Summary In many regions of the world, the timing between rainfall and the cropping season does not coincide creating the necessity for managing water resources. Although reservoirs and irrigation systems can usually guarantee needed water supplies for peak cropping periods within a single crop...

Summary A growing literature suggests that in low-income countries, households with few assets can be trapped in chronic poverty. This article reviews relevant threads of the poverty traps literature to motivate a description of the opportunities presented by innovative index-based risk transfer...