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Summary Ownership of assets is important for poverty reduction, and women’s control of assets is associated with positive development outcomes at the household and individual levels. This research was undertaken to provide guidance for agricultural development programs on how to incorporate gender and assets in the design, implementation, and evaluation of interventions. This paper synthesizes the findings of eight mixed-method evaluations of the impacts of agricultural development projects on individual and household assets in seven countries in Africa and South Asia. The results show that assets both affect and are affected by projects, indicating that it is both feasible and important to consider assets in the design, implementation, and evaluation of projects. All projects were associated with increases in asset levels and other benefits at the household level; however, only four projects documented significant, positive impacts on women’s ownership or control of some types of assets relative to a control group, and of those only one project provided evidence of a reduction in the gender asset gap. The quantitative and qualitative findings suggest ways that greater attention to gender and assets by researchers and development implementers could improve outcomes for women in future projects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Biofortification is increasingly seen as an additional tool to combat micronutrient malnutrition. This paper estimates the costs and potential benefits of biofortification of globally important staple food crops with provitamin A, iron, and zinc for twelve countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Using a modification of the Disability-Adjusted Life Years framework we conclude that overall, the intervention can make a significant impact on the burden of micronutrient deficiencies in the developing world in a highly cost-effective manner. Results differ by crop, micronutrient, and country; and major reasons underlying these differences are identified to inform policy. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Persistent poverty and environmental degradation demand a constant effort to improve the effectiveness and impact of agricultural and natural resource management research. Participatory research methods have developed as a way to help researchers better target their work towards the needs and constraints of specific stakeholder groups. Participatory research may also strengthen the capacity of participants to initiate a continuous process of innovation. The capacity of farmers and other end users of technologies to innovate may be particularly important in poor, marginal environments where conditions are highly variable. This paper assesses the impact of using participatory methods in three agricultural research projects which have a natural resource management focus. Mixed methods are used to assess technological, economic, human, and social impacts and the cost implications of incorporating beneficiaries into the research process. User participation was found to influence priorities and practices within and beyond the specific projects studied. Participation led to more relevant technologies and greater economic impacts, especially when participation was early in the research process. Impacts on farmer capacity were high when farmers worked intensively with researchers over a period of time. Use of participatory methods changes research costs. When farmers took over tasks that were previously done by researchers, some of the research costs were transferred to farmers. When participatory methods were combined with conventional on-farm research, there were also start-up costs, because researchers and farmers needed to learn new research methods. However these additional one-time costs were not significant in terms of total research costs. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Presents case studies of five `industrialized ' agricultural operations in developing countries since World War II. Private capitalist projects; Historical context; Theoretical context; Obstacles in farming; Land, labor and capital.

Abstract: This paper examines a composite damage constitutive model, MAT58, in LS-DYNA and its application for use in braided composite tube axial crush simulations. The constitutive response of MAT58 was investigated using single element simulations. It was found that MAT58 reproduced the softening behavior of the braided composite under monotonic compressive loading, but failed in subsequent unloading and tensile loading cycles. A deficiency in the damage law in MAT58 was identified. Unloading and reloading a volume of material that had suffered some degree of damage was a part of the process with the progressing of crush zone during the axial crush of composite tubes. Consequently, this deficiency hinders the success of MAT58 in such applications. In tri-axial braided composite tube axial crush simulations, although the predicted initial peak forces were within 20% of the experimental values, the predictions for the specific energy absorption (SEA) values were consistently low, particularly for tubes without a plug as crush initiator. These discrepancies are attributable to the deficiency in the damage law in MAT58. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]