The yield potential of a set of improved rice management practices, known as the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), has attracted much attention. Yet we know surprisingly little about SRI's socio-economic impact. Using data from Indonesia in 2009, this study assesses the impact of SRI on...

This paper presents comparative qualitative and quantitative evidence from rural Kenya and Madagascar in an attempt to untangle the causality behind persistent poverty. We find striking differences in welfare dynamics depending on whether one uses total income, including stochastic terms and...

The traditional vision of rural economies as purely agricultural is clearly obsolete. Farm households across the developing world earn an increasing share of their income from nonfarm sources (see Table 4.1). And the specialized nonfarm households that emerge often diversify into multiple...