Despite remarkable advances, overcoming rural poverty and food insecurity in developing countries remains one of the biggest challenges of the 21st century. Increasing production and income opportunities in the agricultural sector is one of the key factors to achieve these goals. While...

Global demand for food and agricultural products is on the rise. There is hence the need to increase production to meet this growing demand and smallholders will play a significant role. One strategy for smallholders to sustainably increase agricultural production is the use of modern...

This dissertation is an empirical investigation of the implications of the Indonesian oil palm sector for rural village communities located in Jambi province, on the island of Sumatra. It consists of three contributions to the scientific literature on land-use dynamics, economic development, and...

Oil palm has become one of the most rapidly expanding crops throughout the humid tropics. Over the last two decades, the area under oil palm has almost tripled and its production more than quadrupled. This development is mainly attributed to the rising demand for vegetable oils and biofuels,...

Globalization and growing demand for high-quality food have facilitated and increased international trade in food products and at the same time opened up new and promising business opportunities for farmers worldwide. Given this trend, the expansion of smallholders´ income opportunities through...

Economic growth followed by urbanization and food supply modernization in developing countries would lead to substantial changes in food demand. Global agri-food systems are undergoing a rapid transformation towards high-value and high-quality products. China would be a good and important...

The nature of food insecurity has been changing in the world. While research on food insecurity in developing countries used to focus on undernourishment (i.e. lack of calorie consumption) and related outcomes, today, many developing countries face at least a “double burden of malnutrition”...

In our study, we attempt to discuss women’s empowerment in three different essays. In the first essay, we discuss how access to agriculture market by female farmers in Cameroon could improve their own control over the proceeds of their agricultural output. Scope of this research falls in the...

The papers of the dissertation focus on decision making under uncertainty of farmers in developed and developing countries and apply experimental approaches in order to investigate farmersʾ risk attitude and investment behavior. The first paper experimentally examines the investment and...