In this article, we use a probit model to assess the factors that will influence the decision of Irish farmers to adopt genetically modified (GM) technology should they be given a choice in the near future of selecting between GM and non-GM varieties of crops. The results from the probit model indicate that among the likely early adopters of GM technology in Ireland are farmers with large farm acreage who are specialist crop farmers and who have formal agricultural education together with access to high-quality soils.

Farming activities are major drivers of the landscape-related ecological patterning because of their multiple influences on both non-arable and arable landscape elements and mosaics. Uncertainties still remain about the way individual farmer decisions and the aggregation of their activities in space contribute to these mosaics at local landscape scales, therefore about possible levers of action in farms for ensuring sustainable landscapes. The general objective of the present study was to give an assessment of the way farms contribute to crop-mosaic patterning at local landscape scales.

The design of public policy related to irrigation sectors in North Africa was often based on the state view. Local farmers' organizations, made up of family farms, did not contribute to building the legal framework, which was in turn unable to propose specific solutions for family farming. Legal reforms currently underway in Morocco and Algeria show how difficult it is to integrate field realities. Access to land and water resources is often obtained through informal local coordination modes.

Three smallholder villages located in typical communal (from 1948), old (1987) and new (2002) resettlement areas, on loamy sand, sandy loam and clay soils, respectively, were selected to explore differences on natural resource management and land productivity. Focus group discussions and surveys were carried out with farmers. Additionally, farmers in three wealth classes per village were chosen for a detailed assessment of their main production systems.

The economic value of the Upper Tuul ecosystem in Mongolia reports on a study carried out under the auspices of the World Bank and the Government of Mongolia. The goal of the study was to improve understanding about the economic value of the Upper Tuul ecosystem for Ulaanbaatar's water supplies and how this might be affected by different land and resource management options in the future.

The point of departure of this paper is that in the absence of effectively functioning asset markets the distribution of wealth matters for efficiency. Inefficient asset markets depress total factor productivity (TFP) in two ways: first, by not allowing efficient firms to grow to the size that they should achieve (this could include many great firms that are never started); and second, by allowing inefficient firms to survive by depressing the demand for factors (good firms are too small) and hence factor prices.

The report is an initiative of the Agriculture and Rural Development Department (ARD) of the World Bank. Aquaculture is the fastest-growing food sector in the world and is expected to contribute more than 50 percent of total fish consumption by 2020. Just over 90 percent of aquaculture production originates in Asia, and nearly 70 percent in China alone. Efforts to expand aquaculture production to meet the ever increasing worldwide demand for seafood continue.

The World Bank group, among the world's largest development institutions, is a major source of financial and technical assistance to developing countries around the world. In fiscal 2009, the World Bank group sponsored 767 projects with a total commitment of $58.8 billion, distributed in credits, loans, grants, and guarantees. This fiscal year's funding marks a 54 percent increase over the previous fiscal year and a record high for the Bank group.

Three out of every four poor people in developing countries live in rural areas, and most of them depend directly or indirectly on agriculture for their livelihoods. In many parts of the world, women are the main farmers or producers, but their roles remain largely unrecognized. The 2008 World development report: agriculture for development highlights the vital role of agriculture in sustainable development and its importance in achieving the millennium development goal of halving by 2015 the share of people suffering from extreme poverty and hunger.