Dr. Tschirley is Professor, International Development, and a member of the CASID and African Studies Center core faculty at MSU. Tschirley is co-principal investigator on a number of the Department's research and training projects in Africa, and has lived and worked long-term for MSU in Ecuador (1987-90) and Mozambique (1995-98). He has served as an advisor to the Inter-American Development Bank, World Bank, and U.S. Agency for International Development. His current work focuses primarily on East and Southern Africa.

Professional Interests

• Linking smallholder farmers to ag-industry for rural income growth and poverty reduction, with special focus on cotton and domestic horticultural systems
• Market Information systems and food system development
• Interactions between farm- and non-farm employment in rural poverty reduction in Africa
• Improving the efficiency and effectiveness of response to humanitarian emergencies in Africa

Selected Publications

Tschirley, David, Colin Poulton, and Duncan Boughton  (Forthcoming).  "The Many Paths of Cotton Sector Reform in Southern and Eastern Africa: Lessons from a Decade of Experience".  Forthcoming in Cotton, Natural Resources and Society in Sub-Saharan Africa, William G. Moseley and Leslie C. Gray, Eds.  Ohio University Press.

Tschirley, David and Anne Marie del Castillo (2006).  “Local and Regional Food Aid Procurement: An Assessment of Experience in Africa and Proposal for USAID Practice”.  Forthcoming MSU International Development Working Paper.

Donovan, Cynthia, Megan McGlinchy, John Staatz, and David Tschirley (2006).  “Emergency Needs Assessments and the Impact of Food Aid on Local Markets”.  Desk Review prepared for WFP Strengthening Emergency Needs Assessment Capacity (SENAC) project.  Rome.

Benfica, Rui M.S., David L. Tschirley, and Duncan H. Boughton (2006).  “Interlinked Transactions in Cash Cropping Economies: The Determinants of Farmer Participation and Performance in the Zambezi River Valley of Mozambique”.  Contributed paper prepared for presentation at the International Association of Agricultural Economists Conference, Gold Coast, Australia, August 12-18, 2006

Poulton, Colin, Peter Gibbon, Benjamine Hanyani-Mlambo, Jonathan Kydd, Wilbald Maro, Marianne Nylandsted Larsen, Afonso Osorio , David Tschirley and Ballard Zulu (2003).  “Competition and Coordination in Liberalized African Cotton Market Systems”.  World Development Vol. 32 No. 3.  Pp. 519-536.

Rose, Donald and David Tschirley.  “Predicting dietary intakes with simple food recall information: a case study from rural Mozambique”.  European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2003) 57, 1212–1221.

Jayne, T.S., T. Yamano, M.T. Weber, D. Tschirley, R. Benfica, A. Chapoto, and B. Zulu.  “Smallholder income and land distribution in Africa: implications for poverty reduction strategies”.  Food Policy, 28 (2003) pp. 253-275

Tschirley, David and Rui Benfica.   “Rural poverty and poverty alleviation in Mozambique: what does the evidence tell us?”.  Journal of Modern African Studies, 39(2). (second quarter 2001)

Funded Research Projects

• Co-PI on Zambia/MATEP project funded through 2010
• Co-PI on Kenya project funded through 2010
• Co-PI on Multi-Country Review of the Impact of Cotton Sector Reform in sub-Saharan Africa, funded by World Bank