Targeting of Subsidized Fertilizer Under Kenya's National Accelerated Agricultural Input Access Program (NAAIAP)

Abstract

Abstract

A new wave of “market smart” modern input subsidy schemes has emerged in sub-Saharan Africa over the past decade with the promise of increasing input use and grain yields while building or complementing private sector efforts. We study the extent to which geographic and household level targeting under Kenya’s National Accelerated Agricultural Input Access Program (NAAIAP) has remained true to its “market smart” objectives using household level panel data from before and during the initial years of program implementation (2007-2010). Using a sample of households that plausibly received the NAAIAP voucher, we find that the average socio-economic status of a division and the wealth level of individual households within those divisions are strong predictors of subsidy received, suggesting that “resource poor” farmers were targeted as suggested in the program guidelines. However, we find that a large portion of the targeted households used commercial fertilizer before the start of the program and often in high amounts, implying that vouchers were not necessarily distributed to households who lacked the financial capacity to purchase fertilizer on commercial terms.

Key words: fertilizer, subsidy, vouchers, market smart, targeting