Other Agriculture Study
313 items available
Permanent URI for this collection
Items in this collection
1 - 10 of 62
-
Publication
Eastern Africa - A study of the Regional Maize Market and Marketing Costs
(World Bank, 2009-12-31)Maize is the most important staple food in the Eastern Africa region and the most widely traded agricultural commodity. Therefore, the performance of grain markets has a significant impact on people's welfare, particularly the poor, and is critical to inducing pro-poor growth in Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda, i.e. the countries under review in this report. Marketing costs at the borders would need to be reduced but even more attention should be paid to domestic marketing costs. Policy makers in East Africa should not be misled that encouraging greater regional trade is solely a diplomatic matter. Instead, concerted public investments and policy actions at local, national, and regional levels are required. Reduced marketing costs would allow a reduction in input prices and thus production costs. This report aims to examine, identify, and quantify the factors behind the marketing costs for maize in East African countries. While a number of studies have recognized major barriers to trade in the region, few have actually quantified their relative importance or the magnitudes of these constraints on grain trade. Since much past research has been inconclusive, a key focus of this report is to identify how different barriers contribute to marketing costs within countries and across borders. It also aims to analyze whether a reduction in cross-border trade costs without a simultaneous reduction in domestic costs would be sufficient for greater regional integration in East Africa. -
Publication
Jamaica : Toward a Strategy for Financial Weather Risk Management in Agriculture
(Washington, DC, 2009-11)This report forms part of the technical assistance provided by the World Bank under the Non-lending Technical Assistance Program for the Caribbean 'market-based agriculture risk management in the Caribbean.' The program is largely financed by the European Union All Agriculture Commodities Program (AACP) Initiative and contributions from the International Fund for Agriculture Development (IFAD) and the World Bank. This document provides technical input for designing a national strategy for addressing the financial weather risks facing the agricultural sector of Jamaica. As such, it identifies the various options from current available financial risk transfer instruments for addressing crop weather risks for small farmers (livestock risks are not directly addressed in this report) and identifies the public investments needed for supporting market development of the agricultural insurance market. The report is structured in five sections to facilitate its presentation. The first two sections present a snapshot of the Jamaican economy and agricultural sector, and the current situation of agricultural insurance; third section addresses a set of key issues for designing a government strategy for agricultural financial weather risk management; fourth section contains the elements of public policy and investments to support market development for agricultural insurance, and various illustrations of how to structure financial weather risk management instruments for the sector. The report concludes with a short section containing final remarks and recommendations. -
Publication
Mongolia : Livestock Sector Study
(Washington, DC, 2009-09-15)The purpose of this synthesis report is to try and draw together recent work on the sector to understand in greater detail what is driving the sector, and how these drivers and trends may play out in the future and what options are available in response. This is not a strategy for the sector, but rather an attempt to provide some clarity to the development of the sector as a basis for stimulating discussion to inform strategy and specifically, to inform government policy and expenditure in the sector. The report draws upon five working papers (WPs) that were commissioned by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture in 2006 and 2007 . These papers tried to fill gaps in current knowledge of drivers in the sector rather than provide a comprehensive study of the sector, and their findings have been supplemented by other work in the sector. -
Publication
Not Yet Up to Standard: The Legacy of Two Decades of Private, Governmental, and Donor Effects to Promote Ugandan Horticultural Exports
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-07)The relative prosperity enjoyed by Uganda during the 1960s, based largely on the traditional exports of coffee, tea, cotton, and tobacco, was eroded by a devastating civil war over the period 1971 to 1985. The paper is based upon interviews with selected respondents, including government authorities, exporting companies, donors, and practitioner organizations, carried out in 2007 and 2008. The paper is divided into four sections. Section one provides a brief historical perspective on the emergence of the Ugandan fruit and vegetable export industry and examines the role played by different government and donor initiatives in the initial shaping of the sector, between the late 1980s and late 1990s. Section two highlights the strategic commercial approaches adopted by Ugandan exporting companies and farmers during the 2000s in response to past performance and in the face of evolving regulatory and market requirements, especially in the European Union. Section three examines the rationale for, means of support of, and apparent efficacy of a range of recent programs seeking to improve or sustain the competitiveness of Uganda's fruit and vegetable exports via improved compliance with regulatory or private standards. Lessons are drawn from this experience. Section four provides a brief set of general conclusions. -
Publication
Assessment of Innovative Approaches to Flood Risk Management and Financing in Agriculture : The Thailand Case Study
(Washington, DC, 2009-05)The World Bank recently conducted research and concept-testing activities to investigate the expansion of the index approach from drought to flood. The main objective was to assess prerequisite conditions, as well as practical and efficient methods, to conceptualize and potentially implement index-based insurance for agricultural flood losses. In addition, the work assessed how modern technologies such as flood modeling and remote sensing-which are widely used to support flood risk mapping, and flood detection, warning and control-could be harnessed to support the design of such flood insurance programs for rural clients. This paper summarizes the findings from work carried out from September 2005 to April 2008 in the Muang Petchaboon District of the Petchaboon province in Thailand. The next section illustrates the importance of flood risk in agriculture and challenges in providing flood insurance. The following section describes the flood index insurance concept and methodology that were tested during the feasibility study. Section four highlights the findings from the Petchaboon province of Thailand, and the final section synthesizes lessons learned and recommends areas for future research and applications. Finally, it is important to recognize that the process of quantifying weather risk, and of creating an operational system which combines risk and asset information, have much broader applications than simply for index-based weather insurance or other risk transfer solutions. -
Publication
Technical Assistance to the Agriculture Development Task Force in Afghanistan
(Washington, DC, 2009-05)This report summarizes the main outputs of the technical assistance provided which was concentrated in three areas: (1) development of MAIL's strategic priorities and investments for the immediate future/short term, medium term and longer term; (2) advising Ministry of Agriculture, Irrigation and Livestock (MAIL) regarding the design of an appropriate structure of the Ministry and definition of corresponding responsibilities; (3) analytical policy advice regarding urgent issues that the Ministry of Agriculture (MAIL) has to deal with on a daily basis, but where it lacks the capacity to analyze alternative policy strategies and solutions. The technical assistance work regarding urgent policy issues has focused on three main areas: (1) organization and management of public food grain stocks; (2) purchasing and distribution of improved wheat seed; and (3) leasing of government-owned land to private entities. Finally, and outside the area of policy support, the Bank may consider stepping up its efforts to help MAIL to further develop/restore Afghanistan's agricultural production base and in this way help improving the livelihoods of poor rural people. More specifically the Bank may consider exploring the Government's interest in a project aimed at increasing agricultural incomes through improvements in the quality and reliability of input delivery systems and wider adoption of improved production technologies, including technologies that increase the efficiency of on-farm water management. -
Publication
Reforming Fisheries and Aquaculture for Global Benefits : Evaluation Report
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2009-03)The World Bank had commissioned an independent team to evaluate and assess the future role of PROFISH, the Global Program on Fisheries. The evaluation team found that PROFISH, since its inception in 2005, had made excellent progress in raising World Bank, bilateral donor and client country awareness of fisheries development needs, contributed fisheries and aquaculture content to global development products and assisted World Bank country and regional operations. The evaluation team concluded that fisheries can be reformed to achieve multiple objectives by (1) focusing on governance and institutions, (2) including fisheries in the mainstream development agendas and in global themes such as food security and climate change, and (3) applying the key operational tools of problem diagnosis, sequenced interventions and implementation experience and learning. -
Publication
Mission Note Bangladesh, March 15-31, 2009
(Washington, DC, 2009-03)The Government of Bangladesh has requested the World Bank to provide further assistance to the livestock and dairy sectors. During a mission of the Sector Manager of Agriculture and Rural Development (ARD) of the South Asia region of the World Bank to Bangladesh in November 2008, the Secretary of the Ministry of Livestock and Fisheries (MOFL) of the former Caretaker Government of Bangladesh (BD) requested the Sector Manager for assistance to the development of the dairy and fisheries subsectors to support the livelihoods of the rural people and contribute to the economic growth of the country. The secretary of the MOFL also reminded the Bank of its proposal for an investment request for dairy development to the Bank sent in 2007. In response, the Bank agreed to carry out a technical mission to review the current state of the livestock sector (with special focus on the dairy sub-sector) and the fisheries sector, particularly inland fishery production (including freshwater capture and freshwater aquaculture). The mission reviewed policy, technical and administrative aspects in order to identify key bottlenecks and assess the scope for Bank-supported further development of the sectors. This request of the Government is consistent with the emphasis in the Poverty Reduction Strategy Plan (PRSP) on further development of the livestock and fisheries sectors which together account for 7 percent of total Gross Domestic Product, or GDP (3 percent livestock, 4 percent fisheries) and 33 percent of agricultural GDP). -
Publication
Building Response Strategies to Climate Change in Agricultural Systems in Latin America
(Washington, DC, 2009-01)This report, Building Response Strategies to Climate Change in Agricultural Systems in Latin America, reports the results of action research to identify and prioritize stakeholder driven, locally relevant response options to climate change in Latin American agriculture. The study has three primary objectives. The first is to develop and apply a pilot methodology for assessing agricultural vulnerability to climate change and for formulating adaptation response strategies to inform private and public sector decisions in the Latin America region. The study is principally concerned with adaptation responses to climate change, rather than mitigation. The second objective is to formulate recommendations for investments in each of the selected agro-ecosystems in a range of areas including agricultural technology adaptation, infrastructure investments, public and private sector support activities, and institutional and policy changes. The final objective is to disseminate the study results in the Latin America region and other parts of the world to help increase understanding of the impacts of climate change and alternative adaptation response strategies. This methodology can be used by the Bank to support client countries in defining response strategies, designing related investment projects, and formulating policy changes. -
Publication
Agriculture in Bangladesh : A Note on Food Security by Enhancing Productivity
(Washington, DC, 2009-01)Awami League's Election Manifesto 2008 appropriately recognizes the importance of ensuring food security for all in Bangladesh. Food Security requires increasing agricultural growth which in turn is a key factor in reducing poverty in the country. Food security also requires increasing agricultural production and protecting consumers. Sustained production increases, in turn, require technology-driven increases in the productivity of crops (rice in particular), fisheries and livestock. This is possible through interventions that improve: (i) agricultural research and extension systems to generate and disseminate high yielding varieties and location-specific solutions to production constraints; (ii) timely access to quality production inputs, especially seeds and fertilizer; (iii) coverage, targeting, and administration of production subsidies (especially fertilizer) in order to make them efficient and fiscally sustainable; and (iv) irrigation and drainage. Increasing the incomes of small and marginal farmers requires promotion of commercial agriculture and agri-business opportunities through: (a) value chain development and value-addition to selected agricultural commodities; (b) improvements in market infrastructure; (c) supporting the development of farmer groups and producer organizations and link them with value chains and markets; and (d) facilitating private sector investment in agri-business development, demand-driven research and extension systems, and rural finance through public-private partnerships. Food safety nets are needed to protect poor and vulnerable consumers but their coverage, targeting, and administration need to be improved. All these interventions will require a right blend of public policies, resources, and participation of public and private sector, and increased technical and administrative capacity of the institutions responsible for agriculture extension, research, food procurement, water management, and safety net management.