Demographic changes in the Asia-Pacific region - expanded urban concentration, variability in population growth within the region, and an aging population base - will drive significant food system change. Costs associated with urban congestion will test the capacity of the region's food system...

Improving smallholder welfare in the rural sectors of developing countries requires improving access to both input and product markets. Success, however, in developing sustainable and mutually beneficial links between smallholders and agribusiness has been variable. Two recent ACIAR studies...

The relationship between poverty incidence and road development is analyzed in this paper, in the context of rural Laos. The results indicate that improving road access is an effective way of reducing rural poverty. Between 1997-98 and 2002-03, rural poverty incidence in Laos declined by almost...

This study investigates the impact of the 'Rice for the Poor' program - an almost universal program of Indonesian Social Safety Net (SSN) Programs launched in 1998. The general aim of the program was to mitigate the decrease of household nutrition well-being. The program has provided highly...

The incomes of people in Fiji who rely directly on agricultural production are under threat due to a number of institutional changes or shocks that are occurring now, or are expected in the near future. In this paper we examine recent evidence on the current nature and level of rural and urban...

The distributional effects of trade policies involving food are always controversial, particularly in countries for which staple foods are net imports. Indonesia is the world’s largest importer of its staple food, rice, and this commodity simultaneously accounts, in its consumption, for a...

The relationship between the effects of food aid and those of the completion of the Uruguay Round of the GATT are studied in this paper. focussing upon the food aid recipient countries, and taking Bangladesh as an illustrative example. It is argued that, among other factors. the magnitudes of...