Decisionmakers in Ethiopia have pursued a range of policies and investments to boost agricultural production and productivity. An important tool has been to increase the availability of improved seed, chemical fertilizers, and extension services for small-scale, resource-poor farmers. While...

This study uses Geographic Information Systems (GIS) techniques to estimate urbanization rates in Ethiopia, using a definition of urban extents that combines city population size, along with population density and travel times in surrounding areas. Defining the minimum population of an urban...

In recent years, many people and parts of the world have been hit by major shocks ranging from conflicts, erratic weather patterns, earthquakes, droughts, and floods to food price spikes. At the same time, poor people and communities remain vulnerable to shocks that may be smaller in...

This Food Policy Report explains why there is a need to place even higher priority on food security-related policies and programs in conflict-prone countries, and offers insights for policymakers regarding how to do so. To understand the relationship between conflict and food security, this...

Il Global Hunger Index (GHI) di quest’anno mostra che la fame nel mondo è diminuita dal 1990, ma non in modo notevole, e rimane a un livello classifi cato come “graveâ€. I livelli di GHI variano molto da regione a regione e da paese a paese. I punteggi più alti di GHI si registrano...

In developing countries across Asia, food marketing parastatals have played an important role in agricultural policy, especially with regard to government efforts to stabilize food prices. Three broad market failures constitute the primary arguments for this form of government intervention: a...

The current emphasis in the development community on demonstrating policy impact requires a better understanding of national policymaking processes to recognize opportunities for, and limits to, generating policy change. Consequently, this paper introduces an applied framework, named the...

Bioeconomic models can provide powerful insights into the interactions between people and the natural ecosystems on which they depend. For example, bioeconomic models of fisheries have long been used to provide early warnings about the sustainability of harvest levels or the impacts of new...

Most of the poor in the developing countries are smallholder farmers. Improving their productivity is essential for reducing poverty. Despite small landholdings, a high degree of land fragmentation, and rising labor costs, agricultural production in China has steadily increased. If one treats...