The paper emphasizes the importance of embedded institutions for the transformation of the agricultural sector and rural economies in the transition countries and identifies and analyses institutional aspects regarding agriculture and rural development common to the transition countries. It...

This article examines the decision of farmers to sell part of their farm output on the market, using data from the Republic of Georgia. A two-level empirical model is used, in which endowments and resource allocation decisions determine farm output and non-farm income, and these in turn...

This article reviews key conceptual issues related to the development of the rural non-farm economy (RNFE) in a transition context and analyses available empirical evidence on the role of RNFE during recovery from the transition recession. Growth in the RNFE in the transition countries took...

This paper offers an overview of land reform processes in the CEECs and their outcomes and impacts and analyzes current and emerging structures in rural areas. Different types of land consolidation are defined and their potential impacts are assessed. The paper then looks in depth at land...

This article explores the characteristics of food security in the context of economies in transition. These special characteristics derive from the “legacies†of socialist systems, both economy-wide ones and others specific to the agriculture and the food sector. Food insecurity in...

This article evaluates the effectiveness of ex-post targeting of the direct payment program for mountain agriculture in Japan. A regression analysis explaining the entry into the program shows that the farm profitability and the production cost were significant positive and negative factor,...

The paper reviews the role of small farms in development and poverty reduction in countries (or regions within a country) with persistent mass poverty. It discusses the arguments supporting the importance of agricultural development for poverty and argues that initial success in reduction of...

The purpose of this survey is to review the available empirical evidence on the impacts of agricultural trade liberalization on poverty – considering both the impact of domestic and international liberalization. Since trade liberalization is generally an economywide phenomenon, with...

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 of plant variety protection regimes with common standards of...

In spite of the fact that the Ugandan National Agricultural Research System has developed and released several production-enhancing technologies over a century, yields of most major crops at the farm level have been low. Given that about 80 percent of Uganda’s labor force is employed in...