WINTER 2016-2017 allowed us to accomplish a lot in this project . Since I already knew the language , and we had colleagues there , it made the project very efficient , as we were able to leverage the networks we had built up . In addition , the previous two summers I had been in Tanzania , I had also been working on similar research , exploring the question of how farmers decide who to sell the maize to .
4 . How has the DIL Explore grant helped you move your research forward ? The whole process can feel like a simple transaction : when farmers grow something , they will just sell it . But the DIL Explore grant really gave me the opportunity to dive into the subject matter and think about all the economic transactions that take place in order to move food around the country . When I started to hone in on the specifics of the process and unfurled all of its layers , I gained a greater appreciation of how complex the dynamics of these economic systems were . It also helped me to zone in on specific questions and think about how I can model them or think of econometric approaches to identify some relationships . And not only that , the ability to travel to Tanzania allowed us to speak with a variety of people for our research and get a good picture for how the structure of these markets themselves affected the way that farmers and rural households interact with them .
The DIL Explore grant has also really allowed us to approach this research question in an interdisciplinary way through collaborations from different fields of study . For example , I traveled with an engineering student from the University of Washington . It was a nice collaboration because his engineering background helped us to explore how we could program the device and think about the other engineering aspects , while I was there to lead on any economic questions .
5 . What do you think is the long-term impact of your project ? We know that price fluctuation affects households , and rural and poor households are affected disproportionately more than households that have consistent income sources . And so , some intervention or policy intervention are often put into place in order to smooth this inter-annual price variation . But when we think about putting policies in place , it ’ s important to also think about all the ways it will affect how farmers interact with markets . Having cheaper maize during the low season seems like a positive thing , but you have to counterbalance it with the potential effect of not being able to sell grains at a higher price , and farmers being impacted negatively as a result . Policies also have potential effects on the choices farmers make . For example , it reduces the choices that farmers have to sell their grains if the government purchaser becomes the
primary source . Whenever policies are implemented , we have to think about all the ways policies will affect people ’ s lives in both the positive and the negative aspects . Hopefully , the research we are doing and our project will be a source that policy makers in areas where maize grain is a staple can pull from in order to pass the most effective policies .
6 . What ’ s next ? We learned a lot about the limitations about this particular approach to GPS tracking . We will need to interface with engineers and explore different ways we can adapt technology to this particular setting .
April You is a writer at the Blum Center for Developing Economies .
DIL By The Numbers
500 + 35
STUDENTS COUNTRIES
75RESEARCHERS
45 % SOCIAL SCIENCE
135 + PROJECTS FUNDED
400 +
INDUSTRY , GOVERNMENT , AND SOCIAL SECTOR EXPERTS
23 % ENGINEERING
19 % NATURAL SCIENCE & MEDICINE
13 % COMPUTER SCIENCE
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