The most traditional and widely used
farming systems in the humid upland tropics are based on
fallowing and various forms of slash-and-burn agriculture.
Their sustainability depends on the duration of the fallow;
as long as the fallow stage is longer than seven or eight
years, slash-and-burn systems usually remain efficient. They
produce a moderate yield using a low-input technology that
is especially efficient in terms of returns to labor. With a

This report analyzes the
government's decision on the outcome of a series of
small power shifts triggered by pro-reform players. Reform
advocates devised them whenever opportunities arose and used
whatever maneuvering room there was to tilt the power
balance between agency and farmers to further the goals of
sustainability and partnership. The shifts were thought out
for their strategic value, but most came without a timeline

The author surveys the empirical literature on the political economy of agricultural protection. He uses a detailed data set of agricultural Political Action Committee (PAC) contributions over five U.S. congressional election cycles over the 1991-2000 period to investigate the relationship between lobbying spending and agricultural protection. A detailed graphical analysis of campaign contributions by the agricultural PACs indicates that although there are very many PACs, in most sectors the majority of contributions are made by very few PACs.

This Country-Level Effectiveness and
Accountability Review (CLEAR) examines the efficacy of
microfinance aid in Madagascar, based on an objective
analysis of donor assistance for the sustainable development
of financial systems targeting the poor. The three levels of
the financial system are the micro level (e.g., retail
institutions), the meso level (e.g., apex, technical service
providers), and the macro level (e.g., regulations and

The authors describe and analyze management in the Murray-Darling basin of Australia, long regarded as a model for integrated river basin management. This interior basin of over 1 million k

Economic progress in Macedonia has been
variable and slow during the last 10 years. This slow
progress is attributable to the succession of political and
economic shocks, and the failure to complete economic
reform. Agriculture is an important sector in the Macedonia
economy, with production and processing contributing around
18% of GDP. As a small economy with a structural deficit in
most food commodities, agricultural trade is essential for

This paper provides empirical evidence
of nonlinearity in the relationship between crop
specialization in a village economy and the extent of the
market (size of the urban market) relevant for the village.
The results suggest that the portfolio of crops in a village
economy becomes more diversified initially as the extent of
the market increases. However, after the market size reaches
a threshold, the production structure becomes specialized

This report is part of a strategy to
promotes trade competitiveness within the East Asia and
Pacific Region. It presents an overview of the logistics
issues facing East Asia countries and proposes a development
agenda for them. Based on the recognition that the
countries have basic differences in their level of
development, extent of openness, and composition of trade,
it begins by discussing the benefits of improved logistics.

This study provides a review of the food
and agricultural sector in Ukraine. It assesses the current
status of the food and agricultural sector with special
reference to the agricultural policy regime and the form and
level of government support to the sector. The paper reviews
the sector's readiness to compete on open global
markets for food and agricultural products. Given the
importance and sensitivity of the food and agriculture

This report provides recommendations on
how to better manage ongoing changes in livestock
development. First, it presents an overview of the main
trends that can be expected to drive the sector over the
next decades. Second it discusses the negative or positive
social, environmental, and health repercussions of those
trends, and the institutional, policy, and technical
requirements needed to manage them. It concludes with a

According to Myint's "vent-for-surplus"
theory, development of the economies of Indonesia, the
Philippines, and Thailand from the nineteenth century on
depended on the natural advantage of large tracts of unused
"empty land" with low population density and abundant natural
resources of the type typically found in Southeast Asia and
Africa at the outset of Western colonization. When these
economies were integrated into international trade, hitherto

This paper uses a duration analysis
based on adoption data spanning more than 25 years from six
communities in the Central Highlands of Guatemala. The
analysis explores how household characteristics and external
trends play into both the adoption and diffusion processes
of non-traditional exports among smallholders. Adoption was
initially widespread and rapid, which led nontraditional
exports to be hailed as a pro-poor success, reaching all but