The triple challenge of rapid population growth, declining agricultural productivity, and natural resource degradation are not isolated from one another; they are intimately related. However, strategic planning and development programming tend to focus on individual sectors such as the...

This paper analyzes the determinants of conservation investments at the farm level in Rwanda. The following tend to be important promoters of investment: (a) own-sources of liquidity, especially from off-farm employment; (b) smaller landholdings; (c) household labour; and, under certain...

One of the Government of Rwanda’s key post-war policy objectives has been to increase agricultural productivity and ensure food security by promoting a transition from semi-subsistence production and marketing practices to intensive production and highly commercialized agricultural markets....

This paper analyzes the participation of small farmers in the fresh fruit and vegetable supply systems of supermarkets in Mexico, using the case of small-scale guava farmers in the state of Michoacán. Several findings emerge. The most important determinants of access of these farmers to “more...

Myanmar faces a set of well-known challenges and problems, both in the overall economy and in rural areas in general and in agriculture. But Myanmar is also in one of the most blessed situations on the planet to expect rapid growth and poverty alleviation: it is next to (literally surrounded by)...

A burgeoning recent literature emphasizes "livelihood" diversification among smallholder populations (Chambers and Conway 1992, Davies 1993, Ellis 1998, Bryceson 1999, Ellis 2000, Little et al. 2001). While definitions vary within this literature, the concept of livelihoods revolves around the...

This document presents a research method to analyze the access of small and medium farmers to the supermarket market, and the effect of such access on the producers' decisions and net incomes. The method was developed for and used in a study carried out in 2004 in three Central American countries.