Ethiopia’s agricultural sector has recorded remarkable rapid growth in the last decade. This note documents aspects of this growth process. Over the last decade, there have been significant increases – more than a doubling – in the use of modern inputs, such as chemical fertilizers and improved seeds, explaining part of that growth. However, there was also significant land expansion, increased labor use, and Total Factor Productivity (TFP) growth estimated at 2.3 percent per year.

For decades, policymakers and development practitioners have debated benefits and threats of property rights formalization and private versus customary tenure systems. This paper provides insights into the challenges in understanding and empirically analyzing the relationship between tenure systems and agricultural investment, and formulates policy advice that can support land tenure interventions. We focus on Ghana, based on extensive qualitative fieldwork and a review of empirical research and policy documents.

Contract farming (CF) is attractive as a possible private-sector-led strategy for improving smallholder farmers’ welfare. Yet many CF schemes suffer from high turnover of participating farmers and struggle to survive. So far, the dynamics of CF participation have remained largely unexplored. We employ duration analysis to examine factors affecting entry into and exit from different maize CF schemes in northern Ghana, focusing specifically on the impact of development projects on CF entry and exit.

Land degradation and soil erosion have emerged as serious challenges to smallholder farmers throughout southern Africa. To combat these challenges, conservation agriculture (CA) is widely promoted as a sustainable package of agricultural practices. Despite the many potential benefits of CA, however, adoption remains low. Yet relatively little is known about the decision-making process in choosing to adopt CA. This article attempts to fill this important knowledge gap by studying CA adoption in southern Malawi.

L’année 2015 a marqué un tournant décisif pour la communauté internationale du développement. L’aboutissement des Objectifs du Millénaire pour le développement a souligné les avancées remarquables enregistrées depuis 1990 : l’extrême pauvreté, la mortalité infantile et la faim ont toutes chuté à peu près de moitié. Toutefois, un défi considérable demeure.

The Global Food Policy Report is IFPRI’s flagship publication. This year’s annual report examines major food policy issues, global and regional developments, and commitments made in 2015, and presents data on key food policy indicators. The report also proposes key policy options for 2016 and beyond to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. In 2015, the global community made major commitments on sustainable development and climate change.

2015年对国际社会而言是具有分水岭意义的一年。联合国千年发 展目标于2015年到期；自1990年以来，世界各国在实现千年发 展目标方面取得了重大的进展，极端贫困人口、儿童死亡率以及饥 饿人口比例均降低了约一半。然而，我们仍然面临着巨大的挑战。 《2016全球粮食政策报告》综述了影响2015年及未来的食物安全和 营养的主要趋势、事件和变化，并探讨了全球食物系统如何在为进 一步减少饥饿、营养不良和贫困做出最优贡献的同时，确保全球资 源的可持续利用。2016年是我们将新的国际和国家承诺转化为行动 的重要的一年。

The purpose of this policy brief is to provide national and state-level policymakers, private sector investors, civil society and donors with an analysis of the rural economy of Mon State and pathways to improved prosperity for its population. The analysis is based on a representative survey (the Mon State Rural Household Survey 2015) of 1680 rural households, which comprise 73% of Mon State’s 2 million residents, and extensive interviews with farmers, traders, processors, local leaders and government officials.

Для международного сообщества 2015 год стал поворотным моментом. Окончание срока выполнения Целей развития тысячелетия подчеркнуло поразительные успехи, достигнутые с 1990 года: доля людей, живущих в крайней нищете, уровень детской смертности и масштабы голода сократились почти вдвое. Однако по-прежнему остаются огромные проблемы.

The purpose of this report is to provide national- and state-level policymakers, private-sector investors, civil society, and donors with an analysis of the rural economy of Mon State and pathways to improved prosperity for its population. The analysis is based on a representative survey of rural households, which make up 73 percent of Mon State’s 2 million residents, and extensive interviews with farmers, traders, processors, local leaders, and government officials.

Improving women’s access to land is high on the agricultural policy agenda of both governmental and non-governmental agencies. Yet, the determinants and rationale of gendered access to land are not well understood. This paper argues that gender relations are more than the outcomes of negotiations within households. It explains the importance of social norms, perceptions, and formal and informal rules shaping access to land for male and female farmers at four levels: (1) the household/family, (2) the community, (3) the state, and (4) the market. The framework is applied to Ghana.

This study is undertaken to quantify the benefits of contract farming (CF) on farmers’ income in a case where new market opportunities are emerging for smallholder farmers in Nepal. CF is emerging as an important form of vertical coordination in the agrifood supply chain. The prospect for CF in a country like Nepal with accessibility issues, underdeveloped markets, and a lack of amenities remains ambiguous. Contractors find it difficult to build links in these cases, particularly when final consumers have quality and safety requirements.