Accurate targeting is key for the success of any development policy. While a number of factors might explain low targeting efficiency such as governance failure, political interference or lack of political will, this paper focuses on improving indicator-based models that identify poor households...

The recent surge in food prices around the world may reverse the gains of reducing hunger and poverty in the recent years. This paper employs factor and sequential typology analysis using data for 175 countries to identify groups of countries categorized according to four measures of food...

This paper examines potential of contract farming as a rural development tool by revealing its effect on productivity and income of small holders in tea production in north-western Vietnam. In the present research, three economic analyses are applied. First, the technical efficiency of tea...

This paper analyzes how Cambodian farmers and the government can respond to the rise of rice price. The study estimates rice production response in Cambodia using the Cambodia Socio-Economic Surveys (CSES) conducted in 2004 and 2007. The results indicate that agricultural productivity is far...

This paper assesses the impact of the composition of government spending on economic growth in developing countries. We use a dynamic GMM model and a panel data set for 44 developing countries between 1980 and 2004. We find that the various types of government spending have different impact on...

The marketing of coffee through group-based, certified market channels is often promoted by governments and donors as a viable business model for poor small-scale farmers. Organic and fairtrade coffees have become very popular among socially, environmentally and health conscious consumers in...

Eradicating poverty is one of the most urgent concerns of development policies. Organisations aiming at reducing poverty need simple and stable tools to detect poor households. Using data from Central Sulawesi, Indonesia, this study aims to test first whether two indicators sets for poverty...

The achievement of food security for all remains one of the main development objectives worldwide. Most commonly, non-spatial models are developed for either explaining the underlying determinants of food insecurity and undernourishment or for predicting their changes, so as for identifying...

We analyze the evolution of Sub-Saharan Africa’s agricultural total factor productivity (TFP) over the past 40 years, looking for evidence of recent changes in growth patterns using a nonparametric Malmquist index. Our TFP estimates show a remarkable recovery in the performance of Sub-Saharan...

The paper investigates the impact of credit constraints on the adoption of hybrid maize among rural households in Malawi using the treatment-effects model. Results reveal that after effectively correcting for endogeneity, credit constraints have a reducing effect on the size of land allocated to...