Includes agriculture, pro-poor growth and rural livelihoods: debates, scales and guidelines; land, farm size and food security; supermarkets and contract farming; gender and agricultural growth; promoting agriculture in post-conflict states. A number of Topic Guides are being produced for DFID’s Climate, Environment, Infrastructure and Livelihoods Advisers.

This report highlights the great potential of the agribusiness sector in Africa by drawing on experience in Africa as well as other regions. The evidence demonstrates that good policies, a conducive business environment, and strategic support from governments can help agribusiness reach its potential. Africa is now at a crossroads, from which it can take concrete steps to realize its potential or continue to lose competitiveness, missing a major opportunity for increased growth, employment, and food security. The report pursues several lines of analysis.

The World Bank has provided technical
assistance (TA) support to the Government of Samoa to help
identify measures to strengthen agriculture sector
institutions, to improve the performance of selected
commodities - including livestock, fruits and vegetables and
organic products - and to identify strategic agriculture
infrastructure investments. This report provides information
and analysis on opportunities for further development of

This report summarizes the main outputs
of the technical assistance provided which was concentrated
in three areas: (1) development of MAIL's strategic
priorities and investments for the immediate future/short
term, medium term and longer term; (2) advising Ministry of
Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) regarding the
design of an appropriate structure of the Ministry and
definition of corresponding responsibilities; (3)

Contract farming is one of the illustrated examples of the impact of globalization and liberalized economic policy in the agriculture sector. While the farm sector is facing an identity crisis amidst growing dominance of the industrial sector, contract farming helped to create a new hope in this scenario. It established a link between the farm sector and the corporate sector too. This way it created new prospects for the agricultural sector, and added to the dignity of the farmer. However, the actual practice was often not so farmer-friendly.

This study investigates the gender dimensions of the socioeconomic outcomes of selected agricultural investments in Northern Tanzania. The report draws on a review of the literature and on field research conducted in 2011. Fieldwork mainly involved stakeholder interviews and focus groups discussions with investors, local farmers, outgrowers and wage workers involved with two private-sector companies – in horticulture and jatropha – and with group-based producer schemes organized with the assistance of a member-based organization.

In order to check and promote the positive synergies between private companies and rural households, an analysis of past and ongoing experiences of contract farming is required. It represents the main objective of this report. The objectives of this study are to: describe the effects of contract farming schemes, characterize the factors limiting or promoting these various impacts, identify key findings to promote the emergence of positive synergies.

Agriculture in Tanzania accounts for 28 percent of the country's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employs 80 percent of its labor force. The sector is also an important source of export revenues. The data and findings presented in this report provide a summary of the performance of the agriculture sector in Tanzania using a set of indicators covering six areas.

In the future scenario for livestock development, there is a continuing role for smallholder producers, particular for dairy and small ruminants, relying heavily on grass and crop-residues, however in a growth mode, intensifying production, and enhancing the efficiency of resource use (less land, labor and feed resources per unit product). In particular improving the efficiency of converting feed into milk and meat will be critical to increase their income.

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

Stimulating agricultural growth is
critical to reducing poverty in Africa. Commercial
agriculture, potentially a powerful driver of agricultural
growth, can develop along a number of pathways. Yet many
developing regions have failed to progress very far along
any of these pathways. Particularly in Africa, agriculture
continues to lag. During the past 30 years the
competitiveness of many African export crops has declined,

This study, competitiveness of the value
chain of the agricultural sector in Cameroon, aims to help
the Government achieve its objectives for the rural sector.
The main objective of this study was to provide information
on the potentials, investment and growth policies of
commercial agriculture in Cameroon. It gives an overview of
the constraints and analyzes the national, regional or
international competitiveness of six value chains of the