TWENTY-FIVE YEARS OF RESEARCH ON WOMEN FARMERS IN AFRICA: LESSONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH INSTITUTIONS; WITH AN ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Smale, M., and P. Heisey. 1994. Maize research in Malawi
revisited: An emerging success story. Journal of
International Development 6(6): 689-706.

Malawi is emerging as an example of a successful maize
research program. The research strategy has emphasized the
needs of small-scale farmers and consumers’ concern with
maize texture. The semiflint hybrids that have been released
are adapted to smallholders needs. Sustained success of the
program depends on national commitment to developing
varieties for smallholders and continued investments in
maize research and support for seed production and input
distribution systems.

Smale, M., and P. Heisey. 1994. Gendered impacts of
fertilizer subsidy removal programs in Malawi and
Cameroon. Comment. Agricultural Economics 10: 95-
99.

This article was written in response to Gladwin’s article on
fertilizer subsidies (also listed in this bibliography.) The
authors suggest that, contrary to Gladwin’s assertions,
hybrid maize is not an export crop, but both hybrid and
local maize varieties are grown by farmers to meet both cash
and subsistence needs. In addition, since Gladwin’s results
compare the situations for male and female heads of
households, it is not appropriate to use these results to
discuss the effects on women farmers, who may reside in
either type of household.

Smale, M. 1995. Maize is life: Malawi’s delayed green
revolution. World Development 23(5): 819-31.

This paper analyses the institutional factors that have
affected the maize research and distribution system in
Malawi. Minimal effective demand for seed research for
smallholder farmers limited the initial development of
appropriate varieties. However, farmer organizations have
shaped the demand for technical change. Recent successes
in maize research have led to the potential for a green
revolution to occur among smallholder maize farmers in
Malawi.

Smale, M., P. Heisey, and H. Leathers. 1995. Maize of the
ancestors and modern varieties: The microeconomics of
high-yielding variety adoption in Malawi. Economic
Development and Cultural Change 43(2): 351-68.

This article examines a model of seed and fertilizer
adoption in terms of two simultaneous choices: land
allocation to traditional and hybrid maize varieties and
application of fertilizer to a traditional variety. Four models
were treated here as special cases of a general theoretical
model and tested empirically. The four models are as
follows: (1) the “safety-first” model, where farmers choose
crop allocations that diverge from those associated with
profit maximization in order to ensure that their subsistence
needs are met; (2) the portfolio selection approach, in
which risk-averse farmers who maximize the expected utility
of income increase overall mean returns or reduce overall
variance of returns by choosing a combination of seed
varieties; (3) the dynamic context, in which farmers who
value the future utility of information may choose to adopt
a technology partially, even when it is currently
unprofitable; and (4) joint production of both modern and
traditional varieties, which can also occur in agricultural
economies where the supply of market inputs or credit is
rationed, because inputs normally regarded as variables can
be considered as quasi-fixed, allocable inputs in the short-
run. The econometric results highlight the
interrelationships between the choice of land allocation to
modern variety, and fertilizer application to the traditional
variety.

Smith, J., A.D. Barau, A. Goldman, and J.H. Mareck.
1994. The role of technology in agricultural
intensification: The evolution of maize production in
the Northern Guinea Savanna of Nigeria. Economic
Development and Cultural Change 42(3): 537-54.

Traditional models suggest that agricultural intensification
is driven by population growth and improved access to
markets. However, intensification of land use can occur
rapidly if exogenous changes such as new technologies are
introduced. Unlike population-driven intensification, which
tends to be gradual, technology-driven intensification can
be rapid. The example of maize adoption in northern
Nigeria in the early 1980s illustrates this phenomenon.
Prior to the introduction of the improved variety TZB by
agricultural development projects, maize was an
insignificant crop grown in small quantities. By the end of
the 1980s, it was a major cash and food crop. Fallow cycles
had been replaced by continuous cropping and widespread
fertilizer use (100% in some regions). The exogenous
factors responsible for these rapid changes were an
improved transport system, the introduction of improved
maize with favored characteristics (whiteness, good husk
cover, significantly higher yields, fertilizer responsiveness),
agricultural development projects, and a significant fertilizer
subsidy. Although the fertilizer subsidy sometimes led to
excess demand, it clearly sped the adoption and expansion
of maize. The high rate of subsidy calls into question both
the sustainability of intensification and the economic
efficiency of the present system.

Spiro. 1985. The Ilora Farm Settlement in Nigeria. West
Hartford, Connecticut: Kumarian Press.

This case study examines the situation of women in a
settlement in southwestern Nigeria in 1977, 18 years after
the settlement was founded. The settlement scheme was one
of many designed to establish modern, mechanized farm
communities to stem rural-urban migration. The settlement
has not been particularly successful, and although the case
study focuses on the problems facing women in the
settlement, men faced many similar problems. Eleven

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