. Kelly, Valerie A. & Crawford, Eric W. & Ricker-Gilbert, Jacob, 2011. "The New Generation of African Fertilizer Subsidies: Panacea or Pandora’s Box?," Food Security International Development Policy Syntheses 107460, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    19. Levine, Kendra & Mason, Nicole M., 2014. "Do input subsidies crowd in or crowd out other soil fertility management practices? Evidence from Zambia," 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota 170689, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    20. Mason, Nicole M. & Burke, William J. & Shipekesa, Arthur M. & Jayne, Thomas S., 2011. "The 2011 Surplus in Smallholder Maize Production in Zambia: Drivers, Beneficiaries, & Implications for Agricultural & Poverty Reduction Policies," Food Security Collaborative Working Papers 118477, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Joseph I. Uduji & Elda N. Okolo-Obasi & Simplice A. Asongu, 2019. "Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GESS) and Farmers’ Fertilizer Use in Rural Nigeria," Research Africa Network Working Papers 19/055, Research Africa Network (RAN).
    2. Joseph I. Uduji & Elda N. Okolo‐Obasi & Simplice A. Asongu, 2019. "Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GESS) and Farmers’ Fertilizer Use in Rural Nigeria," African Development Review, African Development Bank, vol. 31(3), pages 348-363, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Mason, Nicole M. & Tembo, Solomon T., 2014. "Do input subsidies reduce poverty among smallholder farm households? Evidence from Zambia," 2014 Annual Meeting, July 27-29, 2014, Minneapolis, Minnesota 170617, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association.
    2. Mason, Nicole M. & Tembo, Solomon T., 2015. "Do Input Subsidy Programs Raise Incomes and Reduce Poverty among Smallholder Farm Households? Evidence from Zambia," Food Security Collaborative Working Papers 198702, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    3. Jayne, Thomas S. & Mason, Nicole M. & Burke, William J. & Ariga, Joshua, 2018. "Review: Taking stock of Africa’s second-generation agricultural input subsidy programs," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 75(C), pages 1-14.
    4. Nicole M. Mason & Ayala Wineman & Lilian Kirimi & David Mather, 2017. "The Effects of Kenya's ‘Smarter’ Input Subsidy Programme on Smallholder Behaviour and Incomes: Do Different Quasi-experimental Approaches Lead to the Same Conclusions?," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 68(1), pages 45-69, February.
    5. Mason, Nicole & Tembo, Solomon, 2015. "Do input Subsidies Reduce Poverty among Smallholder Farm Households? Panel Survey Evidence from Zambia," 2015 Conference, August 9-14, 2015, Milan, Italy 212233, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    6. Nicole M. Mason & Ayala Wineman & Solomon T. Tembo, 2020. "Reducing poverty by ‘ignoring the experts’? Evidence on input subsidies in Zambia," Food Security: The Science, Sociology and Economics of Food Production and Access to Food, Springer;The International Society for Plant Pathology, vol. 12(5), pages 1157-1172, October.
    7. Houssou, Nazaire & Andam, Kwaw S. & Collins, Asante-Addo, 2017. "Can better targeting improve the effectiveness of Ghana's Fertilizer Subsidy Program? Lessons from Ghana and other countries in Africa south of the Sahara," IFPRI discussion papers 1605, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
    8. Harou, Aurélie P., 2018. "Unraveling the effect of targeted input subsidies on dietary diversity in household consumption and child nutrition: The case of Malawi," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 106(C), pages 124-135.
    9. Holden, Stein T., 2018. "The Economics of Fertilizer Subsidies," CLTS Working Papers 9/18, Norwegian University of Life Sciences, Centre for Land Tenure Studies, revised 16 Oct 2019.
    10. Nicole M. Mason & Thomas S. Jayne & Nicolas van de Walle, 2017. "The Political Economy of Fertilizer Subsidy Programs in Africa: Evidence from Zambia," American Journal of Agricultural Economics, Agricultural and Applied Economics Association, vol. 99(3), pages 705-731.
    11. Fujimoto, Takefumi & Suzuki, Aya, 2021. "Do Fertilizer and Seed Subsidies Strengthen Farmers' Market Participation? the Impact of Tanzania NAIVS on Farmers' Purchase of Agricultural Inputs and Their Maize-Selling Activities," 2021 Conference, August 17-31, 2021, Virtual 315044, International Association of Agricultural Economists.
    12. Mason, Nicole M. & Wineman, Ayala & Kirimi, Lilian & Mather, David, 2016. "The Effects of Kenya’s ‘Smarter’ Input Subsidy Program on Smallholder Behavior and Incomes: Do Different Quasi-Experimental Approaches Lead to the Same Conclusions?," Food Security Collaborative Working Papers 232090, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    13. Sinafikeh Asrat Gemessa, 2022. "An alternative approach to measuring the welfare implications of input subsidies: Evidence from Malawi," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 73(1), pages 112-138, February.
    14. Mason, Nicole M. & Jayne, T.S. & Mofya-Mukuka, Rhoda, 2013. "A Review of Zambia’s Agricultural Input Subsidy Programs: Targeting, Impacts, and the Way Forward," Food Security Collaborative Working Papers 162438, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics.
    15. Wossen, Tesfamicheal & Abdoulaye, Tahirou & Alene, Arega & Feleke, Shiferaw & Ricker-Gilbert, Jacob & Manyong, Victor & Awotide, Bola Amoke, 2017. "Productivity and Welfare Effects of Nigeria's e-Voucher-Based Input Subsidy Program," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 97(C), pages 251-265.
    16. Larson,Donald F. & Muraoka,Rie & Otsuka,Keijiro, 2016. "On the central role of small farms in African rural development strategies," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7710, The World Bank.
    17. Jayne, T.S. & Mason, Nicole M. & Burke, William J. & Ariga, Joshua, 2016. "Agricultural Input Subsidy Programs In Africa: An Assessment Of Recent Evidence," Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security Policy Research Papers 259509, Michigan State University, Department of Agricultural, Food, and Resource Economics, Feed the Future Innovation Lab for Food Security (FSP).
    18. Sibande, Lonester & Bailey, Alastair & Davidova, Sophia, 2017. "The impact of farm input subsidies on maize marketing in Malawi," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 69(C), pages 190-206.
    19. Ricome, Aymeric & Barreiro-Hurle, Jesus & Sadibou Fall, Cheickh, 2024. "Government fertilizer subsidies, input use, and income: The case of Senegal," Food Policy, Elsevier, vol. 124(C).
    20. Justice A. Tambo & Lenis Saweda O. Liverpool‐Tasie, 2024. "Are farm input subsidies a disincentive for integrated pest management adoption? Evidence from Zambia," Journal of Agricultural Economics, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 75(2), pages 740-763, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    fertilisier subsidies; input subsidies; Zambia; food security;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Q01 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - General - - - Sustainable Development
    • Q12 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Micro Analysis of Farm Firms, Farm Households, and Farm Input Markets
    • Q13 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Agriculture - - - Agricultural Markets and Marketing; Cooperatives; Agribusiness

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:pra:mprapa:84125. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Joachim Winter (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/vfmunde.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.