This paper analyses issues that affect the role of agriculture as a source of economic development, rural livelihoods and environmental services. Using experiences of land expansion in Asia, Latin America and the Caribbean, Eastern Europe, and sub-Saharan Africa, it assesses the extent to which recent demand for land differs from earlier processes of area expansion and identifies the current challenges, in terms of land governance, institutional capacity and communities’ awareness of their rights.

Tenure reform aims to secure people's land rights. In Southern Africa most so-called 'communal' land, reserved for Africans, is still held by the state. In these areas, land rights are increasingly insecure. Yet, the confirmation of the rights of those who have long occupied and used the land lags behind programmes that aim to transfer white-held land to Africans. Many colonial and apartheid land laws are still in force, particularly those relating to chiefs, who resist any reduction to their power.

Looks at location, natural resources, and different policies toward the elite's preemption of unused land shaped the historical development of different agrarian structures across Southeast Asia, conditioning agricultural growth performance until today.Aims to give a broad perspective on the process by which different agrarian structures developed in Indonesia, the Philippines and Thailand, along different historical paths under different ecological conditions.

This report explores evidence and insights from five case studies that have made significant recent progress in addressing the challenge of insuring poor smallholder farmers and pastoralists in the developing world. In India, national index insurance programmes have reached over 30 million farmers through a mandatory link with agricultural credit and strong government support.

The promotion of forestry activities is seen as a means by which to reduce poverty while protecting the environment. But if clearing of forests for agricultural activities can prove more profitable, will such efforts be effective?

The National Agricultural Policy (NAP) document released by the Government of Indian in 2000 aimed to attain an agricultural output growth rate in excess of 4 percent per annum, based on efficient use of resources, and sought to achieve this growth in a sustainable and equitable manner.This paper argues that (by 2004) no serious action had been initiated on most of the NAP’s proposals, and blames this inaction on the lack of a concrete and time bound action plan to complement the policy.

This Topic Guide addresses the threat that climate change poses to food security and poverty reduction achievements. The peer-reviewed guide explains how programming around climate-smart agriculture can help adapt and build resilience to climate change – at the same time stimulating economic growth and poverty reduction in the agricultural sector.

Starting with a discussion of the scientific versus the traditional methods of land evaluation and perception, the authors formulate a methodological framework to integrate both perspectives into a geographic-information/expert-system environment aimed at sustainable development of a rural community, and present a case study in Central Mexico.

The injustices of the land issue in South Africa under apartheid are well documented. A programme of land reform since then has had varied success. The authors argue that there is a great deal of empirical evidence to show that the private sector and markets make major contributions to South Africa’s development in general and to land reform in particular. It is in this light that this report looks at the contribution made by the private sector to land reform, both through organised land reform initiatives and in the ordinary course of their business.

The project aims to support small-scale farmers in the project area in their efforts to adapt their farming practices to anticipated climate change and to enhance their incomes.

This paper develops a theoretical model of land leasing that includes transaction costs, risk pooling motives and non-tradable productive inputs. It investigates the empirical implications of land contracts using data collected from four villages in Ethiopia.The paper shows that sharecropping is the dominant contract if transaction costs are negligible, but that a rental contract may arise if transaction costs decrease with increasing the tenant’s share of output.

This report argues that land reform, both tenancy reform and redistribution of ceiling surplus lands to the landless, is important to poverty alleviation.The paper argues that in addition to production benefits, land reform helps to change the local political structure by giving more voice to the poor. Re-distributive land reform, whether through market-assisted land reform programmes or otherwise, should remain a substantive policy issue for poverty reduction.