Table 21.2 Common indicators related to food security found in the impact assessment (IA) literature and illustrative examples of methods and types of IAs
Illustrative examples of IA studies (since 2000) that measure some of the given outcomes and indicators
Common
Outcomes related to indicators found food security goals
Production Yield
Unit cost of production Profitability
in the IA literature Farm level:
Notable observations from the literature
Study citation
Duflo, Kremer, and Robinson (2008)
Impact question related to food
security outcomes
impacts of improved crop germplasm research?
Methods and
approaches used in the studies cited
One of the most common Evenson and Gollin (2003); What are the productivity Mixed methods, mostly outcomes found in the assessments of many types of agricultural interventions.
Do fertilizer and hybrid The impact channels
between these indica- tors and food security are implied and indirect and are not always investigated.
Aggregate level: Total factor productivity (TFP)
Consumption Household level:
Food expenditure Food gap
Total or per capita consumption
Calorie intake Nutritional status
measured by height and weight
Thirtle, Lin, and Piesse (2003)
These are the most direct Hoddinott and Skoufias indicators related to food security and nutritional security.
These are used to assess impacts of different types of
interventions (including nonagricultural poverty
(2004); Gilligan and Hoddinott (2007); Low et al. (2007); Dillon (2008)
seed increase yield and profitability on small farms?
natural experiment (impacts derived from long-term agricultural experiments and
statistical analysis of secondary data and adoption surveys) Experimental design applied to a
community-level intervention
What is the impact of research-led agri- cultural productivity growth on poverty?
What are the impacts of PROGRESA, an anti- poverty program, on
What is the impact of the social safety-net program on food
security, consumption
Econometric analysis and multiequation models using time- series data
Experimental design based on pipeline analysis
the quantity and quality Quasi-experimental of food intake?