Rural Markets, Natural Capital, and Dynamic Poverty Traps in East Africa

Principal Investigators: Christopher Barrett, Cornell University; Festus Murithi, KARI

Publications & Outputs   |   Project Proposal

Problem & Objective
A disturbingly large share of the world's population lives in poverty. They are trapped in a state of perpetual food insecurity and vulnerability. Moreover, those caught in a poverty trap are more likely to deplete natural resources in order to sustain their livelihood. This, in part, has resulted in the serious degradation of nearly two-fifths of the world's agricultural land. Understanding the link between poverty and resource degradation can lead to policies designed to ensure that poorer populations use the resources they rely on for their livelihood in sustainable and productive ways.

Research Context
This project focuses on poverty traps and their agroecological consequences and origins to address global constraints that trap poor households in cycles of poverty and vulnerability and that impede the coordinated and sustainable use of environmentally sensitive resources. This project employs a research design intended to capture household and location variation by examining market access and underlying agroecological conditions in Kenya and Madagascar.

Policy Implications
This project proposes to identify and document effective policies, technologies, and programs to combat dynamic poverty traps in rural east Africa. The research is aimed at generating practical solutions to pressing problems as well as at improving understanding of how missing markets and the underlying biology of African agroecologies lead to dynamic poverty traps and what policy instruments might most effectively enable vulnerable populations to climb out of those traps.

Publications and Outputs

BASIS Briefs   |   Other Publications   |    Trip Reports

• Displaced Distortions: Financial Market Failures and Seemingly Inefficient Resource Allocation, by Christopher B. Barrett. August 2005, 4 pages. (BASIS Brief 32)
  [Adobe Acrobat PDF 294K]
• Poverty Dynamics in Rural Kenya and Madagascar, by Christopher B. Barrett, Paswel Phiri Marenya, John McPeak, Bart Minten, Festus Murithi, Willis Oluoch-Kosura, Frank Place, Jean Claude Randrianarisoa, Jhon Rasambainarivo and Justine Wangila, October 2004, 4 pages. (BASIS Brief 24)
  [Adobe Acrobat PDF 241K]
• Education, Nonfarm Income, and Farm Investment in Land-scarce Western Kenya, by Paswel Phiri Marenya, Willis Oluoch-Kosura, Frank Place, and Christopher B. Barrett. February 2003, 4 pages. (Basis Brief no. 14)
  [Adobe Acrobat PDF 56K bytes]
• Poverty Traps and Resource Degradation, by Christopher B. Barrett, Lawrence E. Blume, John G. McPeak, Bart Minten, Festus Murithi, Bernard N. Okumu, Alice Pell, Frank Place, Jean Claude Randrianarisoa, and Jhon Rasambainarivo. January 2002, 4 pages. (Basis Brief no. 6)
  [Adobe Acrobat PDF 242K bytes]
• Le piège de la pauvreté et la dégradation des ressources, par Christopher B. Barrett, Lawrence E. Blume, John G. McPeak, Bart Minten, Festus Murithi, Bernard N. Okumu, Alice Pell, Frank Place Jean Claude Randrianarisoa, et Jhon Rasambainarivo. Octobre 2002, 4 pages (Basis Brief no. 6-F)
  [Adobe Acrobat PDF 196K bytes]

• Poverty Traps and Safety Nets, by Christopher Barrett and John McPeak. December 2003.
• Dynamic Poverty Traps and Rural Livelihoods, by Christopher B. Barrett and Brent M. Swallow. December 2003.
• Rural Poverty Dynamics, by Christopher B. Barrett. September 2003.
• Fractal Poverty Traps, by Christopher Barrett and Brent M. Swallow. September 2003.
• Smallholder Identities and Social Networks: The Challenge of Improve Productivity and Welfare, by Christopher B. Barrett. July 2003.
• Educational Investments in a Spatially Varied Economy, by Andrew Mude, Christopher Barrett, John McPeak and Cheryl Doss. July 2003.
• An Asset Risk Theory of Share Tenancy, by Marc F. Bellemare and Christopher B. Barrett. June 2003.
• The Complex Dynamics of Smallholder Technology Adoption: The Case of SRI in Madagascar, by Christine M. Moser and Christopher B. Barret. June 2003.
• Better Technology, Better Plots, or Better Farmers? Identifying Changes in Productivity Among Malagasy Rice Farmers, by Christopher B. Barrett, Christine M. Moser, Joeli Barison and Oloro V. McHugh. June 2003.
• Technology and Policy Impacts on Performance, Nutrient Flows and Soil Erosion at Watershed Level: The Case of the Ginchi in Ethiopia, by B.N. Okumu, N. Russell, M.A. Jabbar, D. Colman, M.A. Mohammed Saleem and J. Pender. May 2003.
• Chronic Poverty in Rural Western Kenya: Its Identification and implications for agricultural development, by Frank Place, Paul Behinck, and Mary Omosa, April 2003.
• The Impact of High Yielding Varieties of Wheat on Economic Performance, Nutrient FLows and Soil Erosion in the Ethiopian Highlands: The Case of the Ginchi Watershed, by Ben Okumu. December 2002.
• Social Identity and Manupulative Househodl Transfers Among East African Pastoralists, by Marieke Huysentruyt, Christopher B. Barrett and John G. McPeak. October 2002.

• Prospects of integrated soil fertility management using organic and inorganic inputs: evidence from smallholder African agriculture systems, by Frank Place, Christopher B. Barrett, H. Ade Freeman, Joshua J. Ramisch, and Bernard Vanlauwe. Forthcoming in Food Policy.