How much extra net income growth can be had in rural areas of Africa by increasing the spending power of local households? The answer depends on how rural households spend increments to income, whether the items desired can be imported to the local area in response to increased demand, and, if...

The high use of modern inputs in Egypt's agricultural system well before the reforms has been very favorable to the development of private markets, particularly in the fertilizer sector. The level of adoption being very high, the usual demand constraints did not operate and traders' entry was...

CONTENTS: Introduction;concepts and rationale; concept of diversification; rationale for diversification; significance for IMR; Structural features of IMR and their relevance to diversification; evidence of diversification in the IMR; trends in areas and production of crops and meat production;...

Viet Nam has undergone a profound transformation in recent years and, as a result of a series of macroeconomic and institutional reforms since 1986, it has made substantial progress toward becoming a market economy. As this transition continues, Viet Nam faces the challenge of formulating and...

While research on the improvement of agricultural production has received considerable attention and funding, until recently postharvest activities have not attracted much attention from international research organizations. However, there is an emerging consensus on the critical role that...

The paper describes the spectacular growth of rice exports from Viet Nam during the period 1989 to 1997. From a situation of food shortages, the country is now the second largest rice exporter after Thailand. Export projections indicate that there is potential for further export growth in all...

The challenge for agriculture over the coming decades will be to meet the world's increasing demand for food in a sustainable way. Declining soil fertility and mismanagement of plant nutrients have made this task more difficult. In this brief, Peter Gruhn, Francesco Goletti, and Montague...

The purpose of this paper is to provide a research approach and a set of different quantitative techniques for analysis of questions related to agricultural input market reforms. The broad objective of the Multi Country Project 1 (MP 1) undertaken at the International Food Policy Research...

Bangladesh, which has been a country of chronic food deficits, now appears to be nearing self-sufficiency in rice. Production of rice, the major food staple of the country, grew at a rate of 2.7 percent in the 1980s, while population grew at a rate of 2.0 percent. The gap between production and...