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If women hold up half the sky, how much of the world’s food do they produce?
03/2011
This paper explores, conceptually and empirically, the question of how much food is produced by women. Data for labour inputs and agricultural output are used to assess women's contribution to food and agricultural production.
The role of women in agriculture
03/2011
Agriculture can be an important engine of growth and poverty reduction. But the sector is underperforming in many countries in part because women, who are often a crucial resource in agriculture and the rural economy, face constraints that reduce their productivity.
The filters to exit rural poverty – An analysis of the complementarities of assets in developing countries
02/2011
This paper explores a 15-country household database to evaluate the impact of three key assets (land, education and infrastructure) on rural poverty. Using both a descriptive analysis and a quadratic probit model, with the probability of being poor as a function of these three assets, the paper concludes that household access to education and infrastructure are positively associated with higher incomes, while the impact of land holdings varies across countries.
A model of vulnerability to food insecurity
08/2010
The more widely used food security analysis methods mainly consider current access to food, failing to provide policy makers with forward-looking information. While drawing on household survey data, the vulnerability analysis model presented here provides estimates of the probability that a given household will lose or gain access to sufficient food in the near future.
Measuring dietary energy deficiency and the impact of food price variations at the household level – A methodological note on the micro-analysis of undernourishment
07/2010
FAO is the main provider of country-level estimates of undernourishment covering the whole world. Its methodology has the main advantage of facilitating comparisons across countries and over time, but also...
Rising food prices and undernourishment – A cross-country inquiry
02/2010
Households’ welfare in developing countries has been hit by dramatic food prices increases which occurred between 2005 and 2008. In this paper, we adopt a partial equilibrium approach to analyze...
New tools for old problems – Can payments for watershed services support sustainable agricultural development in Africa?
09/2009
Agriculture affects both the quantity and quality of water available for other uses, and under current production systems the impact is often negative. Adopting sustainable land management (SLM) practices can foster a more efficient water use and increase agricultural productivity, while reducing environmental risk from water pollution and regulating flows serving downstream communities.
A profile of the rural poor
03/2009
This paper has two main objectives. Firstly, it provides an overview of trends in the magnitude, location and nature of rural poverty, with emphasis on least developed countries. Secondly, it offers new evidence that advances our understanding of rural poverty.
Rural population change in developing countries – Lessons for policymaking
11/2008
Rural agriculture uses more than one-third of the earth’s land and employs more than 40% of the population, a figure that approaches 75% in developing countries.
Wage inequality in international perspective – Effects of location, sector, and gender
11/2008
This paper uses the well-known Oaxaca-Blinder decomposition technique to understand the determinants of wage-gaps between men and women, between urban and rural workers, and between those employed in the rural agricultural versus the rural non-agricultural sectors, for the 14 developing and transition economies in the RIGA-L dataset.
The impact of rising food prices on the poor
10/2008
This paper analyzes the household level impact of an increase in price of major tradable staple foods in a cross section of developing countries, using nationally representative household surveys.
A back of the envelope estimation of the effect of soaring food prices on world hunger
09/2008
This paper suggests a methodology for estimating the effects of higher food prices on global undernourishment. The paper also presents the results of its implementation. The merits and drawbacks of this methodology are also discussed.
Have recent increases in international cereal prices been transmitted to domestic economies? The experience in seven large Asian countries
04/2008
International cereal prices (in US dollar terms) have been increasing since 2003, but it is domestic prices that affect food consumption and production. This paper analyzes, for seven large Asian countries, the extent to which domestic prices have increased since 2003 and presents several conclusions.
Agency, education and networks – Gender and international migration from Albania
02/2008
Our paper examines the causes and dynamics of the shift in the gender composition of migration, and more particularly, in the access of women to migration opportunities and decision making. We do this in the context of Albania, a natural laboratory for studying migration developments given that out-migration was practically eliminated from the end of WWII to the end of the 1980s.
Linkages between farm and non-farm sectors at the household level in rural Ghana – A consistent stochastic distance function approach
02/2008
In the light of an expanding rural non-farm sector in developing rural economies, this paper explores the effects of this expansion within the household.
Understanding the dynamics of food insecurity and vulnerability in Orissa, India
11/2007
This paper documents the main findings of a study on food insecurity and vulnerability in the Indian state of Orissa in support of promoting interventions for food security and livelihoods at state level. A similar study was undertaken in Himachal Pradesh, India.
Food prices and food security in Trinidad and Tobago
11/2007
The economy of Trinidad and Tobago is booming, in particular as a consequence of increased energy production and the historical high oil prices. Whilst general inflation has remained relatively low for much of the present economic boom, substantial increases in retail food prices have been observed, in particular since 2005.
Agricultural policy impact analysis with multi-market models: a primer
11/2007
Many governments intervene directly in agricultural product, in particular food, markets. A quantitative assessment of the impact of the policy changes on the desired objectives is important as it helps inform and shape the policy debate on the reform alternatives and increases transparency of government policy.
An assessment of the impact of higher yields for maize, soybean and cassava in Indonesia – A multi-market model approach
11/2007
The changing structure of food demand will generate pressure to diversify away from cereals. It is therefore important that cereal productivity increases be maintained to free land as well as to meet the rising demand for animal feed.
Rural income generating activities: whatever happened to the institutional vacuum? Evidence from Ghana, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Vietnam
11/2007
This paper assesses the current rural development practice against the main trends in recent rural development thinking, based on evidence from four country case studies.