  Pions and protons production cross-sections are analyzed in proton-proton and
proton-nucleus collisions at the RHIC energy at midrapidity. We employ the pQCD
factorization scheme supplemented with the color-dipole formalism to
investigate the Cronin effect. We calculate the broadening in the color-dipole
approach for different centralities. Our main goal is to investigate, in a
parameter-free manner within a unified framework, how much of the cronin effect
for both pions and baryons comes from the transverse momentum broadening due to
initial partons multi-scatterings. We conclude that final-state effects in pA
collisions are important. Uncertainties in nuclear shadowing of various parton
distributions and parton fragmentation functions are also discussed.
