Air pollution and agriculture share a complex, two-way relationship in which agricultural activities both contribute to air pollution and are adversely affected by it. Practices such as pesticide application, fertilizer use, and livestock management release pollutants including volatile organic...

This report presents the findings from the first of two activities conducted under the World Bank’s Advisory Services and Analytics project, with the primary aim of gaining insights into the increasing threats posed by wildfire outbreaks to both forests and local communities in Thailand. This...

In the context of rural sustainability and poverty alleviation within the developing world, a key dilemma facing the international community is to identify suitable strategies and mechanisms to bring multiple stakeholders together to work in efficient and sustainable ways. This paper focuses on...

This paper examines agriculture growth performance in 20 countries in West and Central Africa over 2001–23. Most countries in the region continued to depend on land expansion to raise agricultural output. However, two countries in West Africa, Ghana and Senegal, stand apart. Over these two...

This paper examines how incorporating the informal economy influences the estimated benefits of international trade liberalization. Using a structural gravity framework, we quantify the impact of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) while explicitly accounting for the presence of shadow (informal)...

Global food supply and intensive agriculture significantly impact social, economic, and ecological sustainability. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) strives to transform regional food networks by connecting producers and consumers. Although intrinsically more sustainable due to...

This report examines Madagascar’s public agricultural expenditure from 2013 to 2022 and incorporates recent policy changes as of mid-2024. Its findings and recommendations aim to help the government allocate scarce public resources more effectively for better targeting and outcomes. The study...

This 26th Uganda Economic Update reports on recent economic developments and policies, placing them in a regional and global context and assessing their implications for Uganda’s economic prospects. The report is intended for a wide audience, including policymakers, business leaders,...

This paper examines the impact of environmental regulation on crop-residue burning, air pollution, and health in Northern India. Exploiting a spatial regression discontinuity at the Punjab-Haryana border and satellite data from 2012-2023, I show that Haryana's implementation of crop-residue...

Reliable measurement of farm size is central to empirical research on agricultural structure, land inequality, and land use efficiency in developing countries. Most studies rely on single-round household survey data and implicitly assume that reported farm size is stable and accurately measured....

Globally, one-third of the food produced for human consumption globally is wasted, a figure projected to rise with increased food production. Collaborative efforts across food supply chains can mitigate post-harvest losses, playing a crucial role in enhancing food security. However, frameworks...

Twenty years have passed since the first eastern enlargements of the European Union (EU). This paper assesses the impacts of EU accession on agriculture and rural regions of Central and Eastern European countries and identifies the reasons behind differences in country performance. Results...

This paper develops a tractable integrated assessment model of the two-way interaction between biodiversity and the economy. To capture the main causes of biodiversity loss and the economic harm from it, we focus on agriculture and its expansion at the expense of forest land. We answer the...