We used a primary panel survey at the household level conducted in 18 remote natural villages over three waves in China to study how road access shapes farmers’ agricultural production patterns and input uses. Our results show that access to roads is strongly associated with specialization in...

When evaluating the impact of a program, the effects of interventions on program outcomes must be measured against a valid counterfactual case. Constructing a valid counterfactual is especially important when experimental data is not available. Building a baseline ensuring that treatment and...

In many countries growing water scarcity puts pressure on the irrigation sector, as main consumptive user, to improve performance. In this context, the need for research on institutional policy options for improved water allocation and governance is more and more recognized. Exante evaluation of...

Using an extensive household-level data set collected in Tanzania, this paper investigates the determinants of technology adoption in rice cultivation by focusing on the role of credit. We find that credit enhances fertilizer use and the adoption of labor-intensive agronomic practices such as...

Public agricultural extension systems often fail due to inadequate consultation of farmers about their information needs and poor understanding of their information search strategies. In discussing and implementing extension programs and advisory services, the following questions need to be...

The amount of agricultural land available in developed countries is decreasing by a degree which may profoundly affect in the long term the food security. This paper reports a quantitative investigation of the factors that contribute to this decrease, by analysing 30 countries during the period...

In emerging markets for high-value food products in developing countries, processing companies search for efficient ways to source raw material of consistent quality. One widely embraced approach is contract farming. But relatively little is known about the appropriate design of contracts,...

This paper analyses the impact of increasing direct payments on land rents in six new EU member states in which agricultural subsidies largely increased as a result of their EU accession. We find that up to 25 eurocents per additional euro of direct payments is capitalized in land rents. In...