The impact of fanya juu bunds on productivity in a high rainfall area in the Ethiopian highlands is analyzed based on data from a cross section household survey with multiple plot observations per household. The results from parametric and non-parametric analysis indicated that productivity from...

This paper's goal is to increase the understanding of the income and fiscal inequality trends in rural China. Using a comprehensive county-level panel dataset between 1993 and 2002, we describe the dynamic changes in national, regional and provincial inequality measures for income, fiscal...

Laotian rice producers in upland areas experience highly fluctuating yields and production and producers in wet season rice areas in the southern region face high price risk. This paper examines the exposure to risk of producers in both regions facing changes in water supplies. A supply and...

In this paper, we use the experience of Kenya's failing Coffee Cooperatives to show that, under certain circumstances, membership based organizations can give rise to perverse incentives that undermine the benefits of organizing and lead to a reduction in member productivity and welfare. We...

The paper addresses "food safety" and 'food quality' from the position of commodity and food science rather than economy. The various descriptions of both terms in literature are reviewed in connection with customer/supplier ability to evaluate food safety and quality by examination of various...

Market access has been at the core of eight negotiating rounds of the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade (GATT). Yet, agricultural trade remains a heavily protected sector, characterized by higher tariffs relative to industrial goods, large tariff dispersions, numerous specific tariffs and...

Increase in agricultural productivity is induced by public investment in research. Several studies have analyzed the impact of research investment at the national level but such analyses at the state or regional level are a few. The present study is an attempt to analyze the pattern and quantify...

The only commercial genetically modified (GM) subsistence food crop is white maize in South Africa, which was released in 2001/2. This paper reports on the performance of insect resistant (Bt) white maize grown by smallholders in Hlabisa, KwaZulu Natal, where the other development is minimum...

Developing accurate, yet operational poverty assessment tools to target the poorest households remains a challenge for applied policy research. This paper aims to develop poverty assessment tools for four countries: Bangladesh, Peru, Uganda, and Kazakhstan. The research applies the Principal...

Replaced with revised version of paper 08/04/06.