The West Asia–North Africa (WANA) region has a land area of 1.7 billion ha, and a population of 600 million. Desertification and soil degradation are severe problems in the region. The problem of drought stress is exacerbated by low and erratic rainfall and soils of limited available water holding capacity and soil organic carbon (SOC) content of less than 0.5 per cent. The SOC pool of most soils has been depleted by soil degradation and widespread use of subsistence and exploitative farming systems.

Using a household bioeconomic modelling approach, this paper analyses the impact of advancing in-kind credit in the form of fertilizer and seed on smallholder farmers with different levels of wealth in the Ethiopian highlands. Cropland allocation and household consumption patterns are examined in relation to credit availability. The paper then explores appropriate policy mechanisms for advancing credit to smallholder farmers in order to encourage intensification.

Published in ?Tropical Medicine and International Health, Vol.6, No.1, pp.46-54, January 2001.? The complete article is available on the CD-ROM version of this Annual Report.

In het landinrichtingsgebied Olst-Wesepe is de consequentie van het vigerende water- en natuurbeleid dat er een relatief groot oppervlak gronden aan de landbouw moet worden ont-trokken (aankoop) om zaken als ruimte voor waterberging, landschap en natuur te realiseren. De landinrichtingscommissie heeft ALTERRA opdracht gegeven te onderzoeken of er alternatieven zijn voor aankoop: kunnen die doelstellingen ook gerealiseerd worden door aanpassingen in de agrarische bedrijfsvoering voor te stellen, zodat meerboer(en) kunnen blijven, maar ook de beleidsdoelstellingen duurzaam gewaarborgd zijn.

De landbouw kan worden getypeerd met vier ontwikkelingsrichtingen: grootschalige grondgebonden productie, geconcentreerde agroproductieparken, belevingslandbouw en agrarisch natuur- en landschapsbeheer. De richtingen hebben uiteenlopende perspectieven en ruimtelijke effecten: deze worden beschreven. Tevens zijn kaarten opgenomen met kansrijke locaties

This conmpendium of recent sustainable development initiatives in the field of agriculture and land management has been developed as a supporting document for the Task Manager's Report on the Land and Agriculture Cluster for Chapters 10, 12 and 14 of Agenda 21. The report draws together 75 cases from over 45 countries, illustrating the many features of improved land management and sustainable agriculture and rural development.

Land and land reform cover a great range, both in terms of the geographical and development status of the countries considered, and of the variety of perspectives on the issues. The articles in this issue of Land Reform, Land Resettlement and Cooperatives reflect this breadth in a variety of ways. The articles range geographically from the paper addressing land and agrarian reform in Colombia, by Professor Darío Fajardo, to a consideration of the land reforms currently under way in Scotland, by Douglas Macmillan, Ken Thomson and Bill Slee.

The world is witnessing a period in its history when the increasing socio-political upheavals are taking the lives of thousands, and destroying the natural wealth of our planet. Poverty and food insecurity are two key forces driving this destruction. These ongoing problems compound those already being posed by an increasing shortage of water, scarcity of productive land, an expanding population, and the threat of global warming.

The Act provides for the general principles of civil law of Estonia. Notably, it defines the concepts of movable and immovable property defining the latter as a delimited part of land (plot of land). The essential parts of an immovable are the things permanently attached to it, such as buildings, standing crop, other vegetation and unharvested fruit.