This report analyzes the experience
of Mauritania with the Poverty Reduction Strategy (PRS)
process. The focus of the report is on evaluating the
performance of the World Bank in supporting the PRSP
initiative, not on appraising the authorities policies. The
report covers the formulation and implementation of the PRSP
and encompasses the two PRSP progress reports which have
been completed since the initiative was launched in

Extension services are a keystone of information diffusion in agriculture. This paper exploits a large randomized controlled trial to track diffusion of a new technique in the classic Training and Visit (T&V) extension model, relative to a more direct training model. In both control and treatment communities, contact farmers (CFs) serve as points-of-contacts between agents and other farmers. The intervention (Treatment) aims to address two pitfalls of the T&V model: i) infrequent extension agent visits, and ii) poor quality information.

Covers land law reform; the role of the full ‘bundle of land rights’, which extends well beyond ownership rights; how Rwanda’s Regional Crop Specialization Policy and Crop Intensification Programme work; the impact of land use consolidation, including on farmers’ resilience to climate change; and the government’s broader ‘target-driven’ approach to agricultural reform.

Using census data from the Censo
Agropecuario 1995-96, the authors map indicators of current
land use, and agricultural productivity across Brazil's
Legal Amazon, These data permit geographical resolution
about ten times finer than afforded by "municipio"
data, used in previous studies. The authors focus on the
extent, and productivity of pasture, the dominant land use
in Amazonia today. Simple tabulations suggest that most

Women make essential contributions to agriculture in developing countries, where they constitute approximately 43 percent of the agricultural labor force. However, female farmers typically have lower output per unit of land and are much less likely to be active in commercial farming than their male counterparts. These gender differences in land productivity and participation between male and female farmers are due to gender differences in access to inputs, resources, and services. In this paper, we review the evidence on productivity differences and access to resources.

The objective of this policy note on
land is to assist the Government of Moldova in improving the
effectiveness of land management in agriculture, with a view
to enhancing the sector's contribution to
Moldova's economic growth and poverty reduction
objectives. The note reviews the progress that has been
made to date on land reform in Moldova, and provides
rigorous economic analysis of the impacts of the reforms and

Deeper regional integration can be
beneficial especially for regions along international
borders. It can open up new markets on opposite sides of
borders and give consumers wider access to cheaper goods.
This paper uses data from five contiguous districts of
India, Nepal, and Bangladesh in the northeast of the
subcontinent to measure the degrees of trade complementarity
between districts. The paper illustrates that the regions

Private sugar processors in Andhra
Pradesh, India use an unusual form of vertical coordination.
They issue 'permits' to selected cane growers a
few weeks before harvest. These permits specify the amount
of cane to be delivered during a narrow time period. This
article investigates why processors create uncertainty among
farmers using ex post permits instead of ex ante production
contracts. The theoretical model predicts that ex post

This First Phase Report on Sierra Leone
growth poles is the result of a 9 months consultative
process led by the Office of the President which
specifically requested that the output of this diagnostic be
in an engaging format. The fundamental concept of growth
poles is that they exploit agglomeration economies and
spillover effects to spread resulting prosperity from the
core of the pole to the periphery. At the basis of this

In 2000, the Government of India
launched the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (hereinafter
PMGSY) with the primary objective of providing all-weather
road connectivity (with necessary culverts and
cross-drainage structures operable throughout the year), to
eligible unconnected habitations in rural areas. Currently,
about 60 percent of the 170,000 eligible habitations have a
road. By the end of 2010, expenditures for the program had

The authors develop a model of land
leasing with agents characterized by unobserved
heterogeneity in ability and presence of an off-farm labor
market. In this case, decentralized land rental may
contribute to equity and efficiency goals and may have
several advantages over administrative reallocation. The
extent to which this is true empirically is explored using
data from three of China's poorest provinces. The

After 15 years of political stagnation
due to political troubles from 1990 to 2005, Togo is now
enjoying political stability and economical revival.
Agricultural sector is doing especially well and the
government is reviewing the public expenditures in this
domain. The goal is to learn lessons from the past in terms
of budget and to increase the performances of the programs
to come. The objectives of this document are: a) better