Achieving sustainable agricultural productivity growth in sub-Saharan Africa remains a major development challenge (Abdul and Abdulai 2022; Magruder 2018).1 Low agricultural productivity in African countries is often attributed to lack of innovation, low adoption of yield-enhancing farm technologies, or both (Walker and Alwang 2015; Anderson and Feder 2004). Several studies show that the challenges to achieving sustainable and higher agricultural productivity arise mainly from market imperfections and frictions affecting the distribution of and access to new technologies and their adoption (Abdul and Abdulai 2022; Magruder 2018; Ragasa and Mazunda 2018; Duflo et al. 2008). In Mozambique, as in many African countries, the majority of rural households are subsistence-oriented and have relatively low levels of both agricultural productivity and market participation (Boughton et al. 2006; Benfica and Tschirley 2012; Benfica et al. 2014). To address these challenges, the Innovation for Agribusiness (InovAgro) project used a market systems development (MSD) approach. InovAgro is funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and implemented by Development Alternatives (DAI Europe, Ltd.) in partnership with COWI Mozambique.

The Innovation for Agribusiness (InovAgro) project, which launched with its first three year phase in 2010, uses a market system development (MSD) approach towards the goal of increasing incomes of men and women small-scale farmers in northern Mozambique. InovAgro interventions promote improved agricultural productivity, participation in selected high-potential value chains and the development of inclusive and sustainable market systems, such that impacts are expected to last long beyond the termination of the project. This paper presents results from a midline quantitative impact evaluation of the second phase of the InovAgro project interventions (2014-2017). In it, we use a carefully designed and executed quasi-experimental study design to credibly attribute changes in market engagement and welfare of participating farmers to exposure to the InovAgro II project, identifying and testing in what respects the intervention was most successful, and what regard it had less impact. Although InovAgro II projects operate in 11 districts of Zambézia and Cabo Delgado provinces, this impact evaluation focuses on two districts in Zambézia province (Alto Molócue and Molumbo), and in terms of value chains, focuses on the soybean and pigeon pea high-potential value chains, while the InovAgro II project interventions focus on these in addition to maize, sesame and groundnut. A baseline survey was undertaken in 2015 covering the 2014/2015 agricultural season and a midline follow-up survey was conducted in 2017, covering the 2016/2017 agricultural season and reaching 1,749 households of the original 1,886 households interviewed in the baseline survey. Using difference-in-difference estimation and propensity score matching, we find that exposure to the InovAgro II project is associated with an increase in the proportion of households selling soybean and pigeon pea by approximately 5% and 16%, respectively (significant at the .01 level). Exposure to the InovAgro II project also results in significantly higher shares of smallholder farmers using improved seed for soybean and pigeon pea (an increase of 6% for soybean and 2% for pigeon pea). We find that the InovAgro II project is also associated with significant increases in access to agricultural output market information from formal sources (5%) and hired labor for farming activities (8%). Despite the significant impacts on short term outcome variables, exposure to the InovAgro II project had limited impact on long term outcome variables, such as on rural-urban migration as well as engagement in the non-farm sector (two proxies for assessing potential welfare implications of the project) however this finding is not surprising given the impact evaluation covers only two years-a short period of time to bring about the long-term impacts expected to eventually emanate from an MSD project.

This brief presents descriptive information and prelimi-nary results from an impact evaluation of the second phase of the Innovation for Agribusiness (InovAgro II) project interventions in northern Mozambique. InovAgro II is a development program intended to decrease rural poverty by improving the connectedness of farmers to market systems. The InovAgro project is funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) and implemented by Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI) in partnership with COWI1. The InovAgro project operates in 11 districts—namely Mocuba, Ile, Namarroi, Molumbo, Gurúe and Alto Molócue in Zambézia prov-ince; Malema, Ribáuè and Erati in Nampula province; and Namuno and Chiúre in Cabo Delgado province. In-dependent impact evaluation of the project, funded by the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), is being implemented by the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) using primary data coming from two InovAgro-focus districts in Zambézia prov-ince (Alto Molócue and Molumbo) focusing on three of the five targeted value chain crops by the InovAgro project, namely: soybean, pigeon pea and maize.

This report presents the data from a midline data collection effort as part of the impact evaluation of Phase II of the Innovation for Agribusiness (INOVAGRO II) intervention in northern Mozambique. INOVAGRO II is a development program intended to decrease rural poverty by improving the connectedness of farmers to market systems. The midline data were collected during the intervention phase, in two districts in Zambézia province - Alto Molócue and Molumbo - during the months of late October to December of 2017. The questionnaire focused on agricultural production and market access for all crops, and particularly for the INOVAGRO value chain crops - soybean, pigeon pea, and maize. The purpose of the report is to describe the data, focusing on key variables.