The development experience indicates a strong link between rural development and poverty reduction. In Pakistan agriculture is the major source of economic growth, employment and livelihood. The agricultural productivity is low and many factors are responsible for its low productivity. Majority of rural population is marginalized in terms of access to physical and social assets, and in terms of institutions and inequality. Rural poor lack access to instruments to mitigate and cope with shocks that affect their well being and ability to come out of poverty.

There is a paucity of research on micro-level assessment of the dynamics of socio-economic status following health interventions. The use of household asset data to determine wealth indices is a common procedure for estimating socio-economic position in low-income countries. Indeed, in such settings information about income is usually lacking and the collection of individual consumption or expenditure data would require in-depth interviews, posing a considerable risk of bias.

This article analysed farmers' perceptions of the effects of coconut mite in their livelihood and assessed crop diversification as a copping strategy for reduced coconut production. A socio-economic model of farmers' decisions on intercropping as an indicator for overall crop diversity was developed. The study was conducted between November 2009 and March 2010 in five districts in Tanzania, which were selected on the basis of the coconut's economic importance, using structured questionnaires which were administered to 200 household heads.

The objective of this study was to describe the relationship among range condition scores, tenure system, management practices and bio-physical variables for 107 communal ejido ranches and 373 private ranches in Sonora, Mexico. The data was obtained from assessments of range condition and recommended carrying capacity for individual ranch units that were completed between 1973 and 1993 by the Comision Tecnica para la Determinacion de Coeficientes de Agostadero.

Through careful management and policy formulation, modern bioenergy programmes could be important for rural development globally. Discussions over sustainable bioenergy use are focused on high level mechanisms (e.g. certification and legislation), led by developed world institutions. Full stakeholder participation, involving all relevant groups, is vital to successfully incorporating sustainability into planning.

The land-cover/use change dynamics in Manica Province in Mozambique are analysed, based upon interpretation of LANDSAT images, to assess trends and highlight management suggestions considering current policies in place that include the ownership and participation of local communities in natural resources management and the recognition of traditional ownership systems. Applying an object-oriented approach to compare the year 2004 with 1990, one observes that land-cover/use changes are not distributed evenly in the province.

The objective of this article is to provide new empirical evidence on landlord-tenant choices of share versus cash-rent contracts in U.S. agriculture. The focus is on the contribution of explanatory variables that represent transaction costs, risk-sharing incentives, or both. An empirical model of contract choice is tested against the 1999 Agricultural Economics and Land Ownership Survey (AELOS) and finds mixed evidence for low transaction cost and risk-sharing-incentive motives for landlord-tenant choices of a share versus cash-rent contract.

As a result of the Land Reform, property forming and land market, farm areas were often built up from a number of land plots (up to 20), sometimes with unfavourable order. With the rural development and stabilization of farm production, the role and tasks of rational territory organization are expected to increase significantly in the area. It can be forecasted that, as a result of land rent and further purchase and sell, and other transactions, many new farmland properties are expected to appear that will not correspond to the requirements of rational territorial organization.

For over a century the foundation of biological conservation has been the development of open space networks either through outright public land acquisition or appropriate management of private lands. Because both approaches come with significant trade-offs, it is critical to understand which species are found across various land ownership types so that policy tools and management actions can efficiently be targeted to do the most good.

Assessing factors influencing phosphorus (P) availability in soils is important in preventing its overexploitation and excessive application in agricultural systems. Despite high historical P applications in the federal state of Brandenburg (Germany), county data on soil test P (STP) reveal considerable disparities in soil available P. In addition, negative soil balances as a result of small mineral P and manure inputs have been observed, raising questions about the factors leading to this situation.