Croatia is very close to meeting the requirements necessary for becoming a member of the European Union (EU). On February 6, 2008, the European Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn said that accession negotiations with Croatia are moving ahead well. As in all new member states (NMS), the...

South Korea is a highly urbanized and industrialized country. Increased urbanization and greater specialization have led to rising incomes, and changes in food production and consumption patterns. Changes in consumption and increased production specialization have also resulted in changes in...

Japan, with a population of about 125 million, is a major importer of agricultural products. Japan's mountainous topography limits the area available for farming, with a total cultivated land area of around 4.8 million hectares. Farm holdings are small, averaging just over 1.5 hectares. Japan...

The cost of operating the Food Security Commodity Reserve as a commodity reserve was compared with the cost of a cash reserve to purchase food aid supplies only in the period of need. Preliminary simulation results reveal the cash reserve to be less costly in almost all cases.

Zambia's record-breaking maize harvest of nearly 2.8 million metric tons (MT) in 2010 is a major achievement and a testimony to what input subsidies, output price incentives, and favorable weather can do to elicit a major supply response. Maize-growing smallholders harvested more than in...

Agriculture forms the foundation of Kenya’s economy. However, the information base on agriculture % including basic indicators on farmers’ input, production, and marketing behavior, household food consumption patterns, etc. % is weak and largely outdated. Agricultural policy is largely made...

During the past decades farmers in Sub-Saharan Africa had been prevented from making more intensive use of their mostly under-utilised production potentials by unattractive prices and market conditions, which in many countries were reinforced by a less than conducive policy environment. At the...

This paper proposes a strategic framework for policies to assist smallholders in developing countries. It describes the inevitable features of structural change in the agricultural and rural economy, the associated pressures that these changes place on smallholders, and the consequent need for...

EC Regulation 1257/99 of 17 May 1999 underlines the intention of the European Commission of an integrated rural development policy. In this paper the chances are examined that this new policy orientation offers for a more multifunctional agriculture. Possibilities for the implementation of...