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Melinda Smale joined the Food Security Group in 2011, after working for a number of years with the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research. From 2002, as a Senior Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and Economist at Bioversity International, she led a global research program about the impacts of biotech crops, agricultural biodiversity, local seed markets, and underutilized crops. From 1989 to 2000 in Malawi and later in Mexico, she analyzed the adoption and impacts of improved wheat and maize seed as an economist for the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT). During the 1980s, Melinda worked in Pakistan, Somalia, Mauritania and Niger on short-term assignments for CIMMYT, Chemonics International, Volunteers in Technical Assistance (VITA), and USAID. She is an Honorary Fellow with Bioversity International, serving on the Advisory Committee of the Collaborative Crops Research Program of the McKnight Foundation, and on editorial committees of several journals. She has two awards for outstanding journal papers. Most recently, as a Senior Researcher, she supported the development of Oxfam America’s strategy in international agriculture.
Professional Interests
- Adoption and impact processes for seed, including biotechnology, and improved crop management practices, including practices to rehabilitate soil fertility and moisture
- Analysis of farm productivity
- Cost-effective survey research methods and sample designs
- Crop biodiversity, on-farm and ex situ conservation of crop genetic resources
- Formal and informal seed systems
Selected Publications
Cohen, M. and M. Smale 2012. Global Price Shocks and Poor People: Themes and Issues. Routledge, New York and London.
Smale, M., A. Niane, P. Zambrano. 2010. Impact Economique des Cultures Transgéniques sur les Producteurs dans l’Agriculture Non-Industrialisée: La Premiére Décennie. Impact Economique des Cultures Transgéniques sur les Producteurs dans l’Agriculture Non-Industrialisée: La Premiére Décennie. économie rurale 315, janvier-février: 60-75.
Reij, C., G. Tappan, and M. Smale. 2009. Re-Greening the Sahel: Farmer-led innovation in Burkina Faso and Niger. In D. J. Spielman and R. Pandya-Lorch (ed.), Millions Fed: Proven Successes in Agricultural Development. International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, D.C.
Smale, M., P. Zambrano, G. Gruére, J. Falck-Zepeda, I. Matuschke, D. Horna, L. Nagarajan, I. Yerramareddy, H. Jones. 2009. Measuring the Economic Impacts of Transgenic Crops in Developing Agriculture During the First Decade: Approaches, Findings, and Future Directions. Food Policy Review 10. International Food Policy Research Institute, Washington, DC.
Smale, M. (ed). 2006. Valuing Crop Biodiversity: On-Farm Genetic Resources and Economic Change. Wallingford, Oxon, UK: CAB International.
Smale, M., M.P. Reynolds, M. Warburton, B. Skovmand, R. Trethowan, R.P. Singh, I. Ortiz-Monasterio, J. Crossa. 2002. Dimensions of Diversity in Modern Spring Bread Wheat in Developing Countries since 1965. Crop Science 42: 1766-1779.
Heisey, P., M. Smale, D. Byerlee, E. Souza. 1997. Wheat Rusts and the Costs of Genetic Diversity in the Punjab of Pakistan. American Journal of Agricultural Economics 79: 726-737.
Smale, M., P.W. Heisey and H.D. Leathers. 1995. Maize of the Ancestors and Modern Varieties: The Microeconomics of HYV Adoption in Malawi, Economic Development and Cultural Change 43 (January): 351-368.
Funded Research Projects
- Measuring the Poverty and Food Security Impacts of Improved Maize in Africa: A Combined Econometric and Micro-Economywide Modeling Approach (Zambia)
- Harvest Plus: Varietal Diversification and Adoption of Modern Maize Varieties in Zambia
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