The Government of Malawi has since 2005
been pursuing a growth strategy mainly based on increasing
the volume of agricultural exports. This entails that Malawi
should endeavor to improve the competitiveness of its
agricultural commodities so as to gain an increasing share
of the regional and international markets. This paper
analyzes the competitiveness of the country's key
agricultural commodities -- tobacco, maize, cotton, and rice

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

Over the past century or so, a wide
assortment of pre-harvest agreements, joint ventures, deals,
and pledges that can be termed contract farming have been
brokered between farmers and buyers. During the 1980s and
1990s, contract farming was frequently criticized as a
potentially exploitative arrangement, which favored the more
powerful buyer and left the small-scale farmer and the
environment vulnerable to abuse. More recently, there is

In the past 50 years, Indian agriculture
has undergone a major transformation, from dependence on
food aid to becoming a consistent net food exporter. The
gradual reforms in the agricultural sector (following the
broader macro-reforms of the early 1990s) spurred some
unprecedented innovations and changes in the food sector
driven by private investment. These impressive achievements
must now be viewed in light of the policy and investment

Mongolia’s ongoing economic transition generates levels of uncertainty that often inhibit investments in
productivity and marketing improvements on the part of producers and processors. This study was undertaken to identify gaps in policies, laws, regulations, and practices from production
to the consumer end point, and to stimulate discussions about how to leverage the agriculture sector’s
potential contributions to national development objectives.

Agricultural risk management is a
central issue that Mozambique faces in development, and
multiple stakeholders have analyzed this challenge,
sometimes with different terminology and focusing on varying
aspects. The government of Mozambique has adopted the
strategic plan for agricultural development (PEDSA 2010-19)
that focuses on: (i) increasing the availability of food in
order to reduce hunger through growth in small producer

Almost a decade after large land-based
investment for agriculture increased sharply, opinions on
its impact continue to diverge, partly because (positive or
negative) spillovers on neighboring smallholders have never
been rigorously assessed. Applying methods from the urban
literature on Mozambican data suggests that changes in the
number and area of large farms within 25 or 50 kilometers of
these investments raised use of improved practices, animal

Agriculture is among the most risk-prone
sectors in the economies of Central Asia. Production shocks
from weather, pests and diseases and adverse movements in
agricultural product and input prices not only impact
farmers and agri-business firms, but can also strain
government finances. Some of these risks are small and
localized and can be managed by producers. Others are the
result of more severe, exogenous shocks outside agriculture

The main focus of this book is land
redistribution. To forge greater consensus among
practitioners of land reform, and to enable them to make
better choices among the many options, the book describes
and analyzes alternative broad paths of implementation,
using examples and the detailed implementation mechanisms
that were used in those examples. The objectives of this
book are to review and analyze: a) the growing consensus on

As in other societies in Southeast Asia
and the Pacific, customary social organization features
strongly in rural Timor-Leste. As well as providing avenues
for conflict resolution, the influence of customary systems
extends to land tenure. As the state, development partners,
private investors, non-governmental organizations (NGOs),
and others seek to promote rural development in Timor-Leste,
they will be forced to engage in some way with customary

The Vietnamese government is currently attempting to upgrade rice value chains in the Mekong River Delta by encouraging (i) vertical coordination between exporters and farmers through contract farming, and (ii) horizontal coordination among farmers through the “small farmers, large field” program. Previous studies on the determinants of contract farming participation assume that firms offer only a single contract type, whereas in reality, farmers may face a continuum of exclusive contract options.

There is uncertainty and controversy surrounding the potential impacts of commercial agricultural developments being proposed for sub-Saharan Africa by domestic governments and foreign investors. Much of the debate concerns how Africa’s rural poor could be affected. The paper assesses the historical experience of three farming models that have figured in recent investments in sub-Saharan Africa: plantations, contract farming and commercial farming areas.