Dzud is the Mongolian term for a winter weather disaster in which deep snow, severe cold, or other conditions render forage unavailable or inaccessible and lead to high livestock mortality. Dzud is a regular occurrence in Mongolia, and plays an important role in regulating livestock populations. However, dzud, especially when combined with other environmental or socio-economic stresses and changes, can have a significant impact on household well-being as well as local and national economies.

The scope and urgency of the threats to
Nigeria's rural land are no secret. In 2005, a working
group dedicated to formulating a national agricultural land
policy began the process with a comprehensive articulation
of the challenges facing Nigeria's agricultural land.
The litany included recognition that: 1) agricultural land
use in the country has been unsustainable, resulting in no
fewer than eleven types of extensive land degradation and

This paper measures the economic impact
of climate on crops in Kenya. The analysis is based on
cross-sectional climate, hydrological, soil, and household
level data for a sample of 816 households, and uses a
seasonal Ricardian model. Estimated marginal impacts of
climate variables suggest that global warming is harmful for
agricultural productivity and that changes in temperature
are much more important than changes in precipitation. This

This study examines the impact of
climate change on crop farming in Cameroon. The
country's economy is predominantly agrarian and
agriculture and the exploitation of natural resources remain
the driving force for the country's economic
development. Fluctuations in national income are due not
merely to the decline in world demand for Cameroon's
traditional agricultural exports or to mistakes in economic

The Tanzania country office of the World
Bank has been exploring ways in which it can be more
responsive to Government in supporting the National Strategy
for Growth and Alleviation of Poverty (MKUKUTA) and ensuring
growth is an integral part of strategic planning. Given
Tanzania's great regional variations in resource
endowments, growth potential and degree of institutional
development, it was proposed that a regional case study of

This paper develops the structural
Ricardian method, a new approach to modeling agricultural
performance using cross-sectional evidence, and uses the
method to study animal husbandry in Africa. The model is
intended to estimate the structure beneath Ricardian results
in order to understand how farmers change their behavior in
response to climate. A survey of over 5,000 livestock
farmers in 10 countries reveals that the selection of

The objective of this study is to raise awareness and understanding of exposure and vulnerability to drought in Central Asian countries and the Caucasus and to introduce a strategic, pro-active framework of mitigation and prevention. The audiences of the report are the governments of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia in the Caucasus and Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and the Kyrgyz Republic in Central Asia. The report will further be of interest to NGOs and civil society, as well as donors.

The primary aim of this study is to investigate the size of the range lost to other forms of land uses. This will support the argument that it is time to reconsider the pastoralists sector as a legitimate mode of production in the country which, like other sectors, deserve due priority.

The objective of this report is to
identify ways of enhancing competitiveness through sector
reforms in Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, and Mali (the
Cotton-4). The report promotes best practices to manage cost
and define sales strategies so as to enhance the
contribution of the cotton sector to shared growth and
lessen the risk of contingent liabilities borne by the
countries. Areas of improvement, investigated in the report,