Agricultural and Rural Development Notes

59 items available

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http://hdl.handle.net/10986/9390

This series on commodity risk management aims to disseminate the results of World Bank research that describes the feasibility of developing countries’ ability to utilize market-based tools to mitigate risks associated with commodity price volatility and weather.

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Bioenergy Development : Issues and Impacts for Poverty and Natural Resource Management

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-08) Cushion, Elizabeth ; Dieterle, Gerhard ; Whiteman, Adrian

The last five to ten years have seen a strong resurgence of interest in bioenergy along with the gradual development of more modern and efficient bioenergy production systems. This has been driven by several factors including instability in oil producing regions, financial market shift of investments in 2007-2008 to commodities and oil, extreme weather events, and surging energy demand from developing countries. Bioenergy developments present both opportunities and challenges for socioeconomic development and the environment and have a number of potential impacts on forests and the rural poor who depend on forests for their livelihoods. In developing countries, the impact of bioenergy on poverty alleviation will depend on the opportunities that are presented for agricultural development, including income and employment generation and the potential to increase poor peoples' access to improved types of bioenergy. There are significant concerns surrounding the efficiency of different bioenergy options to combat climate change, the impact on agriculture, food security and sustainable forest management and the social impacts of bioenergy development, particularly related to land use changes, land tenure, and land rights. Food insecurity may result if staple crops are used for energy production or land conflicts and if production displaces local communities or restricts access to land. The environmental impacts of these developments are uncertain and will vary considerably from case to case. The development of bioenergy is likely to have significant impacts on the forest sector directly, through the use of wood for energy production, and indirectly, as a result of land use changes. It is expected that energy production from solid biomass will have both direct and indirect impacts on the sector, whereas liquid biofuels will mainly have indirect effects.
Awakening Africa’s Sleeping Giant : Prospects for Commercial Agriculture in the Guinea Savannah Zone and Beyond

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-06) Morris, Michael ; Larson, Gunnar

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, and Africa's dependence on imported food crops has increased. While the poor performance of African agriculture can be attributed partly to adverse agroecological conditions, experience from elsewhere in the developing world suggests that significant progress is possible. The Guinea Savannah covers some 600 million hectares in Africa, of which about 400 million can be used for agriculture. Less than ten percent of this area is currently cropped, making it one of the largest underused agricultural land reserves in the world.
Improving Agricultural Productivity and Markets : The Role of Information and Communication Technologies

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-04) McNamara, Kerry

Raising the productivity of smallholders is a necessary condition for increasing incomes and improving livelihoods among the rural poor in most developing countries. This increased productivity is essential to both household food security and to agriculture-based growth and poverty reduction in the larger economy. Smallholder productivity is limited by a variety of constraints including poor soils, unpredictable rainfall, and imperfect markets, as well as lack of access to productive resources, financial services, or infrastructure. Information and communication technologies (ICT) are also vitally important to commercial and large-scale agriculture, and to agriculture-related services and infrastructure such as weather monitoring and irrigation. This note focuses on the sometimes less-obvious importance of ICT in improving the information, communication, transaction, and networking elements of smallholder agriculture in developing countries.
Tracking Results in Agriculture and Rural Development in Less-Than-Ideal Conditions : A Sourcebook of Indicators for Monitoring and Evaluation

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-03) Larson, Gunnar

The demand for verifiable evidence of results and impacts of development agricultural programs and projects is growing. However, most of the indicators that development practitioners have traditionally used in tracking progress toward achieving projects' objectives focus on the workings of the development operation itself. These performance indicators relate mainly to lower-level inputs and outputs and are used to populate management information systems. Higher-level indicators are used to measure progress in achieving the ultimate objectives of projects, and in bringing about larger outcomes and impacts. The ability to measure and demonstrate outcomes and impacts relies on the use of indicators that are based on reliable data and on the capacity to systematically collect and analyze that information. The conditions in which monitoring and evaluation (M&E) are carried out vary widely, depending on the demand for information, the extent to which it is used to inform decision-making, and the reliability of the systems that are in place to capture and convey that information. Throughout much of the developing world these conditions are "less-than-ideal," and information is irregular and often lacking altogether. In these conditions there is a lack of effective demand for information on the part of policy makers. The conditions are often especially pronounced for data related to rural areas, where the costs of data collection are high and the quality of existing data is particularly low. Building data systems and developing and supporting capacity for M&E in these conditions is, therefore, a pressing imperative for interventions in the agriculture and rural development sector. Strengthening capacity for M&E begins at the national and sub-national levels, where addressing the weaknesses of national statistical systems is a common priority. The data collected and reported within countries must not only be of sufficient quality to inform planning and policy formulation but must also be consistent between countries.
Foreign Investment in Agricultural Production : Opportunities and Challenges

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-01) Songwe, Vera ; Deininger, Klaus

The recent surge in food and fuel prices has prompted countries with high dependence on food imports to try and lock in future food supplies through direct investment in agricultural production in other countries. The price surges also led to a wave of proposals to invest in biofuels investments in agricultural land. While such investment can provide large benefits, it also carries considerable risks both to investors and citizens in the locality of the investment. To ensure that investments provide broad benefits and effectively contribute to larger development outcomes, enforceable property rights and contractual agreements in many developing countries need to be strengthened. This note considers how development partners can help countries create the pre-conditions for investment and proposes a governance framework to establish minimum standards for it.
Managing Drought Risk for Food Security in Africa : An Innovative Solution in Malawi

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-01) Syroka, Joanna ; Bunte, Kara

Malawi periodically experiences drought leading to shortages of grain on the domestic market and a sharp increase in consumer prices. Consumers, including many of the poorest farmers in the country, experience difficulty obtaining enough grain to meet their family requirements. One method to reduce the risks of grain shortfalls is to improve the capacity of farmers to produce enough grain even when drought occurs, for example, through input subsidies and efforts to improve water use efficiency. An additional measure is to finance the establishment and distribution of strategic grain stocks. However, in the occasional year when drought is most extreme, supplementary assistance will still be needed in the form of expensive food imports and, possibly, food aid.
Land Reform in Mozambique

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-12) Van den Brink, Rogier J. E.

This brief includes the following headings: rationale, objectives, and basic features of the 1997 land law; acquiring land-use rights; obstacles to transferring urban land-use rights; promote the productive use of Direito de Uso e Aproveitamento dos Terras, or DUATs; and enforce the land tax.
Financial Services for Developing Small-Scale Irrigation in Sub-Saharan Africa

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-09) Larson, Gunnar

Food insecurity and income poverty are rampant in Sub-Saharan Africa. Thirty-one percent of children under the age of five are malnourished and some 72 percent of the population lives on less than US$2 day. Forty-one percent lives on less than US$1 day. The impoverished and hungry are concentrated disproportionately in rural areas and rely mainly on the consumption and sale of agricultural produce for their food and income. Africa has experienced increasing dependency on food imports that its countries cannot afford. Yet an estimated 700,000 hectares of arable land in Africa remains uncultivated. It is land that could become productive through small-scale irrigation using basic technology to draw on small-water resources, such as tube wells, and dambos. The technologies can be applied to cultivate smallholder plots of up to five hectares. Employing them will enable up to 4 million low-income households to intensify agricultural production and increase productivity. Small-scale irrigation can increase agricultural productivity and production, thus contributing to economic growth in rural areas and increased well-being among small holder farmers. Its potential to increase and stabilize food supply is especially important in light of the ongoing food crisis, and especially in Africa. Expanding the use of small-scale irrigation requires farmers to have access to financial services. The many constraints and obstacles that rural financial institutions in Africa confront must be purposefully navigated if financial services are to fulfill this role. Effectively tailoring financial services and products to support irrigation in different settings and among different client groups will be essential to success. Carefully targeting grant funding to the very poorest subsistence farmers and clearly separating it from lending will be likewise be critical to the sustainability of these financial services.
From Agriculture to Nutrition : Pathways, Synergies and Outcomes

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-07) Hawkes, Corinna ; Ruel, Marie T.

This note discusses the direct pathways through which agricultural production can contribute to improved nutrition. It then reviews recent changes in the global environment which affect the ways in which agriculture and nutrition are linked. It concludes with a discussion of how nutrition-related objectives can be effectively incorporated into the design of agriculture programs for maximum impact on the poor.
Assessing the Investment Climate for Rural Enterprises

(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-05) Larson, Gunnar ; Lamb, John ; VanDer Meer, Cornelis

The 2008 World Development Report identifies competition as an important variable of the rural investment climate. Competition triggers innovation and the productivity gains that drive economic growth, and with it the creation of jobs. Employment is generally the principal pathway that people have out of poverty. Fostering such competitive environments entails inducing the entry of local, mainly small-and-medium enterprises as well as the development of agribusinesses that enable small farmers, entrepreneurs, and investors to participate in expanding markets. The barriers to entry confronting prospective small rural enterprises include all the risks and costs and market failures characteristic of many rural economies, in addition to poor access to financial and public services, weak business skills, and extremely limited or non-existent information about what demand consists of in the non-local markets they hope to sell to. Improving the opportunities and incentives for rural firms to invest productively, expand, and bring on new workers should be a policy priority for governments, particularly given the prominence of policy, regulations, and enforcement in rural investors' perception of risk. Providing a sound, enabling policy environment is a vital role of the government and public sector and includes setting food quality and safety grades and standards and reliable contract enforcement. Such stable policy environments go very far in relieving investors' uncertainty over what governments will do next, what policies will be formulated, and how policies and regulations will be interpreted and enforced. This is a pressing concern among investors. Making policy formulation and enforcement more predictable can dramatically encourage investment (World Bank 2005).