Livestock intensification in developing countries, especially in Africa and Asia, may increase the incidence of epidemics that kill both humans and animals, the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) warns. Livestock numbers are rising sharply due to population growth and the rise in affluence, as both factors lead to increased demand for milk, meat and eggs. 

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 study also assesses gender differences in productivity. The paper finds that a precise measure of women’s contribution to food production is impossible to establish. In general women do not produce food separately from men and it is impossible to disaggregate men and women’s contributions either in terms of labor supplied or in terms of output produced.

In 1991, Terminology for Grazing Lands and Grazing Animals was published with the objective of ‘developing a consensus of clear definitions of terms used in the grazing of animals.’ This first effort involved primarily organizations and agencies within the USA but included representation from New Zealand and Australia. It was the intent from the beginning to expand this to a truly international effort at a later date.

In countries where a large proportion of the total land area is held customarily, reform questions around land and development often tend to focus on the customary estate. Evidence from Solomon Islands suggests that a focus on public land holdings, even when they are relatively small in land area, can yield outsized benefits. Publicly owned land regularly includes economically valuable land and urban land on which development pressure is high. In Solomon Islands, as much as 10 percent of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) may be affected by how effectively urban public land is governed.

Cattle are one of the main instruments for economic (e.g., milk, meat, and cattle sale) and social (e.g., marriage, death, dispute settlement, and gift giving) exchange in Uganda. They serve as the main source of livelihood for a large majority of rural Ugandans, especially in the cattle corridor. Recent statistics demonstrate that the livestock sector contributes 13.1 percent of the agricultural gross domestic product (GDP) and 5 percent of the national GDP.

This report is the outcome of assessment and is intended as an advisory note to the Ministry of Agriculture (MoA) and Guyana Rice Development Board (GRDB) to enable them to identify a strategy and potential public investments to improve current risk-management practices in the rice supply chain. This report identifies the major risks facing the rice supply chain, ranks them in terms of their potential impact and frequency, and offers a framework for improving current risk-management practices.

East Java is the second largest contributor to Indonesia's economy with a growth rate similar to national level and other major provinces in Java. Nevertheless, for a province that is expected to be a major economic center in the country, there has been very little change in the region's economic structure in the past 10 years. Since 1995, the share of industry and agriculture in the economy is almost unchanged. Furthermore, the growth in both of these two sectors has been low, despite the fact that industry was once the main driver of the East Java economy.

In Ethiopia, village surveys were conducted in six villages and two expert workshops were organized to discuss the organization of the study and to evaluate the draft results. Based on household surveys, focus group discussions, and institutional stakeholder interviews, we assessed household vulnerability, analyzed the strategies households adopt to reduce the hazards faced, and evaluated the assistance households receive from institutions. Vulnerability profiles were formulated, which show that household vulnerability differs substantially among and within villages.

Agricultural investments made by developing countries and multilateral development banks (MDBs) have declined in recent decades. This decline is associated with a slowdown in the growth of agriculture productivity. Most development institutions have recognized the damage caused by this past neglect, in part evident in rising food prices, and renewed attention to agriculture and agribusiness is emerging. But this renewed interest will need to deliver results, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the MDBs have had the least success but where the needs and opportunities are enormous.

Covers world agriculture, a changing context; scale and geography of the phenomenon, key players; the nature of the land deals, process and terms; implications for local land access; conclusion and recommendations.

This paper describes in Part I Overview of the Employment Situation Part II deals with the problem of labour absorption in the industrial sector while part III provides an account of labour absorption in agriculture. Part IV contains the conclusions and recommendations of the study.

Prepared by the Research Institute of Organic Agriculture, this in-depth report seeks to shed light on the climate mitigation potential of agriculture. It argues that with an increasing demand for food, global agriculture will soon become the dominant area of greenhouse emissions, with the two main sources being nitrous oxide from the soil and methane from animal farming (of particular concern as developing countries convert increasingly to a high-protein, 'western', diet). The scientific case for the significance of agricultural emissions is presented in parts one to six of the report.