Agricultural and Rural Development Notes
59 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
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
Awakening Africa’s Sleeping Giant : Prospects for Commercial Agriculture in the Guinea Savannah Zone and Beyond
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-06)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. -
Publication
Improving Agricultural Productivity and Markets : The Role of Information and Communication Technologies
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-04)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. -
Publication
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)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. -
Publication
Foreign Investment in Agricultural Production : Opportunities and Challenges
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-01)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. -
Publication
From Agriculture to Nutrition : Pathways, Synergies and Outcomes
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-07)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. -
Publication
Information and Communications Technology in Land Administration Projects
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-02)Application of Information and Communications Technology (ICT) to land related projects is now a widespread phenomenon, through both donor-supported interventions and autonomous development. Since the mid-1990s the World Bank has been increasingly involved in ICT land project implementations. The advantages have proven substantial in reducing the time required to complete transactions, improving access to information by the public, as well as other government agencies, reducing the costs of data acquisition, and contributing to standardization of system design. The successful application of ICT to land projects has increased since the 1990s, as lessons from the first tier of programs became clear and were subsequently applied. This note summarizes the demonstrated advantages of ICT application, as well as the key lessons learned. Data acquisition is more feasible and costs less by applying ICT than often-used technology that is quite sophisticated. The use of high, but robust, technology for data acquisition (satellite imagery, digital orthophotos, CORS, GPS) provides more simplification, increased efficiency, less cost, and greater accuracy. -
Publication
A New Model of Public-Private Partnership for Land Access and Rural Enterprise Formation
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2008-02)The Honduras Land Access Pilot Project (PACTA) from 2001-2006 supported the acquisition of land and the formation of sustainable farm enterprises by self-organized landless and land-poor peasant families. The Government is now scaling up and diversifying the pilot into a national program far more inclusive than the current model. The SDR 6.2 million pilot project proved the viability of a public-private partnership strategy, with the private sector lending for land purchase and public sector funds being used for complementary investments and services to improve productivity and build capacity for independent development. The program was broadly aimed at the rural population with no access to land or precarious access to small parcels for subsistence production. Of the 1,226 families that took part in the program, 991 were part of this group day laborers, sharecroppers, or other kinds of subsistence producer. The rest were poor families with access to municipal forestland (two sub-projects) or communal land (one sub-project). These sub-projects were implemented at the end of the pilot phase. In addition, the sub-projects supported by PACTA in forest communities and afro-Honduran communities are promising for the diversification of economic activities in areas like tourism, crafts, fishing, sustainable timber harvest and wood processing, and environmental services. From this point of view, the achievements and lessons learned in the pilot project could be meaningful in the design of similar processes, not necessarily involving land purchase -
Publication
Scenario Planning to Guide Long-term Investments in Agricultural Science and Technology : Theory and Practice from a Case Study on India
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2007-11)This note for India is based on the paper Scenario Planning to guide long-term investments in Agricultural Science and Technology (report no. 37066). Scenarios are an important and useful tool, providing a neutral space for discussion, and helping to build consensus among various stakeholders. The objective is to examine possible future developments that could impact individuals, organizations, or societies to find directions for decisions will most benefit any future environment. Useful in strategy formulation, scenarios can be used in policy development, conflict resolution, group learning, and rehearsing management decisions. The note analyzed results of workshops organized to define the way forward relative to the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR). The lessons learned include: (a) applying the analysis on larger, global issues may be far more challenging; (b) it is recommended the scenario process be implemented ahead of project preparation; (c) it is essential to allocate sufficient time and resources for creating client ownership and understanding; (d) it is of paramount importance to compose a multidisciplinary scenario team led by experienced scenario leaders; and (e) it is also very important to include participants of the groups the process aims to influence.