Improving food safety on the farm: Experimental evidence from Kenya on agricultural incentives and subsidies as public health investments
Evidence continues to mount that foodborne illness imposes a staggering health burden in developing countries. However, standard approaches used by developed country governments to ensure food safety are not appropriate in settings where regulatory enforcement capacity is weak and most firms are sma...
| Autores principales: | , |
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| Formato: | Artículo preliminar |
| Lenguaje: | Inglés |
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International Food Policy Research Institute
2018
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| Materias: | |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/147240 |
| _version_ | 1855520706302836736 |
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| author | Hoffmann, Vivian Jones, Kelly M. |
| author_browse | Hoffmann, Vivian Jones, Kelly M. |
| author_facet | Hoffmann, Vivian Jones, Kelly M. |
| author_sort | Hoffmann, Vivian |
| collection | Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (CGSpace) |
| description | Evidence continues to mount that foodborne illness imposes a staggering health burden in developing countries. However, standard approaches used by developed country governments to ensure food safety are not appropriate in settings where regulatory enforcement capacity is weak and most firms are small and informal. Thus, interventions to improve food safety in developing countries must take into account the constraints and incentives faced by producers in these countries. In this paper, we test the impact of two such interventions: subsidies for technologies that improve food safety and price premiums for safer produce. We examine the case of on-farm control of aflatoxin, a carcinogenic toxin linked to child stunting that is produced by a fungus commonly found on maize and groundnut. We show that compared to Kenyan farmers who produce maize only for their family’s own consumption, Kenyan farmers who produce maize for sale are less likely to undertake post-harvest practices that increase the unobservable quality of aflatoxin safety. Employing randomized discount vouchers, we find that willingness to pay for a new post-harvest technology to prevent aflatoxin contamination is significantly lower among market producers than subsistence farmers. However, we find that take-up of the technology among market producers increases when they have the opportunity to sell aflatoxin-safe maize at a premium a few months after harvest. Using take-up rates from the experiment, we model the impacts of public subsidies and market incentives for aflatoxin control. We find that subsidization of aflatoxin control technologies is a cost-effective strategy for reducing liver cancer and possibly also for reducing stunting in children. The most cost-effective technologies considered are widely adopted by both subsistence and market producers, implying little additional impact of a price premium on food safety. |
| format | Artículo preliminar |
| id | CGSpace147240 |
| institution | CGIAR Consortium |
| language | Inglés |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| publishDateRange | 2018 |
| publishDateSort | 2018 |
| publisher | International Food Policy Research Institute |
| publisherStr | International Food Policy Research Institute |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | CGSpace1472402025-11-06T05:46:36Z Improving food safety on the farm: Experimental evidence from Kenya on agricultural incentives and subsidies as public health investments Hoffmann, Vivian Jones, Kelly M. health cost benefit analysis agricultural policies capacity development postharvest technology food safety smallholders aflatoxins innovation adoption subsidies postharvest losses Evidence continues to mount that foodborne illness imposes a staggering health burden in developing countries. However, standard approaches used by developed country governments to ensure food safety are not appropriate in settings where regulatory enforcement capacity is weak and most firms are small and informal. Thus, interventions to improve food safety in developing countries must take into account the constraints and incentives faced by producers in these countries. In this paper, we test the impact of two such interventions: subsidies for technologies that improve food safety and price premiums for safer produce. We examine the case of on-farm control of aflatoxin, a carcinogenic toxin linked to child stunting that is produced by a fungus commonly found on maize and groundnut. We show that compared to Kenyan farmers who produce maize only for their family’s own consumption, Kenyan farmers who produce maize for sale are less likely to undertake post-harvest practices that increase the unobservable quality of aflatoxin safety. Employing randomized discount vouchers, we find that willingness to pay for a new post-harvest technology to prevent aflatoxin contamination is significantly lower among market producers than subsistence farmers. However, we find that take-up of the technology among market producers increases when they have the opportunity to sell aflatoxin-safe maize at a premium a few months after harvest. Using take-up rates from the experiment, we model the impacts of public subsidies and market incentives for aflatoxin control. We find that subsidization of aflatoxin control technologies is a cost-effective strategy for reducing liver cancer and possibly also for reducing stunting in children. The most cost-effective technologies considered are widely adopted by both subsistence and market producers, implying little additional impact of a price premium on food safety. 2018-08-03 2024-06-21T09:12:32Z 2024-06-21T09:12:32Z Working Paper https://hdl.handle.net/10568/147240 en https://doi.org/10.1186/s13063-015-1064-8 https://doi.org/10.1111/agec.12346 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.worlddev.2021.105406 Open Access application/pdf International Food Policy Research Institute Hoffmann, Vivian; and Jones, Kelly M. 2018. Improving food safety on the farm: Experimental evidence from Kenya on agricultural incentives and subsidies as public health investments. IFPRI Discussion Paper 1746. Washington, DC.: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI). https://hdl.handle.net/10568/147240 |
| spellingShingle | health cost benefit analysis agricultural policies capacity development postharvest technology food safety smallholders aflatoxins innovation adoption subsidies postharvest losses Hoffmann, Vivian Jones, Kelly M. Improving food safety on the farm: Experimental evidence from Kenya on agricultural incentives and subsidies as public health investments |
| title | Improving food safety on the farm: Experimental evidence from Kenya on agricultural incentives and subsidies as public health investments |
| title_full | Improving food safety on the farm: Experimental evidence from Kenya on agricultural incentives and subsidies as public health investments |
| title_fullStr | Improving food safety on the farm: Experimental evidence from Kenya on agricultural incentives and subsidies as public health investments |
| title_full_unstemmed | Improving food safety on the farm: Experimental evidence from Kenya on agricultural incentives and subsidies as public health investments |
| title_short | Improving food safety on the farm: Experimental evidence from Kenya on agricultural incentives and subsidies as public health investments |
| title_sort | improving food safety on the farm experimental evidence from kenya on agricultural incentives and subsidies as public health investments |
| topic | health cost benefit analysis agricultural policies capacity development postharvest technology food safety smallholders aflatoxins innovation adoption subsidies postharvest losses |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/10568/147240 |
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