This paper provides an assessment of the agricultural diversification trends in South Asia. In the first part food consumption and crop production patterns in the region during the last twenty years are reviewed. Next, the agronomic and economic options for and constraints to diversification in...

We use original 2005 survey data from Fiji and Tonga on remittances and household income to estimate the combined impact of migration and remittances on the composition of household income. A two-stage methodology is followed. A variable for the predicted number of migrants in each household is...

In recent years, there has been increasing emphasis in the rural development literature on the multiple income-generating activities undertaken by rural households and the importance of assets in determining the capacity to undertake these activities. Controlling for endogeneity choice and...

The purpose of the present Conceptual Framework document, developed in the context of FAO’s “Initiative to Review and Update National Agricultural, Rural Development and Food Security Strategies and Policies”, is to propose a flexible general approach to addressing food security through...

Improving agricultural productivity and farm level resilience to agricultural production shocks is a critical component of reducing poverty and improving household food security throughout the developing world, and particularly in Ethiopia which is among the poorest countries in the world. This...

Paying for the provision of environmental services is a recent policy innovation that is attracting much attention in both developed and developing countries. The innovation involves a move away from command and control environmental policies, harnessing market forces to obtain more efficient...

The pattern of crop genetic diversity has changed over the past two centuries with the modernization of agriculture, accelerating with the advent of the green revolution. Since the green revolution, the locus of agricultural research has shifted from the public to the private sector. The growing...

This paper provides an assessment of the potential for small-holder agro-forestry projects to be competitive in markets for carbon emission reduction credits, and explores the ways in which small-holder participation in such markets may be facilitated. The paper begins with an overview of the...

Access to assets and agrarian institutions is of critical importance to the economic viability of rural households. Understanding the extent of this access and how it links to the ability of rural households to employ different pathways out of poverty is thus vital for designing rural...

The paper analyses the impacts of transaction costs on the degree of household market integration using survey data collected from smallholder potato farmers located in the Peruvian Andes. The analysis focuses on the impacts of transaction costs differentiated as information, negotiation and...