Onset risk, the uncertainty in the onset of rainy season, is an important element of weather risk for African farmers with little access to formal insurance who engage in traditional rainfed farming. A knowledge gap still exists empirically on how onset risk may affect the investment decisions of these farmers. In particular, farm productivity in Africa still depends on substantial labor inputs at the onset of the rainy season, sometimes involving seasonal migration to rural areas.

Ethiopia’s economy has experienced rapid growth in recent years. Although growth in agricultural gross domestic product (GDP) from 1998 to 2007 was less rapid than in other parts of the economy, agriculture also performed well, growing faster than the rural population. However, poverty is still severe in Ethiopia and is concentrated in rural areas. To accelerate growth and poverty reduction, Ethiopia’s national strategy affords an important role to agriculture as a source of both growth and development for the broader economy.

In the last 30 years, palm oil production has known a ninefold increase, with almost all production growth concentrated in Malaysia and Indonesia. Several public reports have associated the palm oil boom with extensive deforestation, often pointing to the increase in biofuel demand in developed nations as a main driver of this phenomenon. Other demand drivers, especially as related to the food sector, have not been studied as much.

In recent years, microfinance institutions are seen as beacons of hope to help eradicate poverty through, among others, providing credit to poor rural households. Availability of small but repeated loans is, in the long-term, expected to impact on poverty. However, decades after the introduction of microfinance institutions into many rural areas, there are still questions as to what extent such long-term benefits are realized.

Sustaining the environmental, social, and economic development in Manupali watershed in southern Philippines is highly dependent on equitable allocation of water use rights and judicious utilization of water as a scarce resource. There are many stakeholders and water users: smallholder farmers, indigenous people, multi-national companies, the local government, the National Irrigation Administration, and the National Power Corporation (Pulangui IV). As demand for water outstrips supply, conflict arises between different user groups over who can use water and how much each one can use.

Endowed with 80 million hectares of arable land (of which only 10 percent are used), diverse climatic conditions, and abundant water resources, the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has the potential to become the breadbasket of the entire African continent. Instead, the country is one of the most affected by malnutrition. The DRC has the highest number of undernourished persons in Africa and the highest prevalence of malnutrition in the world. As a result, child stunting and infant mortality rates in the DRC are also among the highest in the world.

In an effort to inform strategic options to improve agricultural productivity, we examine the impact of social service expenditures on the marginal productivity of agricultural inputs. Increasing agricultural productivity is often advocated as a way to reduce poverty, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, where many people still rely on agriculture as their main source of income. Unfortunately, limited national budgets are often focused on meeting short-term needs rather than on making longer-term, growth-enhancing investments in agriculture and rural areas.

This article examines the processes of change in a large lagoon system, and its implications for how commons can be managed as commons in the long run. We use two related concepts in our analysis of change: commonisation and decommonisation; commonisation is understood as a process through which a resource gets converted into a jointly used resource under commons institutions that deal with excludability and subtractability, and decommonisation refers to a process through which a jointly used resource under commons institutions loses these essential characteristics.

The final round of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN's Committee on Food Security-led Intergovernmental Negotiations on the Voluntary Guidelines on the Responsible Governance of Tenure of Land, Fisheries and Forests in the Context of National Food Security will take place March 5-9, 2012 in Rome.
Read CFS Chairman Yaya Asisa Olaitan Olaniran's Invitation Letter to the final round of negotiations on the Voluntary Guidelines.

USAID's Property Rights and Artisanal Diamond Development (PRADD) project has partnered with the Gemological Institute of America (GIA) to provide training to twenty miners in Africa in Spring 2012.
Click Here to read the Press Release from GIA.