Many farmers in the developing world have limited access to agricultural technologies and markets. Mobile phone-enabled services that offer price information and market linkages could contribute towards bridging this gap by reducing uncertainty about expected profits, information asymmetries and market inefficiencies. This article uses the example of the price information and marketing service ...

Behavioral ecological studies of cooperatively breeding birds suggest that delayed dispersal and reproduction are caused by ecological constraints on independent breeding opportunities. Here we use census data on marriage and reproduction among the 19th and 20th century rural Irish to determine if the ecological constraints hypothesis can be extended to humans and what modifications might be re...

)))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))))) The 2002 Census of Agriculture adjusted for whole-farm nonresponse by dividing the potential farms on its list into size classes and then weighting the respondents within each class to account for the nonrespondents. Unfortunately, to assign the size-class memberships, a consistent measure of size was needed for all potential farms not ...

We review the literature on distribution of farm sizes in sub-Saharan Africa, trends over time, drivers change structure, and effects agricultural transformation present new evidence for seven countries. While it is widely viewed that African agriculture dominated by small-scale farms, we show medium-scale farms 5 to 100 hectares are a nontrivial—and rapidly expanding—force influencing nature p...

• Agricultural productivity matters for poverty reduction and growth. Land declines with farm size in all regions of Brazil. The – total factor relationship changes modernization. between TFP becomes U-shaped or positive by 2006. is more relevant than land policy poverty. a recurrent topic development economics, almost as old the discipline itself. This paper emphasizes importance choice measur...