In his letter (1), Berti argues that our failure to find a relationship between farm production diversity (PD) and household dietary diversity (DD) may be due to the fact that PD and DD were measured using different scales. First, we would like to clarify that the main result of our article is not a zero relationship. What we find is a relatively small relationship between PD and DD (smaller th...

A burgeoning body of literature highlights asymmetric information among household members. However, little is known about the source of the asymmetry and its effect on efficiency. Using a unique survey of Ghanaian households, we examine the accuracy of spousal cross reports and the effect of discrepancies on farm production. We find that information problems pertain to scale (the quantity of re...

A major risk factor for Toxoplasma gondii infection is consumption of undercooked meat. Increasing demand for goat meat is likely to promote the role of this animal for human toxoplasmosis. As there are virtually no data on toxoplasmosis in goats in Serbia, we undertook a cross-sectional serological study, including prediction modelling using geographical information systems (GIS). Sera from 43...

This study evaluates the off-farm labor response of rural households participating in the Grain for Green program in China, the largest conservation set-aside program in the developing world. Using a panel data set that we designed and implemented, we examine the impact of the program on changes in off-farm labor participation between 1999 (pre-program) and 2004 (post-program) using a differenc...

There is an emerging consensus that the well-being of rural households improve with the blending of farm activities with non-farm economic activities. The diversification of rural livelihood positively impacts the well-being of the rural households. Eastern states however remained laggard in rural transformation due to myriad of endogenous as well as exogenous factors. With uneven distribution ...

Declining yields of maize as a result of Striga infestation has necessitated a new technology known as Imazapyr-resistant maize (IRM) to contain the problem. As a result, research and development initiatives with substantial participation of the private sector to transfer this new technology to farmers have been made in western Kenya. This study therefore assesses the adoption of IRM variety an...

Sustainable forest conservation strategies should be based on local as well as landscape-scale forest resource use data. Using ecological and sociological techniques, we test the hypotheses that (1) forest resource use differs between ethnic and socioeconomic indigenous groups and (2) that this difference results in differing spatial patterns of resource use, with implications for forest divers...