This study examined the effects of research-based recommended cereal production practices on the technical efficiency of farm households based on household-level data generated from questionnaire surveys, focus group discussions, and key informant interviews. The technical efficiency scores were...

The review by the Operations Evaluation Department finds the Heavily Indebted poor Countries (HIPC) initiative highly relevant in addressing a key obstacle facing many poor countries. If the anticipated debt relief is delivered in full, the initiative will succeed in substantially achieving its...

This paper provides evidence from one of the poorest countries of the world that the property rights matter for efficiency, investment, and growth. With all land state-owned, the threat of land redistribution never appears far off the agenda. Land rental and leasing have been made legal, but...

This paper examines the agricultural productivity-farm size relationship in the context of Bangladesh. Features of Bangladesh's agriculture help overcome several limitations in testing the inverse farm size-productivity relationship in other developing country settings. A stochastic production...

Increased levels and volatility of food prices has led to a surge of interest in large-scale agriculture and land acquisition. This creates challenges for policy makers aiming to establish a policy environment conducive to an agrarian structure to contribute to broad-based development in the...

There have been numerous episodes of widespread adoption of improved seed and long-term achievements in the development of the maize seed industry in Sub-Saharan Africa. This summary takes a circumspect view of technical change in maize production. Adoption of improved seed has continued to rise...

In every region of the world, the intensification of crop-based agriculture has been associated with a sharp increase in the use of chemical fertilizer. Given the generally low levels of fertilizer use in Africa, there can be little doubt that fertilizer use must increase in Africa if the region...

This article attempts to determine the long-term productivity and sustainability of irrigated agriculture in the Indian and Pakistan Punjabs by measuring trends in total factor productivity for production systems in both states since the advent of the green revolution. These measurements over...

The fundamental role of agriculture for development in the 21st century deserves greater attention from governments and international development agencies.