Rice is the largest user of water in Asia, probably accounting for more than half of irrigation water withdrawals. Two key trends in the Asian rice economy that may be affecting water productivity are the...

Liberalization of Egyptian agricultural policy and new wheat technology has led to significant increases in area allocated to wheat as well as wheat yields. The wheat self-sufficiency ratio increased from 21 percent in 1986 to...

This paper examines international trends in plant variety protection, a form of intellectual property rights for plant varieties akin to patents. The TRIPs Agreement under the WTO has given a strong impetus for the universalisation...

This paper draws upon development economics theory, demographic projections, and empirical evidence to consider the likely consequences of the HIV/AIDS pandemic for the agricultural sector of the hardest-hit countries of Eastern and Southern Africa. We...

Social protection aims to provide a national platform for smoothly transitioning from a chaotic collection of shock responses to an institutionalized system for risk and non-risk management. For the poorest, the transition aims to move...

For Bangladesh food security was synonymous with achieving self-sufficiency in rice production and stabilization in rice prices. The country has made good progress in increasing rice production through technological progress, facilitated by private sector investment...

During the last 3 decades, donors and governments have invested in the development and dissemination of new technologies in the semi-arid tropics of West Africa. Though a wide range of improved technologies has been developed,...