We preliminarily find that providing sustainable land management (SLM) training to standard contact farmers and having them maintain demonstration plots within the community on a whole had low impact on the knowledge and adoption of SLM practices. However, the aspect of our intervention that targeted a traditionally disadvantaged group as far as their access to extension services, women, was somewhat successful in terms of improving their SLM knowledge and adoption rates. Having a female contact farmer increased the number of SLM techniques adopted by women by 10 percent.

CONTENTS:; African Stakeholders Committed to Building Consensus on Biotechnology. 2; A Safety Net with Investments in Children. 3; Assisting China with Rural Development Challenges. 3; Interview with Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister of India. 4; Commentary: Managing Water Competition in South Asia. 7; Putting Gender into the Global Food Picture. 8; IMPACT Software Now Available. 8; Building Public-Private Partnerships for Agricultural Innovation. 9

In 1997, CARE-Bangladesh undertook a livelihood security assessment of urban slum households in the cities of Tongi, Khulna and Bogra. Based on the findings of that study and a review of secondary literature, the SHAHAR (Supporting Household Activities for Health, Assets and Revenue) project was conceptualized and designed.

Customary land areas in Western Ghana have been evolving towards individualized ownership. Inherited and temporarily allocated family lands are being transferred to wives and children as inter-vivos gifts, to be planted with cocoa. Giving gifts is a way to circumvent the traditional Akan matrilineal land inheritance system in which land is transferred from a deceased man to his matrilineal relatives but not to his wife and children.

"Close to one billion people worldwide depend directly upon the drylands for their livelihoods. Because of their climatic conditions and political and economic marginalization drylands also have some of the highest incidents of poverty. Pastoral and sedentary production systems coexist in these areas and both very often use common property arrangements to manage access and use of natural resources. Despite their history of complementary interactions, pastoralists and sedentary farmers are increasingly faced with conflicting claims over land and other natural resources.

In 1987, an improved resource management system that incorporates velvet bean (Mucuna pruriens var. utilis) to address soil fertility and weed (Imperata cylindrica) infestation was introduced to the small-scale farmers in a densely populated area of the derived savannas in Benin Republic (West Africa). Six years later, an adoption study was conducted to assess factors driving the adoption process. Four types of land tenure systems based on mode of access to land were identified: divided inheritance, purchasing, gifts, and sharecropping/renting.

"Using survey data from the Upper East region of Ghana collected in 2005, the paper evaluates the household- and community-level factors influencing women’s and men’s decisions to participate in off-farm activities, either in the off-farm labor market or in local community groups, and the relationship with on-farm crop returns. Results indicate that crop returns are not affected by increased labor availability over a certain labor-land ratio.

This paper analyzes how women’s participation affects institutional outcomes related to the decentralized governance of community forests in Madhya Pradesh, India. The analysis is based on data from a representative sample of 641 cases of joint forest management, India’s flagship program to involve communities in forest governance. We focus on two outcomes relevant for local livelihoods: control of illicit grazing and control of illicit felling in the forest.

Despite the fact that nonincome dimensions of well-being such as nutrition and health are now placed on the global development agenda, substantial gaps remain in our knowledge about patterns and trends in nutrition inequalities in many developing countries.

Since 2003, economic growth in Nigeria has been strong. Annual GDP grew by 9.1 percent per annum between 2003 and 2005 and by 6 .1 percent per annum between 2006 and 2008. Much of this growth can be attributed to the non-oil economy which has grown rapidly. This is due primarily to agriculture, which contributes approximately 35 percent to total GDP and supports 70 percent of the population. Agricultural research has been shown to be crucial in increasing agricultural productivity and reducing poverty. A study by Alene et al.

"Land is still among the most important assets of the rural population in the developing world. Land resources are governed by a variety of tenure systems based on statutory, customary, or religious law. At the same time, many national, subnational, and local institutions administer the application and enforcement of these laws, relying on a wide variety of policies, rules, and regulations that promote different practices for using and managing land and land-based resources.

This paper explores the global prevalence of an emerging phenomenon: the coexistence of a stunted child and an overweight mother in the same household. It also tests whether this phenomenon is associated with a country's level of economic development and urbanization. Policy directions for public nutrition are highlighted. Data from 36 Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) were used (23 in Africa, 8 in Latin America, and 5 in Asia). Stunting was defined as height-for-age 25 kg/m 2 .