Agriculture is the largest economic sector in most African countries and remains the best opportunity for economic growth and poverty alleviation on the continent. Yet, sadly, the sector has been in decline over the past 40 years, and poor farmers have largely remained poor. This failure is due...

"Converting agriculture to produce energy as well as food has become an important and well-funded global research goal as petroleum reserves fall and fuel prices rise. But the use of crop biomass—both grain and other plant parts—as a raw material for bioenergy production may compete with...

"The Guatemalan raspberry industry began exporting to the United States in the late 1980s, filling a market niche in the spring and fall when supplies were low. By 1996, Guatemalan raspberry exports were increasing rapidly, up 113 percent from the previous season. That spring and early summer,...

"Mycotoxins are toxic chemical compounds produced by molds, which can have important consequences in human and animal health... The economic consequences of the presence of mycotoxins in food, feed, and agricultural crops can be severe. In fact, mycotoxins jeopardize the safety and availability...

"Food safety issues have attracted international attention because they play an increasingly important role in determining whether developing countries have access to export markets.At the same time, food suppliers in developing countries face the challenge of improving food safety for their...

"Malaria, schistosomiasis (bilharzia), and Japanese encephalitis are the major vector-borne diseases whose increase or decrease can be attributed to agricultural water development (see table). Others include dengue fever, yellow fever, and filariasis. Young children in poor communities are...

"Production and export of horticultural products are increasing rapidly in many developing countries... Rapid growth in horticultural production has been accompanied by heavy use of pesticides and by heightened concern over health effects associated with pesticide use and abuse...The three...

"While not trade measures per se, food safety regulations and standards can impede trade and significantly affect the ability of developing countries to access markets, particularly in industrialized countries. In part, this reflects the growing use of these measures globally in response to the...

"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,...