The overall objective of the
Comprehensive Assessment of the Agricultural Sector (CAAS)
is to provide an evidence base to enable appropriate
strategic policy responses by the Government of Liberia
(GoL) and its development partners in order to maximize the
contribution of the agriculture sector to the
Government's overarching policy objectives. Given the
strong relationship between growth in agricultural

Driven by population growth,
urbanization, and increased income, the demand for
animal-source food products in developing countries is
rapidly increasing. Livestock, which already constitutes 30
percent of the agricultural Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in
the developing world, and about 40 percent of the global
agricultural GDP, is one of the fastest-growing subsectors
in agriculture. Growing demand presents real opportunities

The overall objective of the
Comprehensive Assessment of the Agricultural Sector (CAAS)
is to provide an evidence base to enable appropriate
strategic policy responses by the Government of Liberia
(GoL) and its development partners in order to maximize the
contribution of the agriculture sector to the
Government's overarching policy objectives. Given the
strong relationship between growth in agricultural

Agricultural water has been seen as a
prime mechanism for fostering rural economic growth and
reducing rural poverty. But agricultural water has
encountered problems of performance, profitability and
sustainability. This resulted in a reduction in investments
from governments and lending from development organizations
like the World Bank up to early 2000s. A sourcebook on
improving poverty reduction performance of agricultural

This study provides strategic
orientations and recommendations for Bank client countries
and suggests approaches for the Bank's role in a
rapidly changing industry with high economic potential. It
identifies priorities and options for policy adjustments,
catalytic investments, and entry points for the Bank and
other investors to foster environmentally friendly,
wealth-creating, and sustainable aquaculture. The objectives

At the outset of China's reform
period, the country had a far higher poverty rate than for
Africa as a whole. Within five years that was no longer
true. This paper tries to explain how China escaped from a
situation in which extreme poverty persisted due to failed
and unpopular policies. While acknowledging that Africa
faces constraints that China did not, and that context
matters, two lessons stand out. The first is the importance

This study employed the Ricardian
approach to measure the economic impacts of climate change
on farm net revenue in Egypt. Farm net revenue were
regressed against climate, soil, socioeconomic and
hydrological variables to determine which factors influence
the variability of farm net revenues. 900 households from 20
governorates were interviewed. The standard Ricardian model
was applied, in addition to three other models, each

Miombo woodlands stretch across Southern
Africa in a belt from Angola and the Democratic Republic of
Congo (DRC) in the west to Mozambique in the east. The
miombo region covers an area of around 2.4 million km. In
some areas, miombo has been highly degraded as a result of
human use (southern Malawi and parts of Zimbabwe), while in
others, it remains relatively intact (such as in parts of
northern Mozambique, and in isolated areas of Angola and the

This paper measures the economic impact
of climate on crops in Kenya. The analysis is based on
cross-sectional climate, hydrological, soil, and household
level data for a sample of 816 households, and uses a
seasonal Ricardian model. Estimated marginal impacts of
climate variables suggest that global warming is harmful for
agricultural productivity and that changes in temperature
are much more important than changes in precipitation. This

Due to climate change and increasing
food prices, emphasis needs to be placed on addressing water
management as a key determinant for agricultural production
and productivity. However, governments and donors have
tended to pay relatively little attention to this area, and
investments remain low. This report, which is based on
economic and sector work carried out in the Water Anchor of
the World Bank, highlights the importance of improving water

This report summarizes the findings of
the study on Competitive Commercial Agriculture for Africa
(CCAA). The objective of the CCAA study was to explore the
feasibility of restoring international competitiveness and
growth in African agriculture through the identification of
products and production systems that can underpin rapid
development of a competitive commercial agriculture. The
CCAA study focused on the agricultural potential of

The World Bank has provided technical
assistance (TA) support to the Government of Samoa to help
identify measures to strengthen agriculture sector
institutions, to improve the performance of selected
commodities - including livestock, fruits and vegetables and
organic products - and to identify strategic agriculture
infrastructure investments. This report provides information
and analysis on opportunities for further development of