Livestock plays a pivotal role for smallholder production systems in mountainous Northern Vietnam. Poor rural farm households are vulnerable and their livelihood systems are often so fragile and finely-balanced that a small misfortune can destabilize the households for many years. Economic...

An important dimension of poverty is access to food. Household food security implies access to the food needed for a healthy and productive life. Lack of access to and/or impaired utilization of food contribute to household food insecurity. This study compares the usefulness of a standardized...

The North China Plain is the country's granary: most of wheat and maize is supplied by this region in the northeast of China. Intensity of agricultural production has risen sharply in the last decades and the negative environmental effects like water scarcity, salinization and nitrate...

Micronutrient malnutrition is a public health problem in many regions of the developing world. Severe vitamin A and iron deficiencies are of particular concern due to their high prevalence and their serious, multiple health effects on humans. This paper examines dietary patterns and nutrient...

Genetic engineering (GE) in agriculture is a controversial topic in science and society at large. While some oppose genetically modified crops as proxy of an agricultural system they consider unsustainable and inequitable, the question remains whether GE can benefit the poor within the existing...

Iron deficiency is a widespread nutritional problem in developing countries, causing impaired physical activity and cognitive development, as well as maternal mortality. Although food fortification and supplementation programmes have been effective in some countries, their overall success...

This paper aims to provide an introductory overview over the socio-cultural context of Northern Vietnam to agricultural researchers. The paper focuses on the interplay between Vietnam's lowlands and the uplands to specify what makes the Northern uplands a distinct region; as an object of...

Most policy and research interest regarding rural credit markets revolves around the perception that poor households in developing countries lack access to credit, which is believed to have negative consequences for household welfare. An important feature of the rural credit market is that...