Agricultural and Rural Development Notes
60 items available
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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.
Items in this collection
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Publication
Pull Mechanisms for Overcoming Market Failures in the Agriculture Sector: Initial Lessons Learned with Case Illustrations from AgResults’ Kenya On-Farm Storage Pilot
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2017-08)After the food crises of 2007-2008 and the growing realization that donor resources were not sufficient to meet global agricultural development challenges, the AgResults initiative was launched at the June 2012 G20 Summit in Los Cabos, Mexico as an innovation to boost private sector engagement in meeting these challenges. AgResults initiative comprised of seven pilot projects that incentivize the private sector to develop and deliver innovative products to smallholder farmers in settings where markets for these products are otherwise underdeveloped. Each pilot provides financial incentives to the private sector actors to encourage them to enter the market, but the incentives are paid only after they achieve predefined results. This Knowledge Note reflects the initial findings from the external evaluator’s ongoing research to evaluate the pilots. The authors conclude by identifying the critical steps involved in design of a pull mechanism. Throughout, the authors draw on examples from the AgResults On-Farm Storage pilot in Kenya to illustrate their guidance. -
Publication
Improving Nutrition through Multisectoral Approaches
(Washington, DC, 2013-01)Nutrition sensitive agriculture aims to maximize the impact of nutrition outcomes for the poor, while minimizing the unintended negative nutritional consequences of agricultural interventions and policies on the poor, especially women and young children. It is agriculture with a nutrition lens, and should not detract from the sector's own goals. The agriculture sector is best placed to influence food production and the consumption of nutritious foods necessary for healthy and active lives. Agricultural productivity, focused primarily on staple grains, does not necessarily reduce under nutrition. Policies that strongly favor staple grains over other crops or foods may skew the balance from nutritious foods. -
Publication
Agricultural Innovation Funds
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2011-05)In order for agricultural development to fulfill its potential role as a source of growth and reducer of poverty, it must be constantly renewed through knowledge and innovation. Getting resources into the hands of innovators and providing incentives for producers, agricultural service providers, and entrepreneurs to collaborate in developing and applying new methods and technologies is a priority among institutions concerned with agricultural knowledge. While grants have long been used to finance agricultural innovation, in many countries there has been a shift away from block grant funding and towards the use of innovation funds. These are used to provide incentives and resources for investment and collaboration between innovators, producer groups, private entrepreneurs, and public institutions. Innovation funds allocate grants to targeted applicants based on a system for evaluating the eligibility, relevance, and quality of applicants' proposals. -
Publication
Gender and Governance in Agricultural Extension Services : Insights from India, Ghana, and Ethiopia
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2010-03)The gender and governance in rural services insights from India, Ghana, and Ethiopia report aims to generate policy-relevant knowledge on strategies for improving agricultural service delivery, with a focus on providing more equitable access to these services, especially for women. The project has been implemented in India, Ghana, and Ethiopia. These countries were chosen to capture variation in important macro-factors, especially the level of economic development; various aspects of governance, such as political system and party system; the role of women in society; and strategies adopted to promote gender equity. The project focused on agricultural extension as an example of a critical agricultural service. In India, the main problem is the lack of overall capacity resulting from a past policy of not hiring agricultural extension providers. The study indicates that access to agricultural extension is low in Ghana, despite the fact that an extension agent-to-farmer ratio is comparatively high. Agricultural extension is a high for the Ethiopia government priority, but coverage of extension services across regions varies widely, and extension agents have limited discretion to adapt technology packages to the context of individual communities. The gender gap in access to extension can also be improved. -
Publication
Rethinking Collaborative Arrangements with Local Partners
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2010-01)More forest area is being designated for use by local communities and indigenous peoples. In a growing number of countries legislation is being introduced to ensure that local partners share in the benefits of forest operations and participate as active stakeholders in the sustainable use of forest resources. Private sector investment in the forest sector is increasing as well. For businesses in an expanding range of investment settings, establishing and maintaining positive working relationships with local communities is an essential part of gaining access to natural resources, local skills and labor. Afforestation and reforestation activities and programs to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD), including sustainable forest management (SFM) and forest restoration, seek to increase forest carbon sequestration, and their success or failure will rely in many respects on the effective cooperation of forest dependent people. These developments are giving partnerships and benefit-sharing arrangements between local and outside partners greater prominence than they have generally had in the past. The significance of these collaborative arrangements is increasing whether the local partner is a community, a user or producer association, or a group of individual landholders, and whether the outside partner is a private firm, a government agency, or a nongovernmental or civil society organization. The arrangements vary widely in purpose as well for the respective partners. Local partners may be interested in employment and income generating opportunities, in the security of their access to forest land, in the protection of resources that have traditional or other values, or in capitalizing on small business opportunities. Outside partners may be interested in gaining and securing access to forest products, in obtaining the cooperation of local communities in how forest resources are used, in alleviating rural poverty, or in managing risks and ensuring the provision of environmental services.