This paper analyses changes in income portfolios of rural households and its determinants for the case of Ghana in the 1990s. Our analysis shows that, contrary to common beliefs, rural Ghana has seen major economic transformation, as households increasingly diversify their livelihoods by both...

Engagement in non-agricultural activities in rural areas can be classified into survival-led or opportunity-led. Survival-led diversification would decrease inequality by increasing the incomes of poorer households and thus reduce poverty. By contrast, opportunity-led diversification would...

Climate variability poses a major risk to agricultural incomes in Africa. In Ghana, most of the country's poor people live in the north and households find it difficult to hold back their productive assets during the lean season. This study investigates the impact of climate variability on...

In this paper we investigate the factors affecting income levels, income growth, and poverty reduction in rural Indonesia following the crisis of 1997/98. We particu- larly investigate the relative roles of non-farm incomes, productivity improvements achieved via changes in crops versus...

While several studies have shown that genetically modified Bt cotton can benefit smallholder farmers economically, the sustainability of these effects is still unclear and debated controversially between biotechnology proponents and critics. We use unique panel data of 533 cotton farmers,...

Since the early 1990s, liberalization of the seed market in Tanzania has attracted several foreign companies that now market maize hybrids in the country. In this article, we analyze the impacts of proprietary hybrids on maize yields, production, and household living standards. We build on a...

Spanish Abstract: Enclavada en Amazonía Colombiana, la Región del Bajo Putumayo, con una extensión, que albergan más de 180.000 habitantes, está conformada por cinco municipios (Orito, Puerto Asís, Puerto Caicedo, San Miguel y Valle del Guamuez). Esta región, tradicionalmente...

We contribute to the long debate on whether export commodity revenues can lead to economic development by studying the consequences of the nearly six-fold increase in the global price of vanilla on vanilla farming communities in Madagascar. We find a substantial increase in the wealth and...

Women play a key role in economic growth and development, yet they are still discriminated against in economic life. Eritrea has extreme poverty and more than 66 percent of people live below poverty line. Eventually, the number of poor households in the country is high. Many are women-headed...

For many smallholder farmers in the Mount Elgon region of Uganda, Arabica coffee cultivation is the major income-generating activity. Although it is widely known that smallholder coffee farmers often live under conditions that barely assure their survival, research to date has failed to examine...