In the 1990ies the ultimate target of social security has been widened: Social security aims at protecting people against life risks and helping them to take advantage of social and economic opportunities. Existing social security systems in rural areas of developing countries are often...

This article provides an overview of the most important reforms, their background, and corresponding changes in Estonian agriculture during the transition period from 1988-2008. The past two decades have been divided into three sub-periods to outline differences in dynamics and the direction of...

The new European Council Regulation on support for rural development (EC) No. 1698/2005 has opened up the opportunity for two important innovations for the design and implementation of agrienvironmental measures: local action groups (LAG) according to the LEADER approach and calls for tender....

Micronutrient malnutrition is a serious problem in many developing countries. Recently, agricultural technologies have been discussed as a complement to other intervention programs. Plant breeding, targeted at developing staple foods with higher contents of essential vitamins and trace minerals,...

The collectivisation of agriculture in most socialistic countries was connected with the development of a dual enterprise structure of large-scale farms and household plots. In Russia, in contrast to other European transition countries, this structure in most regions remained in the main...

This paper seeks to answer the following question: what are the impacts of European agri-environmental policy (AEP) on member states’ policy patterns? The concept of Europeanisation is employed, as it relates to the adaptation of domestic policies and policy instruments to existing EU...

The paper reviews the development of the organic sector and the institutional conditions in European countries. On the basis of three case studies the interrelationship between organisations of organic and conventional agriculture in the areas of farming community, agricultural policy and food...

The impact of political institutions, e.g. the organization of legislature, election and party systems, on agricultural protection has hardly been taken into account explicitly in theoretical and empirical studies, yet. In this framework the paper investigates to what extent political...

European agricultural policy has undergone profound changes during the past decade. The nucleus of this reform has been the transformation of the agricultural and food policy from a producer centred perspective of agriculture to a more market and consumer oriented food chain approach. Such a...