Credit for investments that pay back in the medium to long term (three to five years or longer) is in short supply in rural areas. Credit unions and microfinance institutions (MFIs), which generally have better outreach than commercial banks in rural areas, typically provide only short-term credit. Credit available from informal sources (such as moneylenders, family, and friends) is usually both short term and too costly for investment financing.

This policy note summarizes the findings of two literature reviews on the gender-differentiated impacts of climate change and the scope for community-based adaptation. It also outlines the framework used to guide these analyses and the other papers summarized in this series.

Book

This volume represents the outcome of a joint effort by IFPRI and Beaconhouse National University, Lahore, with support from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS), to bring together some of the brightest and most influential minds in academia and policymaking circles to discuss the role of agriculture in poverty reduction in Pakistan. A day-long seminar took place on March 12, 2005 in Lahore, Pakistan.

Public investment in agriculture and rural infrastructure is an important driver of agricultural growth and has a significant bearing on poverty outcomes. Determining the right levels and types of investments requires that policymakers have reliable and context-specific information about the impacts of different types of public investments. The International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) initiated its Global Research Program on Priorities for Public Investment in Agriculture and Rural Areas (GRP-3) in 1998 to provide such information.

The Knowledge, Capacity, and Innovation Division (formerly ISNAR) works to improve the functioning of food and agriculture systems by facilitating knowledge management—the creation, accumulation, sharing, and utilization of knowledge—and developing the capacity for innovation by all actors along the food and agriculture value chain. Fostering innovation means investing in agricultural science and technology, research and extension, education and training, and farmer organizations and other local institutions.

Annual Report

This paper investigates whether this increase in the opportunity cost of agricultural labor incentivizes farm owners to adopt labor-saving agricultural technology. Using a regression discontinuity design and new Indian agricultural census data, this paper finds that NREGA causes a shift of roughly 20 percentage points away from labor-intensive technologies toward labor-saving ones, particularly for small farmers and low-powered technologies.

Agricultural growth is essential for fostering economic development and feeding growing populations in most developing countries. As land and water become increasingly scarce, this growth will depend more and more on yield-increasing technological changes of the green revolution" type. A major concern is how these technologies will affect the poor. If the poor are left behind and rural inequalities worsen, agricultural growth may fail to achieve its intended objectives... Peter Hazell and C.

Droughts and floods are a capricious part of life for many Malawians. The country depends heavily on rain-fed agriculture and so it is crucial that we understand the implications of these climate events. Not only are rural livelihoods affected, but urban households are also vulnerable to food shortages and rising prices. Finding ways to overcome the losses from droughts and floods is a policy imperative.

The purpose of the research summarized in this paper is to provide policy-relevant knowledge on the governance of rural services in Guatemala and thus to contribute to improving the provision of services that are essential for agricultural and rural development. Based on quantitative and qualitative primary data, we examine how services are actually provided today and how community preferences and participation affect service provision in rural Guatemala. Our main finding is that the provision of formally decentralized services by local governments is incomplete.

This chapter develops an extended input-output model to provide a quantitative analysis of the direct and indirect impacts of increased agricultural production on the regional economy. The model is calibrated for 1982/83 using the 1982/83 social accounting matrix (SAM) (see Chapter 7).