Research Brief #9 In the face of an increasingly consolidated, industrialized, and often faceless food system, many researchers and activists have looked to alternative food institutions (AFIs) as ways to improve the food system for both producers and consumers. AFIs include urban gardens, food policy councils, alternative education programs, farmers’ markets, and community supported agricultur...

The current and future food insecurity situation of many nations has been effected by factors like global warming, population growth, bio-energy, low technology acceptance, unfavourable policies, sustainability criteria, changing natural risk-management and subsidies. Food availability is a basic human need and, if left unattended undermines any other development effort. Sustainability-, agricu...

Since independence, different institutional arrangements have been tried to reorganize the land and production relations for bringing change in farming systems and enhancing crop yield of small farmers. But, these interventions have not been successful in bringing any meaningful improvement. Non-viability of small landholdings, inadequacies in the availability of inputs, poor extension and infr...

this study examined the influence of socioeconomic variables of farmers on their choice of cassava varieties in kogi state of nigeria. a total of 360 cassava farmers were selected through multi-stage random sampling procedure. data collected through structured questionnaire were analyzed using descriptive statistics, customer-buying behavioral model and dynamic programming model. the results sh...

The study was conducted to assess the credit utilization pattern and repayment behavior of the fish farmers in Mymensingh and Kishoreganj districts during January to December, 2009. Data were collected from 600 fish farmers, 300 each from each district by employing stratified random sampling technique. Credit utilization rate in Mymensingh district was 49.04%, 56.73% and 70.29% in case of small...

the three practical steps that are need to be taken by government agencies in order to increase irrigation efficiency include economic motivation for optimization of water use, modification of existing irrigation systems in the short term and modernization of traditional methods in the long-term plan. the present research aims at identifying farmers' knowledge regarding irrigation and water iss...

The cell phone is one of the potential Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) in agricultural development especially in developing countries like Bangladesh. Thus, this paper deals with the farmers’ communication with the agricultural extension agents using mobile phone. The study was conducted in Mymensingh District in Bangladesh. Data were collected from a sample of 110 farmers while b...

Globalization can be viewed as the integration of inputs and outputs into global markets, sharing of information and knowledge, and promulgation of rules governing such integration. World Trade Organization, International Monetary Fund, and World Bank play a vital role in the process of economic globalization. The positive and negative affects of globalization and the groups that resist and sup...

This paper has examined the major institutional changes in agricultural input markets and use of inputs across the farming community of the country in the previous decade. More specifically, it discusses the three aspects of inputs: (i) trend in major agricultural inputs use, (ii) their accessibility to small farmers, and (iii) institutional changes in the delivery of input and services. The st...