MoRST is evaluating the Environmental Research output class of the Public Good Science Fund to identify inter alia the impacts of Environmental RS&T spending. Three specific questions are: How effective has the funding on Environmental RS&T been? Is Environmental RS&T having a positive effect by delivering real benefits to New Zealand, particularly to the environment? What influences the link between research and tangible positive benefits?

The following article contains analysis of role played by the Agency of Agricultural Estates (in Polish: Agencja Nieruchomosci Rolnych – ANR) in the process of forming local development in rural areas. The Agency is in possession of the Resources of Agricultural Estates of National Treasury (in Polish: Zasoby Nieruchomosci Rolnych Skarbu Panstwa - ZNRSP). Due to wide-scale possibilities of acting, it has right to influence the estate market, housing economy, and development possibilities of rural municipalities.

The article analyses the impact of agricultural trade liberalisation on economic growth as well as on the welfare of rural livelihoods in developing countries through technological transformation in the agricultural sector. The article, based on existing literature, considers the background and reasons for the policy shift in developing economies away from agricultural protection and toward trade liberalisation. It attempts to shed light on the debate over the distributional consequences resulting from trade liberalisation.

Land as a resource of agricultural production is not fully exploited in Latvia, as approximately 400 thousand ha, according to the data in the identification system of agricultural parcels, were undeclared for the Single Area Payment Scheme in 2012 and, of the agricultural area, 10 % was uncultivated and 2% was overgrown. It creates unique opportunities and a potential for enhancing the management and use of land in the future to increase the output of agricultural products.

In the vicinity of a city, farmers are confronted with increasing agricultural land prices and rents along the rural-urban gradient, but they concurrently enjoy the advantages associated with proximityto a larger and wealthier consumer base. We hypothesize that farmers transition fromlow-value, land-intensive \traditional" crops to high-value, labor-intensive \specialized" crops on parcels located closer to urban centers. Once returns to development of a parcel exceed theprofits associated with farming, exurban farmers may sell their land for conversion to urban use.

This study was intended to develop an understanding of producer preference for land-based carbon sequestration in agriculture. We conducted a mail survey to elicit producer choice to provide marketable carbon offsets by participating in different carbon credit programs characterized by varying practices.

Soil fertility and the lack of fertilizer use in Africa are frequently discussed topics. Theproblems of land degradation and low agricultural productivity, which result in foodinsecurity and poverty, are particularly severe in the rural highlands of Ethiopia. Inmany areas, a downward spiral of land degradation and poverty appears to be occurring. Findingsolutions to these problems requires identifying effective entry points for farmers, governments,and civil society organizations, and understanding the potential impacts and tradeoffsthat are likely to arise from alternative interventions.

Policies play a pivotal role in determining land change. Uruguay has been subject to first a rise and then decline in plantations of exotic trees as a result of internal Uruguayan government policies, and a recent substantial increase in soybean cultivation that may be attributed to Argentinean policies. To properly assess the relationship between land change and changes in land-use policies, vegetation change for Uruguay from 2001 to 2009 was mapped using MODIS imagery.