The article introduces the Forum on Commercializing Agriculture/Reorganizing Gender, which reports findings from DEMETER project, a collaboration of scholars Cambodia, Ghana and Switzerland. project examines how agriculture food security policies have advanced or hindered gender equality right to food; analyzes role human rights-based accountability mechanisms in this; maps gendered changes liv...

In this paper we address the often sterile and circular debates over relationships between poverty and deforestation. These debates revolve around questions of whether forest loss causes poverty or poverty contributes to forest encroachment, and questions of whether it is loss of access to forests or dependence on forest-based livelihoods that cause poverty. We suggest that a way beyond the imp...

This article considers the global expansion of agrofuels feedstock production from a political economy perspective. It considers and dismisses the environmental and pro-poor developmental justifications attached to agrofuels. To local populations and direct producers, the specific destination of the crop as fuel, food, cosmetics or other final uses in faraway places is probably of less interest...

This paper describes how the social capital of rice farmers of the Mekong Delta of Vietnam, as manifested in the tradition of collective farming practice, has changed. Collective rice farming persisted for decades, irrespective of critical events that challenged its continuation, due to two key factors: the high need for collective farming to ensure subsistence, and the availability of a closel...

After more than two decades of agrarian change in Tajikistan, farming structures seem to crystallise. The first signs towards farm individualisation were observed only around 2000, which were the result of significant pressure from outside, when the post-conflict state was highly susceptible to pressure from multilateral institutions. Over time, striking differences in agrarian structures have ...

The Policy Research Working Paper Series disseminates the findings of work in progress to encourage the exchange of ideas about development issues. An objective of the series is to get the findings out quickly, even if the presentations are less than fully polished. The papers carry the names of the authors and should be cited accordingly. The findings, interpretations, and conclusions expresse...

Drugs and development policies lack a historical political economy perspective. This has led to situation where issues of everyday state-making agrarian conflicts are ignored. Alternative frameworks that incorporate these elements do not go beyond mere procedural participation. is also the case with Colombia's Comprehensive Plan for Substitution Illicit Crops (‘PNIS’), resulting from recent 201...

Enabling learning for members of geographically isolated communities such as agrarian, or maritime communities presents benefits in terms of promoting regional development and cost savings for governments and companies. We present a methodology for designing a satellite and wireless based network infrastructure and learning services to support distance learning for such isolated communities. Th...

The introduction of irrigation to agrarian areas involves several environmental changes that can be aggravated by physical and agronomic factors. The aim of this study is to analyze the spatiotemporal dynamics of the environmental impact on water resources that result from the transition of an agrarian basin into an irrigated area. During five hydrological years, a spatiotemporal comparison was...

3B’s Research Group – Biomaterials, Biodegradables and Biomimetics, Department of Polymer Engineering, University of Minho, AvePark, 4806-909 Taipas, Guimarães, Portugal Life and Health Sciences Research Institute – ICVS/3B’s, PT Government Associate Laboratory, Braga/Guimarães, Portugal Department of Veterinary Sciences, School of Agrarian and Veterinary Sciences, University of Trás-os-Montes ...