Natural resource management perceived as a search for institutions that can ensure simultaneous fulfilment of three goals: productivity (or efficiency), sustainability and equity. In this article, we study the implications of pursuing the goal of equity in the management of surface water resources for irrigation with a heuristic model incorporating a Leontief-type fixed production function. The analysis has been carried out in the backdrop of the Baliraja water distribution experiment in India.

The development experience indicates a strong link between rural development and poverty reduction. In Pakistan agriculture is the major source of economic growth, employment and livelihood. The agricultural productivity is low and many factors are responsible for its low productivity. Majority of rural population is marginalized in terms of access to physical and social assets, and in terms of institutions and inequality. Rural poor lack access to instruments to mitigate and cope with shocks that affect their well being and ability to come out of poverty.

There exists gender bias in resource ownership in many parts of Kenya with women being more disadvantaged. Resource ownership and control within the household has differential impacts on the health and overall well-being of male and female members. This paper examines intra-household resource ownership and how it affects nutrition and health status of household members. Data from a household survey containing detailed gender-disaggregated information on resource ownership as well as food and anthropometry were collected from a rural Kenyan district and used in the analysis.

To redress past racial discrepancies in ownership and tenure, the ANC government of South Africa initiated programmes to make land accessible to the previously disadvantaged. A key component of the national land reform programme was the provision of commonage lands to urban municipalities for use by the urban poor. However, there has been no assessment of the contribution that urban commonage makes to previously disadvantaged households.

Common forests in developing countries are valuable sources of raw material supplies, employment and income generation, particularly for low income households. This paper looks at the effect on income and employment when common forest resources have external policies that constrain their use. Using a mixed-integer linear programming model, this study examines the impacts of conservation-oriented community forest policies in Nepal on three household income groups.

During 2008 the world witnessed a global food crisis which caused social unrest in many countries and drove 75 million more people into poverty. The crisis resulted from sharply higher oil prices, increased bio-fuel production, dwindling grain stocks, market speculation, changing food consumption patterns in emerging economies, and changes in world trade agreements, among other factors. Although the rise in food prices was sudden, the fragility of global food security had been developing for years.

The social and economic consequences of horticultural product food losses from farm to the consumer remain unacceptably high. In developing countries postharvest losses compromise food security, income generation and poverty alleviation for millions of families. In developed countries substantial product losses result in economic losses to supply chain participants and reduced supplies of healthy products into international markets.