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Evolution and impacts of groundnut research and development in Malawi: An ex-post analysis

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Relation http://oar.icrisat.org/9283/
http://dx.doi.org/10.5897/AJAR2015.10167
10.5897/AJAR2015.10167
 
Title Evolution and impacts of groundnut research and development in Malawi: An ex-post analysis
 
Creator Tsusaka, T W
Msere, H W
Siambi, M
Mazvimavi, K
Okori, P
 
Subject Groundnut
 
Description Groundnut is currently the second income earner for smallholder farmers in Malawi, and an inexpensive
source of balanced protein. Owing to the continued crop improvement research and extension efforts,
production has risen by more than 15 times in the past two decades. Despite the dramatic growth, no
impact assessment has ever been conducted to date. This study aims to assess the economic impacts
of investments in groundnut research and development (R&D) in Malawi, covering the period 1982-2013.
Relevant information on investments and changes in outputs was gathered from a range of sources
including a smallholder household survey and secondary data provided by international and national
agricultural research programmes, and non-governmental organisations. The economic surplus
approach (the PEDPIS method and the Akino-Hayami method) was employed to compute the internal
rate of return (IRR) and the net present value (NPV). It was found that the IRR for the base scenario was
22%, higher than the opportunity cost of capital being 11%, indicating that the investment was
competitive as well as profitable. The NPV ranged from USD 204 million to USD 206 million, depending
on the calculation method. With sensitivity analyses, the NPV remained positive and the IRR stayed
above 11% in all scenarios except when the research and extension costs were raised by 50%. The IRR
compares well among impacts of crop research in sub-Saharan Africa. The result implies the need for
policy formulation towards long term commitment to developing improved seeds, reinforcement of the
seed systems, and enhancement of extension services to smallholders.
 
Publisher Academic Journals
 
Date 2016-01
 
Type Article
PeerReviewed
 
Format application/pdf
 
Language en
 
Rights —
 
Identifier http://oar.icrisat.org/9283/1/D157AFD56738.pdf
Tsusaka, T W and Msere, H W and Siambi, M and Mazvimavi, K and Okori, P (2016) Evolution and impacts of groundnut research and development in Malawi: An ex-post analysis. African Journal of Agricultural Research, 11 (3). pp. 139-158. ISSN 1991-637X