Agricultural and Rural Development Notes
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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.
Sub-Saharan Africa
Sub-Saharan Africa, home to more than 1 billion people, half of whom will be under 25 years old by 2050, is a diverse ...
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Publication
Managing Drought Risk for Food Security in Africa : An Innovative Solution in Malawi
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-01)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. -
Publication
Land Reform in Mozambique
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-12)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. -
Publication
Addressing Unequal Economic Opportunities : A Case Study of Land Tenure in Ghana
(Washington, DC, 2006-09)The author examine this relationship in the context of agriculture in Ghana's Eastern Region. Our work traces the connection from a set of complex and explicitly negotiable property rights over land to agricultural investment and, in turn, to agricultural productivity. Using survey and focus group data, we find that while the land tenure institutions may have some benefits, they result in drastically lower productivity for those not connected to the political hierarchy. This paper discusses the following topics: land transactions and land rights, land tenure is a political process, and a safety net of sorts.