"Good health and productive agriculture are both essential in the fight against poverty. In a rapidly changing world, agriculture faces many challenges, both old (natural resource constraints, extreme weather conditions, and agricultural pests) and new (globalization, environmental degradation,...

"According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), the agricultural sector is one of the most hazardous to health worldwide. Agricultural work possesses several characteristics that are risky for health: exposure to the weather, close contact with animals and plants, extensive use of...

"This brief delineates two broad categories for bioenergy development — the exploitation of existing agricultural wastes and the establishment of energy plantations—and suggests high-priority steps for developing bioenergy in ways that benefit the poor... Once developing countries have...

"... There is a clear link between access to energy services and poverty alleviation and development. The first set of critical energy needs are those that satisfy basic human needs: fuel for cooking, heating and lighting, energy for pumping water, and electricity for health and education...

"The promise of bioenergy is that it may help cope with rising energy prices, address environmental concerns about greenhouse gas emissions, and offer new income and employment to farmers and rural areas. In principle, there is a high degree of congruency between these three objectives for...

"This next regime of climate change rules must be targeted toward reducing GHGs as cheaply and quickly as possible. Developing countries and their farmers are key to meeting this objective. First, land-use changes and practices in developing countries must be included in mechanisms for reducing...

In the next 25 years, South Asia's food requirements are likely to double, while its natural resource base is likely to shrink. The subcontinent, which carries 21 percent of the world's population on just 3 percent of its land area, already has a high proportion of its land under cultivation and...