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Ethiopia’s value chains on the move: The case of teff
We study the value chain of teff, Ethiopia’s most important staple food crop by area and value. Based on large-scale primary surveys, we find significant changes in the last decade. First, there is increasing adoption of modern inputs (chemical fertilizer, improved varieties, and herbicides) by farmers, especially by those living close to urban centers. Second, quality demands are rising and there are important shifts from the cheap red varieties to the more expensive white ones.
Mapping South African farming sector vulnerability to climate change and variability
This paper analyzes the vulnerability of South African farmers to climate change and variability by developing a vulnerability index and comparing vulnerability indicators across the nine provinces of the country. Nineteen environmental and socio-economic indicators are identified to reflect the three components of vulnerability: exposure, sensitivity, and adaptive capacity. The results of the study show that the region’s most vulnerable to climate change and variability also have a higher capacity to adapt to climate change.
PROGRESA and its impacts on the human capital and welfare of households in rural Mexico
In early 1998, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) was asked to assist the PROGRESA administration to “determine if PROGRESA is functioning in practice as it is intended to by design.” PROGRESA is one of the major programs of the Mexican government aimed at developing the human capital of poor households. Targeting its benefits directly to the population in extreme poverty in rural areas, it aims to alleviate current poverty through monetary and in-kind benefits, as well as reduce future levels of poverty by encouraging investments in education, health and nutrition.
The potential of agroecology to combat hunger in the developing world
In this policy brief we argue that the agroecological approach to food production offers more hope of combating hunger in a sustainable fashion than does the more conventional "green revolution" strategy. While agroecological technology is suitable for small farmers, has positive impacts on equity and is environmentally friendly, the green revolution and similar approaches have caused serious land degradation and have accentuated rural inequity--the root cause of hunger.
Decentralization, pro-poor land policies, and democratic governance
Decentralized approaches to development are gaining increasing prominence. Land tenure reform policy has been affected by many different types of decentralization. However, the literature on land tenure reform rarely explicitly addressed the implications of decentralization, and vice versa. This paper provides a review of how the issues of decentralization are linked to land tenure reform, in theory and practice. Both decentralization and land tenure reform each encompass a number of different, but related concepts and approaches.
Reforming land rights in Africa
"Advocates of reforms in land rights and land markets frequently posit two important hypotheses: (1) African countries must grant land titles to farmers because titles increase land tenure security and facilitate access to input, land, and financial markets; and (2) land markets constitute the most efficient mechanism for allocating resources and improving access to productive resources by the poor, especially women and other marginalized groups...
Resilience for food and nutrition security
Economic shocks including food price shocks, environmental shocks, social shocks, political shocks, health shocks, and many other types of shocks hit poor people and communities around the world, compromising their efforts to improve their well-being. As shocks evolve and become more frequent or intense, they further threaten people’s food and nutrition security and their livelihoods.
Determinants of household access to and participation in formal and informal credit markets in Malawi
The paper uses the concept of credit limit to analyze the determinants of household access to and participation in informal and formal credit markets in Malawi. Households are found to be credit constrained, on average, both in the formal and informal sectors; they borrow, on average, less than half of any increase in their credit lines. Furthermore,they are not discouraged in their participation and borrowing decisions by further increases in the formal interest rate and/or the transaction costs associated with getting formal credit.
Implications of bulk water transfer on local water management institutions
To mitigate a drinking water crisis in Kathmandu valley, the Government of Nepal initiated the Melamchi Water Supply Project in 1997, which will divert water from the Melamchi River to Kathmandu city's water supply network. In the first phase, the Project will divert 170,000 cubic meters of water per day (at the rate of 1.97M3/sec), which will be tripled using the same infrastructure as city water demand increases in the future. The large scale transfer of water would have farreaching implications in both water supplying and receiving basins.
The course of China's rural reform
For more than 20 years after the victory of the Chinese Revolution, radicalism was ascendant and private ownership of land was illegal. The peasantry became estranged from the land, so that when the Cultural Revolution ended, China’s economy had been placed in difficulty and an agricultural crisis induced. The population had grown, and food was in short supply. Per capita grain production never averaged much above 300 kilograms. Of the 800 million peasants, 250 million were impoverished. The nation as a whole could not achieve self-sufficiency in grain and required massive imports.