Regional and Sectoral Studies
8 items available
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This series provides an outlet for work that is relatively focused in its subject matter or geographic coverage and that contributes to the intellectual foundations of development operations and policy formulation. This series has been discontinued.
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Publication
From Slash and Burn to Replanting : Green Revolutions in the Indonesian Uplands?
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2004)The most traditional and widely used farming systems in the humid upland tropics are based on fallowing and various forms of slash-and-burn agriculture. Their sustainability depends on the duration of the fallow; as long as the fallow stage is longer than seven or eight years, slash-and-burn systems usually remain efficient. They produce a moderate yield using a low-input technology that is especially efficient in terms of returns to labor. With a few exceptions, yield per hectare and labor returns decline when fallow duration drops below the threshold of seven or eight years. This decline can be interpreted as the loss of the "forest rent," one of the main concepts used in this study. Forest rent also applies to most perennials, which despite their name are often managed under a kind of shifting cultivation. As coffee, cocoa, and even rubber farms are sometimes abandoned to "fallow" and replanted later on, a tree crop system may well be considered as an extended form of shifting cultivation, hence the concept of tree crop shifting cultivation used in this study. If the coffee or cocoa farms are not abandoned for several years to enable a regrowth of a secondary forest, replanting is more difficult or more costly than initial planting. Yields and revenues can be expected to be lower. This decline of revenues and increase of costs matches the concept of the loss of forest rent. -
Publication
Commodity Market Reforms : Lessons of Two Decades
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2001-03)Structural reform of the economies of developing countries has been in the forefront of development interest since the early 1980s. This interest stems from a recognition that the structures and institutions of these countries are critical to any enhancement of economic and social development. One of the key reforms has been that of primary commodity markets, especially agricultural commodity markets, because many developing countries, including the poorest, depend heavily on these for foreign exchange earnings and employment, and hence for poverty reduction. This report focuses on the political economy and institutional aspects of agricultural commodity market reform. In order to explore in detail factors that are critical to the processes, consequences, and substance of reform, the authors have focused the analysis and evaluation on five commodities important in many developing countries, specifically cocoa, coffee, sugar, cotton, and cereal. In doing so, they highlight important lessons on how agricultural sector reform can be launched and implemented. Some of the factors identified in the report as being key to successful reform include the recognition that commodity markets often affect communities and even politics, that the initial conditions of markets are critical, and that government intervention can crowd out private sector initiatives, especially when it comes to building the institutions needed to develop a healthy agricultural sector.