African Farmer Drying Cocoa Beans in Greenhouse

Research Webinar

Analysing the Prevailing Incomes of Smallholder Farmers through Household Income and Expenditure Surveys: The Cases of Coffee and Cocoa

This research webinar discusses new evidence from a paper that develops a harmonized method to estimate net household income for smallholder farmers using household survey data. The discussion will examine what the findings reveal about Living Wage and Living-Income gaps, production costs, and how better income measurement can strengthen policy and monitoring.

© Pexels/ Miguel Caireta Serra

This paper develops and tests a harmonized framework to estimate prevailing (cost-net) household income from Household Expenditure Surveys (HES). Net income (revenues minus operating costs) is welfare-relevant for commodity smallholders because it captures the margin available for basic needs after paying for inputs, hired labour and services. We apply the approach to cocoa in Côte d’Ivoire and coffee in Ethiopia, benchmarking net income against poverty lines and the Living Wage level. We reconstruct monthly income and cost accounts from Côte d’Ivoire’s 2021–2022 EHCVM and Ethiopia’s 2021–2022 panel survey (Wave 5).

Speakers

  • Photo of Rogério J. Barbosa
    Rogério J. Barbosa
    Professor, Institute of Social and Political Studies IESP - Public University of Rio de Janeiro; associated researcher at the Brazilian Center for Analysis and Planning (CEBRAP)
  • Photo of Ian Prates
    Ian Prates
    Director of the ARI-CEBRAP Living Wage Initiative in Brazil
  • Photo of Katia Covarrubias (Discussant)
    Katia Covarrubias (Discussant)
    Senior Economist, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
  • Photo of Ana Podjanin (Discussant)
    Ana Podjanin (Discussant)
    Policy Analyst, Inclusive Labour Markets, Wages and Working Conditions Branch (INWORK), ILO

Related content

Setting adequate wages - a focus on agriculture
An african woman working in a factory is smiling at the camera, she is wearing a blue and green outfit and hair net, and behind her are more factory workers

SAW-A Project

Setting adequate wages - a focus on agriculture