Food legumes in Sub-Saharan Africa play a vital role by being a source of livelihood for millions of people; and offer tremendous potential to contribute to the alleviation of malnutrition among resource-poor farmers. They contribute to the sustainability of cropping systems and soil fertility....

In most developing countries, historically, the main strategy for improving the food sector has focused on increasing farm-level production. But in recent years, with the emphasis on value chain analysis, there has been much more focus on subsector studies, demand-driven approaches, and...

Biomass is being researched as a possible alternative to fossil sources of energy, in order to avoid externalities from fossil fuel use that affect the environment and the economy. Some biomass-based energy production systems may produce unwanted externalities in their own right, such as...

Previous studies have identified regulatory preemption and differentiation as two main motives for participation in voluntary environmental programs (VEPs). This research examines the motivations of livestock farmers to participate in the Michigan Agricultural Environmental Assurance Program...

This paper analyzes the current reforms of the agricultural supply and marketing cooperatives in China. The emphasis of the paper is on describing the institutional changes in China's agricultural economy and stressing the theoretical reasons why the cooperatives can be an efficient marketing...

The agricultural sector in Costa Rica, as in many other developing countries, has been playing an important role in the economic development of the country. This sector presently contributes approximately 30 percent of the gross national product, generates 69 percent of the total foreign...

What difference does it make whether farmers are served by cooperatives or investor owned firms? Are these two forms of organizations really different? Cooperative ownership principles result in owners being more interdependent and interactive with managers of the work organization than do...

This literature review summarizes research on member influence in cooperatives conducted in Scandinavia and some of the research conducted in West Germany. The review divides the contents of member influence into three components: individual factors, the cooperative organization's internal...