After two and a half decades of state-mandated cotton production, the diversification of agriculture and the downsizing of the cotton area have become prominent features of Uzbekistan's current modernization strategy. Given the momentum of agricultural policy reform, this policy brief aims to...

The dominance of cotton in the irrigated areas of Central Asia has long been criticized for its ecological effects on salinization and desertification. From an economic point of view, this monoculture ties producers to state procurement, has led to the recurrent mobilization of manual labour...

Die Beiträge der vorliegenden Dissertationsschrift untersuchen zum einen, inwieweit Wetterindexversicherungen einen Beitrag zur Stabilisierung von wetterbedingten Einkommensschwankungen in der Landwirtschaft leisten können. In der Landwirtschaft ist trotz bedeutender wetterbedingter...

Agriculture is still the most important sector in driving economic growth and poverty reduction in developing countries. In recent times, global agricultural food systems around the world are undergoing a rapid transformation with modern retailers, private standards, and vertically integrated...

This study uses household level data collected in Shandong Province of China to study rural formal financial institutions' lending volume decisions, the number of lending approvals, and respondentsattitude towards interest rates on formal loan in China's rural setting. The main body of the...

The study analyzes price transmission in international rice markets in the last 12 years, covering the period before and after the 2008 food crisis. To this end, it provides empirical evidence of price transmission between the international and domestic markets of rice using price series from...

Most researchers who analyze producers' preferences under uncertainty report that producers are averse towards risk and ambiguity scenarios. This aversion has an influence on producers' decision-making processes; hence the relevance of determining and analyzing these preferences as a key factor...

The agricultural sector is characterized by higher exposure to a variety of risks compared to the other economic sectors. Agricultural risks include production, market, credit, technological, institutional and human resource risks. Moreover, the agricultural risk environment is changing with...

This thesis presents three selected studies on the topic of performance and dynamics of agricultural firms. It constitutes three empirical investigations which analyze the factors that determine firm performance, changes in firm size, as well as the extent to which firm performance influences...

Economists use partial and general equilibrium trade simulation models to estimate the impact of changes in domestic policies and international trade rules. During the WTO Doha Development Agenda (DDA) negotiations economists have produced many different estimates of the gains that would result...