The Roles of Agriculture (ROA) project findings call attention to a diverse set of indirect environmental, social and economic contributions of agriculture. A key motivation for this work is to provide information and tools to guide policy decisions for improved development strategies, especially for sustainable rural development. To date, the ROA project has produced an analytical framework, including background papers and methodological notes, as a basis for conducting eleven case studies in countries representing different stages of the development spectrum and differing geophysical and social-economic conditions. The common framework was used by national research teams to document various roles of agriculture in China, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Ethiopia, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Mali, Mexico, Morocco, and South Africa.