Despite the growing attention on uncontrolled and unprofitable urban sprawling in many African countries, few pragmatic solutions have been raised or effectively implemented. While uncontrolled and unprofitable urban expansions happened primarily due to poor land use management and dysfunctional land market, the cost of land management enforcement and reform is high. This paper suggests that the recently re-emerging special economic zones (SEZs) in Africa could be a practical way of using government intervention to reduce uncontrolled urban expansion and optimize urban land use.

Traditional farming practice of rice field co-culture is a time-tested example of sustainable agriculture, which increases food productivity of arable land with few adverse environmental impacts. However, the small-scale farming practice needs to be adjusted for modern agricultural production. Screening of rice field co-culture farming models is important in deciding the suitable model for industry-wide promotion. In this study, we aim to find the optimal rice field co-culture farming models for large-scale application, based on the notion of food productivity.

Diversification has been increasingly recognized as a rewarding farm strategy through which farmers produce on-farm non-agricultural goods and services. In doing so, farmers employ farm inputs (capital, labor, and land) in products other than agricultural goods, with the aim to sell them in the market and increase their income. While a significant body of literature has explored the drivers affecting the adoption of diversification activities, so far little attention has been given to the impact of such adoption on the technical and financial performance of farms.