"While famines and other episodes of severe hunger receive significant press coverage and attract much public attention, chronic hunger and malnutrition are considerably more prevalent in Africa. It is estimated that 14 percent of children are born with low birthweights every year, around 45...

Many developing countries will need to double their food production by 2020 if they are to successfully feed their burgeoning populations. This will require maintaining, if not increasing, current rates of growth in national food production, and achieving this in sustainable ways that do not...

Tropical forests are disappearing rapidly with potentially high social costs in biodiversity loss and carbon emissions. While agriculture is critical to the long-term solution of sustainable livelihood and food security in the humid tropics, it is only part of the story. To take pressure off...

In agrarian developing countries the natural environment is a key determinant of both poverty and nutritional status. Climate, terrain, and soil characteristics drive the agricultural system, determining in large part cropping patterns, choice of crops, yield rates, and overall productivity...