One of the basic debates in African development is whether agriculture can be the instrument for the transformation of a rural economy. A common question is whether agricultural policies can provide the impetus to move agriculture in developing economies from subsistence to commercial...

In a developing economy, the availability of storage infrastructure is considered essential for two purposes; the reduction of post-harvest losses resulting in food shortage, and allowing for gains from inter-temporal trade due to potential arbitrage opportunities arising out of volatility in...

In this paper I present a new approach to rural-to-urban migration in developing countries. This approach sheds new light on the role of urban-to-rural remittances in bringing about technological change in the agricultural sector of these countries. At the core of the new approach is a utility...

The idea of sustainable development, extended at the end of 20th century, takes the form of a strategic concept in the field of socio-economic development in many countries and their regional groupings. It is also being promoted by international organizations, considering the United Nations and...

The gap between demand for and supply of food in Ethiopia can be reduced by improving farm productivity through the introduction of productivity-enhancing technologies. Conversely, in Ethiopia, the adoption rates of agricultural technologies remain below the expected levels. Hence, by using...

Agricultural holdings have a very important role for the sustainable socio-economic development. Contemporary, the farms` activity is mainly determined by the market mechanism. Market imposes rules on agricultural holdings` functioning, on both the type and the scale of agricultural activities,...

Minimum tillage combined with mulching (MTM) is critical to conservation agriculture, yet its use by smallholder farmers raises challenging questions regarding adoption, diffusion and scaling at farm level. In this paper, we used probit regression and post-estimation simulations to identify the...

The rural non-farm sector plays an important role in diversifying income for rural households in developing countries and has the potential to emerge as a major source of employment. In some cases it has outgrown the agricultural sector, in part due to the expansion of credit through...

Consumption smoothing and temporal price arbitrage are the two main economic motives for grain storage in semi-subsistence economies. Nonetheless, little has been documented on the determinants of households' grain storage behavior. Using a rich panel data from maize producing households in...