Consolidation and post-consolidation development-related investments are an opportunity to improve living and working conditions of rural residents. Land consolidation is practically the only comprehensive tool to improve the shape of the transport network in the areas covered by this process. Moreover, improving the quality of the transport network is in fact one of the main objectives of land consolidation works.

The productivity and its performance is one of the core topics of economics studies. The growth of productivity is an indicator of competitiveness, as well as a possible way to achieve economic growth and wellbeing. After joining the EU, the agriculture of the Baltic countries faced increasing competition of the EU Single Market, while having relatively lower productivity indicators.

The second issue of the GRIPP Case Profile Series documents the use of water quotas and pricing mechanisms in Northwest China to control and manage groundwater. Since the 1970s, this region has experienced intensive groundwater abstraction by smallholder farmers. In 2002, however, the revised Water Law urged local authorities to regulate groundwater use in regions with overdraft. The Case Profile reviews, in detail, the use of smart card machines installed on wells by the local government to control abstraction.

Water management in Bangladesh is guided by an intended integrated and inclusive approach enshrined in government legislation since the late 1990s. Based on qualitative and quantitative data collected in the coastal zone, we assess the implementation of these policies with regard to women water uses. First, the analysis of reproductive and productive roles of women establishes that men have a significant role to play in domestic supply, and women use water extensively for small-scale agriculture and aquaculture, the scope of which has been underestimated.