In rural agrarian economies, the period between planting and harvest is often a “lean season” when labor demand and wages fall, and the price of staples rise. The landless poor reliant on agricultural work on others’ farms are especially hard hit, and many millions of laborers and their families worldwide suffer from seasonal hunger. This…
Intervention
Relaxing Seasonal Constraints to Improve Labor Productivity
Despite increased investment and international competition in agriculture, small-scale farming continues to be the most common economic activity in many developing countries. In Zambia, 60% of the population lives in rural areas, where 78% of the population were employed in agriculture in 2012 (Zambia Labor Force Survey, 2012). Rainfall patterns in Zambia allow for only…
Punjab Economic Opportunity Program
The project seeks to understand the issues facing skills development in low-income countries (LICs) by identifying failures in both skills provision and labour markets then designing and evaluating interventions that can address these shortcomings and raise the socio-economic returns to acquiring skills. The project builds upon the Punjab Economic Opportunities Programme (PEOP, a DfID funded…