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We estimate the impacts of an IFAD-supported rural development project (Pro-Gavião). Because public policies are frequently implemented simultaneously rather than in isolation, we also estimate the impacts of—and possible synergies with—the Brazilian conditional cash transfer (CCT) program Bolsa Família. Developed jointly by IFAD and the State Government of Bahia, Pro-Gavião was a rural development project in 13 contiguous municipalities between 1997 and 2005. Census tract level data were extracted for the analysis from the 1995-96 and 2006 Agricultural Censuses. The evaluation uses propensity score matching to construct a control group of untreated census tracts, and a difference-in-differences estimation to identify impacts. The outcomes analyzed include land productivity, agricultural income and child labor. Although Pro-Gavião involved significant investments in the region, the results suggest little if any program impact, or synergies between the two programs. The unexpected null findings are robust to alternative approaches to identifying the treated census tracts, matching techniques, and heterogeneity in several dimensions. We show that the lack of impacts is not driven by adverse rainfall in the treated communities, or the influence of other programs in the control communities. Alternative explanations for the null results are explored. Resumo: Estimamos os impactos de um projeto de desenvolvimento rural financiado pelo FIDA (Pró-Gavião). Uma vez que políticas públicas são frequentemente implementadas conjuntamente, também estimamos os impactos de, e as possíveis sinergias com, o programa brasileiro de transferência condicionada de renda, Bolsa Família. Desenvolvido conjuntamente pelo FIDA e pelo Governo da Bahia, o Pró-Gavião foi um projeto de desenvolvimento rural ocorrido em 13 municípios entre 1997 e 2005. Extraímos dados em nível de setor censitário para a análise dos Censos Agropecuários de 1995-96 e 2006. A avaliação usa Propensity Score Matching para a obtenção de um grupo de controle e diferença-em-diferenças para estimar os impactos. As variáveis de resultado incluem produtividade da terra, renda agrícola e trabalho infantil. Embora o Pró-Gavião tenha envolvido investimentos significativos na região, os resultados sugerem ausência de impactos do projeto, bem como de sinergias entre os dois programas. Esses resultados inesperados são robustos a diferentes abordagens para identificar os setores censitários tratados, a técnicas de pareamento e à consideração de heterogeneidades em diversas dimensões. Mostramos que a ausência de impactos não é resultado de condições pluviométricas adversas ou da influência de outros programas. Explicações alternativas para a ausência de resultados são exploradas.

Nigeria is the largest cassava producing country in the world. Taraba state is one of the top 5 leading producers of cassava in Nigeria. Despite its large scale production of the crop, most existing literatures covers cassava production in the southern forest belt of the country, with little or not much on cassava production in Taraba State. It is against this background that the study examines cassava value chain and food security issues in Nigeria using the case of International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) value chain development programme (VCDP) intervention in Taraba State Nigeria. Cassava is generally produced as food crop and industrial raw material for starch, high quality cassava floor, ethanol, cassava chips and pellets. A number of constraints in the cassava value chain emerged which were not initially foreseen. An innovation fund was approved in 2012 to allow the programme to respond to these challenges. Value addition to local cassava is essential, to reduce the bulkiness of fresh tuber, minimize post-harvest loses, increase shelf life, stabilize product prices and facilitate easy transportation from farm to local or urban markets. The data for this study were generated through secondary (desk) research and archival materials. The findings of the study reveals that IFAD-VCDP intervention only covers 5 LGAs in Taraba State (Takum, Gassol, Wukari, Ardo-kola and Karim-Lamido LGAs). Towards the end of the year 2020, 3 additional LGAs were added which include Bali, Jalingo and Donga LGA. The programme was able to carry out sensitization of stakeholders and training of about 30 leaders of farmer organizations (FOs) in each of the selected LGAs. The programme trained farmers on how to develop appropriate and usable business plan, financial management and record keeping systems. About 25 participating farmer groups were able to access credit from financial institutions, 24 groups received inputs in cassava production. Some of the challenges include inadequate funding, lack of adequate support to the marketing component, inadequate clean water and lack of improved mechanized cassava processing equipment. Based on the findings, the study recommended increase support for cassava marketers, financial linkages and establishment of more cassava processing centres.

Active participation of the recipient governments and the beneficiaries is an essential factor in carrying out international development projects. Despite ongoing theoretical discussion on the effects of participation by the recipient governments and the beneficiaries in international development projects, there has been relatively little empirical analysis of the effects of their participation in development projects. To fill this gap, this study examines the relationship between the participation of the recipient governments and beneficiaries, and projects outcomes conducted by IFAD by validating two hypotheses. First, the higher financial contribution rate of the recipient governments results in lower evaluation results of international development projects. Second, the higher financial contribution rate of the beneficiaries leads to higher evaluation results of international development projects. In order to verify these two hypotheses, this study analyzed 166 of the IFAD Project Completion Report Validations. We did ordinary least squares (OLS) regression analyses for the panel data made from them. As a result of the analyses, the inverse relationship between the participation of the recipient governments and the outcome of the assessment holds true. On the other hand, the higher involvement of the beneficiaries leads to better results in the assessment. The results reaffirm prior research that suggested that the involvement of the recipient governments has a negative impact on project performance and that the participation of the beneficiaries has a positive impact on the projects performance. This study adopted &rdquo, financial contributions&rdquo, as the variable to analyze the participation of the recipient governments and the beneficiaries, since it utilized IFAD data, the research focuses on the agriculture sector in terms of international development cooperation. The applicability of these findings in other areas of international development cooperation therefore to be tested in future research.

Public policies frequently are implemented simultaneously rather than in isolation. We estimate the impacts—and possible synergies—of a rural development project (Pro-Gavião) and the Brazilian conditional cash transfer program (Bolsa Família). In partnership with the State Government of Bahia, Pro-Gavião was an IFAD-supported rural development project in 13 contiguous municipalities between 1997 and 2005. Census tract level data were extracted for the analysis from the 1995-96 and 2006 Agricultural Censuses. The evaluation uses propensity score matching to construct a control group of untreated census tracts, and a difference-in-differences estimation to identify impacts. The outcomes analyzed include land productivity, agricultural income and child labor. Although Pro-Gavião involved significant investments in the region, the results suggest little if any program impact, or synergies between the two programs. The unexpected null findings are robust to alternative approaches to identifying the treated census tracts, matching techniques, and heterogeneity of impacts by initial level of poverty. We show that the lack of impacts is not driven by adverse rainfall in the treated communities, or the influence of other programs in the control communities. Alternative explanations for the null results are explored.

En el presente trabajo se expone la elaboración de una secuencia didáctica basada en el uso del software Geogebra, su implementación en una clase de matemáticas y los resultados obtenidos. El objetivo de la secuencia es introducir al estudio del gráfico de una función polinómica de primer grado, a través del trabajo con distintos registros de representación de la función simultáneamente: gráfico, tabular y algebraico. La secuencia didáctica fue diseñada para alumnos de 2° Año de Ciclo Básico de Educación Secundaria de Uruguay (de entre 12 y 13 años de edad). En el estudio participaron 51 estudiantes divididos en dos grupos. En general consideramos que la secuencia elaborada cumple con el objetivo de que los alumnos trabajen con más de un registro de manera simultánea comprendiendo, durante la realización de la misma, la interconexión existente entre los mismos.

In recent years, the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) has increasingly strengthened its focus on achieving and measuring results. In 2011-2012, resources were invested in the IFAD9 Impact Assessment Initiative (IFAD9 IAI) in order to: (i) explore methodologies to assess impact; (ii) measure – to the degree possible – the results and impacts of IFAD-financed activities; and (iii) summarize lessons learned and advise on rigorous and cost-effective approaches to attributing impact to IFAD interventions. The initiative reflects a recognition of IFAD’s responsibility to generate evidence of the success of IFAD-supported projects so as to learn lessons for the benefit of future projects. This paper describes the IFAD9 IAI and the range of methods that have been identified to broaden the evidence base for the estimation of IFAD impacts, and presents the results from the aggregation and projection methodology used to compute the Fund’s aggregate impact on key outcomes, while also highlighting what has been learned. The results show that there are many areas in which IFAD‑supported project beneficiaries have had, on average, better outcomes in percentage terms as compared to comparison farmers who were not project beneficiaries. Specifically, IFAD-supported projects are effectively poverty-reducing: when choosing durable asset indexes as the preferred poverty proxies on the grounds that they better approximate long-run wealth, findings point to statistically significant gains. Overall, the analyses strongly imply that IFAD is effectively improving the well-being of rural people in terms of asset accumulation, and higher revenue and income. The IFAD9 IAI represents a pioneering research effort, which has tried to overcome the clear challenges of designing data collection and conducting ex post impact assessments in a context where data were scarce, with a view to measuring progress towards a global accountability goal over a very short period of time. Therefore, an important recommendation is that future impact assessments should be selected and designed ex ante, and structured to facilitate and maximize learning, rather than used solely as an instrument to prove accountability.

Despite myriad challenges, Kenya has emerged in recent years as one of Africa’s frontier economies, with headline growth in the most recent decade propelling the country toward middle-income status. Less well understood is how risk dynamics associated with production, markets, and policy adversely impact sector performance, in terms of both influencing ex ante decision making among farmers, traders, and other sector stakeholders and causing ex post losses to crops, livestock, and incomes - destabilizing livelihoods and jeopardizing the country’s food security. The present study was commissioned in part to bridge this knowledge gap. It is the first step in a multiphase process designed to integrate a stronger risk focus into sector planning and development programs. It seeks to learn from and build on a range of broad initiatives by the Government of Kenya (GoK) and its development partners purposed to enhance Kenya’s resilience and response to natural disasters. The ultimate objective is implementation of a holistic and systematic risk management system that will reduce the vulnerability and strengthen the resiliency of Kenya’s agricultural supply chains, and the livelihoods that depend on them. This sector risk assessment is the primary output of phase one. The study’s main objective is to identify, assess, and prioritize principal risks facing Kenya’s agriculture sector by analyzing their impacts via quantitative and qualitative measures. The study’s main findings highlight an agriculture sector increasingly vulnerable to extreme weather variability. Chapter one gives introduction. Chapter two provides an overview of Kenya’s agriculture sector and a discussion of key growth constraints. Chapter three assesses the main agricultural risks (production, market, and enabling environment). Chapter four analyzes the frequency and severity of the major risks identified and assesses their impact. Chapter five presents some stakeholder perceptions of these risks and the potential to improve their management. Chapter six concludes with an assessment of priorities for risk management and a broad discussion of possible risk management measures that can help to strengthen the resiliency of agricultural supply chains and the livelihoods they support.

This work summarizes background papers prepared for the World Bank Group with significant input from government counterparts and other development partners. It takes stock of major recent developments and argues that a lot has been achieved in the last decade in terms of production of commodities for export and food consumption, with favorable impact on rural poverty reduction. It also argues that the two factors driving the recent agricultural performance, namely favorable international prices and expansion of the agricultural frontier, have reached their limits. So while trade policies are broadly on target, much can be done by focusing on the productivity of small family agriculture and improving competitiveness by reducing transaction costs (logistics) affecting small, medium, and large commercial farms. In the short to medium term, the household income of the rural poor will continue to depend largely on agriculture. Thus interventions will need to take into account the heterogeneity of smallholder agriculture while simultaneously increasing its resilience to climate risks through climate-smart agriculture.

This report is the result of a World Bank mission that visited Paraguay in June 2013 at the request of the Government of Paraguay. The mission’s objective was to identify, quantify, and prioritize agriculture risks that determine the volatility of agriculture gross domestic product (GDP), based on a methodology to assess sector risks developed by the World Bank. The methodology stipulates a two-phase process. The first phase (risk evaluation), which is in volume one of this report, was reviewed by the government and evaluates the current situation and perspective of agriculture sector risks, starting from the standpoint of supply chains. From here, and based on the identification of the most important risks, given their frequency and severity, a list of possible solutions was produced in addition to the existing public and private programs and policies. This process is completed with a second phase, where an action plan was prepared (volume two) that can be executed in the medium term to reduce sector risks and to contribute to the sustainability of agriculture investments. The significant efforts undertaken by the government to maintain support programs in critical production and trade areas of the sector are recognized, as well as the institutional development to strengthen the response capacity to agriculture risks. Chapter one gives introduction. Chapter two presents information about the agriculture sector and its recent performance is included, allowing to determine the most important supply chains for this risk assessment and to place the relative economic and social importance of the various commodities and production methods in the appropriate context. In chapter three, a comprehensive assessment of production, market, and enabling environment risks is undertaken for the main commercial and family farming supply chains, in addition to livestock. Chapter four shows the repercussions that risks have had in the past, in particular aggregated losses incurred by supply chain actors. Chapter five assesses the impacts of these losses throughout the supply chains and explores the relative vulnerability of the different actors. Chapter six presents the results and ranking of risks, a list of possible solutions jointly with different public initiatives where some identified risks are addressed.

A new generation of information and communication technologies (ICTs) is finding a small foothold among poor, small-scale farmers in developing countries. Even so, many barriers still prevent poor rural people from accessing, using, and benefiting from new ICT tools and platforms, and those barriers are arguably higher for rural women. The relationship between gender and agriculture has been studied intensively over the years, and many agricultural interventions now include gender as a crosscutting issue or mainstream gender throughout their operations. Studies of the relationship between gender and the use of ICTs in agriculture have started to appear only quite recently, however. The Africa Region of the World Bank views ICTs as potentially transformative technology for rural development and seeks to incorporate the use of ICTs throughout its portfolio of projects. The present study was designed to examine the feasibility of integrating ICTs into two large investment programs: the Irrigation Development and Support Project (IDSP) in Zambia and the Kenya Agricultural Productivity and Agribusiness Project (KAPAP). The specifi c goal was to examine how ICT-based interventions might be designed to strengthen women s participation in commodity value chains under the two projects.

This report focuses on areas with highest potential efficiency gains to increase the value for money from investments in core public goods and services such as extension, irrigation and rural roads. This is a first attempt to carry out such an analysis in Cambodia, and even in the Greater Mekong sub-region. Based on extensive data gathering and surveys, this chapter analyzes the efficiency and effectiveness of agricultural sector expenditures in Cambodia and assesses various options for increasing the impact of government expenditures on agricultural growth. Other challenges include an excessive focus on rehabilitating primary irrigation infrastructure and a neglect of secondary and tertiary systems, a lack of maintenance of irrigation and rural roads, and the slow pace of developing or adopting new technologies to reduce future maintenance costs. There is also a need to better prioritize agricultural and related infrastructure expenditures, both by type and by geographic location, to maximize their impact on growth. The rest of the report is organized as follows. Chapter two presents recent developments in the agriculture sector of Cambodia. Chapter three gives an overview of sectoral expenditure trends over the last decade. The budget process and its relationship to sectoral development strategies is discussed in chapter three. Chapter four discusses the novel contribution of the AgPER in analyzing the efficiency and effectiveness of government spending using benefit-cost analysis to examine select public investments. Chapter five discusses how likely climate change trends may affect future agriculture expenditures and suggests some priority areas for public spending. The conclusion section summarizes the major findings and policy recommendations of the report.

Economic growth, job creation, and development are central to the decade of transformation (2015-25) and long-term security for the people of Afghanistan. The Bank and the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan (GoIRA) recognize that agriculture and rural development are a key to inclusive growth, and hence need renewed vigor and strategic long-term investments. Further, the Bank and the GoIRA acknowledge that increases in agricultural productivity and market access for smallholders are critical for rural development, job creation, and food security in Afghanistan. Sections two and three of this report describe the agricultural sector and its current and potential roles in the Afghan economy, and present the rationale for choosing certain areas and subsectors for a selective 'first mover' strategy to achieve early gains. Section four outlines the constraints and potential in each of the three value chains proposed for the selective strategy, irrigated wheat, intensive livestock production, and horticulture. Section five describes cross-cutting constraints and how best to address them, and Section six proposes measures to help the rural poor who will not benefit much from the first-mover strategy. Section seven summarizes the recommendations of the review and their expected results for jobs and incomes.

The rural sector, defined here as the economic sector that falls under the scope of the Ministry of Agriculture and Water (MAH), the Ministry of Animal Resources (MRA), and the Ministry of the Environment and Sustainable Development (MEDD), is one of the pillars of the Burkina Faso economy. Although its contribution to GDP has decreased in recent times from 35 percent in 1999 to 30 percent in 2011 due to the development of the other sectors of the economy, agricultural activity still employs approximately 86 percent of Burkina Faso s labor force and is the main source of income for poorer populations. Consequently, the rural sector is among the primary beneficiaries of public expenditures by the Burkina Faso government and constitutes one of the pillars of the Strategy for Accelerated Growth and Sustainable Development (SCADD) adopted in 2010. The goals of this agriculture public expenditure review in Burkina Faso are as follows: draw lessons from the past in terms of budget execution in the agricultural sector in order to promote the design and implementation of public expenditure programs that are more efficient and more equitable and have a greater impact; initiate the implementation of the databases and methodology required to conduct similar reviews regularly and thus contribute to the institutionalization of the process; and contribute to establishing the conditions for increased support for the sector while encouraging the harmonization and alignment of support with respect for national strategies.

The objective of this report is to assess the usefulness of providing guidance for scaling up good practices in core ARD business lines, and to test the prospects for doing so. The output of the document is a guide for a systematic discussion on scaling up of Competitive Grant Schemes (CGSs) for agricultural research and extension at key decision points during the life of an ARD project. This report addresses the other end of the state-of-practice spectrum - good practices and beyond. The preparation of this report entailed five main activities: An overview of scaling up concepts and approaches; the selection of a particular sub-area within one of ARD s core business lines - scaling up CGS for agricultural research and extension; application of the IFAD/Brookings framing questions to five World Bank projects that were identified as addressing that business line - using information provided by the project's task team leaders (TTLs) or other member of the project team; the development of sub-area specific guidance for a systematic discussion on scaling up based on the findings from a series of five case studies; and validation of the scaling up guidance for CGSs for agricultural research and extension by World Bank practitioners and other internal consultations.

Global agriculture will face multiple challenges over the coming decades. It must produce more food to feed an increasingly affluent and growing world population that will demand a more diverse diet, contribute to overall development and poverty alleviation in many developing countries, confront increased competition for alternative uses of finite land and water resources, adapt to climate change, and contribute to preserving biodiversity and restoring fragile ecosystems. Climate change will bring higher average temperatures, changes in rainfall patterns, and more frequent extreme events, multiplying the threats to sustainable food security. Addressing these challenges requires co-ordinated responses from the public and private sectors and civil society that will need to be adapted to the specific circumstances of different types of farmers in countries at all levels of development. The recommendations provided are broadly of two types: specific actions that can contribute in some way to improving productivity growth or sustainable resource use (whether building on existing initiatives or suggesting new activities) and more general proposals that may not be actionable as presented but that serve to highlight areas for priority attention. This report also invites G20 countries to engage in a medium, to long-term, analysis-based peer review of policies fostering sustainable productivity growth, which would identify specific constraints and opportunities, beginning with their own food and agriculture sectors. In addition to possible benefits to participating countries, a peer review process could contribute to the identification of best policies and best policy packages to achieve the widely held aim of sustainably improving productivity of the global food and agriculture system. While such an initiative is proposed to and for G20 countries, it could have much wider application to interested countries.

This issue includes the following headings: seeds and soil: smallholder agriculture; innovation: pairing commercial buyers with rural producers; grain storage: a ready role for public-private partnerships (PPPs); agricultural clusters: powering Africas agricultural potential; and interviews: AgDevCo, bill and Melinda gates foundation, earth policy institute.

Mozambique, the only Lusophone country covered in the agribusiness indicators initiative, has had a turbulent history since independence. Civil unrest over some 20 years and frequent drought in southern Mozambique, coupled with floods near the many waterways that transect the country (mainly east-west), have inhibited an agricultural transformation. Even so, Mozambique could be a regional breadbasket. The country has much potentially usable arable land, along with access to river water for irrigation in many agricultural production zones, particularly in central and northern Mozambique. Sesame, pigeon peas, and cashew exports are significant and rising, not to mention exports of industrial crops such as cotton, leaf tobacco, and sugarcane, yet production of grain and most other food crops remains stagnant. Irrigated area is way below what is possible and needed to increase yields and total agricultural output.

Because agriculture is the economic backbone of most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, including Ethiopia, any meaningful sustainable development program in the continent must therefore be anchored in the sector. The concept for this study on agribusiness indicators was based on the vital role that agribusiness plays in agricultural development. The study focuses on agribusiness indicators (ABI) to identify and isolate the determining factors that lead private investors and other stakeholders to participate in agribusiness and to engage in discourse regarding its development. A more thorough empirical understanding of these determinants in turn can usefully inform the types of policy reforms that can promote agribusiness in Africa. In Ethiopia, the ABI team focused on the following success factors: a) access to critical factors of production of certified hybrid seeds, fertilizer, and mechanical input; b) enabling environment in terms of access of credit and transportation; and c) government expenditures on agriculture, and trade and regulatory policies that currently influence the agribusiness environment. The factors and indicators that the research team has included in this study are not exhaustive but rather are intended to serve as a pilot that could be scaled up to include more variables and countries. The findings of the study revealed the dominant role of the government in the seed and fertilizer markets. In the seed sub-sector, perennial shortages of both basic and certified seeds have greatly limited agricultural productivity in Ethiopia.

Reforestation measures for degraded lands, strategies for the sustainable management of forest resources, and agroforestry practices that incorporate trees into farming systems are increasingly demonstrating their promise for producing commercialized tree products. Although the level of investment so far has remained modest, the challenge is to find ways to scale up promising investments in a way that will have a clear impact at the landscape level. These types of investments can help achieve the triple wins of climate-smart agriculture: increased incomes and yields, climate change adaptation and greenhouse gas mitigation.Market trends are promising for a wide range of tree-based technologies, including tropical fruits, cashews, honey, timber and wood products, lipids, gums and resins, tree crops, and agroforestry systems. In many cases, African entrepreneurs, farmers, civil society, and governments have responded dynamically to the widespread challenge of land degradation. The continent is dotted with landscapes where production of trees on farms and in managed forests has grown dramatically to meet market and subsistence needs; sustainable agricultural practices and revegetation have restored soils and watersheds; and key conservation areas are being protected. However, this is not happening at the scale required by societal needs in Africa. In part, this is due to a lack of strategic cooperation and coordination between private sector investors and land managers (who are focused on realizing profitable opportunities and meeting their own needs) and public and civil society actors (who are focused on restoring forest cover and ecosystem services). Such coordination is only possible when the biophysical potential for landscape restoration, private sector investment opportunity and incentives, and societal demand for multiple benefits converge. Much can be learned from examples of large-scale landscape restoration in Ethiopia, Kenya, Niger, Tanzania, and Zambia, and the variable roles of the private sector, farmers, government, and civil society in supporting and undertaking investment.

The purpose of this paper is to summarize the challenges and the practical successes that a selected number of countries are experiencing in moving towards 'climate-smart' agriculture while also meeting the food requirements of a growing population, broader economic development and green growth objectives. It complements papers prepared in 2010 on technologies and policy instruments, research, and farmers' perspectives. The paper is also intended to provide a broad country perspective to two additional papers produced for a meeting of African Ministers of Agriculture which took place in Johannesburg in September 2011. The main conclusion is that a number of countries have made impressive progress in integrating 'climate-smart agriculture' into broader development and growth programs. Several countries are supporting policy measures and programs to conserve soil and moisture while enhancing productivity and competitiveness, and are addressing the particular concerns of drought-prone semi-arid areas. They are improving agricultural water management and watershed management, and addressing sea-surges, salinity and coastal flooding. Some countries are also including climate-smart agriculture as a core element in broader green growth agendas. The private sector has a key role to play in climate-smart agriculture, especially where the enabling environment has been favorable. Achieving climate-smart agriculture needs an integrated approach, tackling productivity and food security, risk and resilience, and low carbon growth together, but integration and institutional coordination remains a challenge in many countries.

The report is organized into nine chapters. Chapter one provides the introduction to the report. Chapter two presents alternative approaches to agribusiness development and chapter three discusses the role of agribusiness incubators. Chapter four discusses the challenges of agribusiness incubators and chapter five presents a typology of agribusiness incubators. Chapter six elaborates on the evolution of incubators over time. Chapter seven presents the analysis of impact and cost-benefits. Chapter eight summarizes good practices and lessons learned. Chapter nine presents the recommendations.

Agricultural investments made by developing countries and multilateral development banks (MDBs) have declined in recent decades. This decline is associated with a slowdown in the growth of agriculture productivity. Most development institutions have recognized the damage caused by this past neglect, in part evident in rising food prices, and renewed attention to agriculture and agribusiness is emerging. But this renewed interest will need to deliver results, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa, where the MDBs have had the least success but where the needs and opportunities are enormous. This paper synthesizes recent work by the independent evaluation agency members of the Evaluation Cooperation Group (ECG) and incorporates lessons from related research by MDBs and from the academic literature on agriculture and agribusiness. The objectives of the paper, in addition to distilling evaluative lessons for agriculture and agribusiness, are to examine the key constraints on the sector and to provide evaluators, operational staff, and policy makers with an evaluative perspective on interventions in countries at different stages of development.

The International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development (IAASTD) was a multidisciplinary and multi-stakeholder assessment by about 400 experts which had four primary goals: 1) to assess the effects of agricultural knowledge, science and technology policy and institutional environments, as well as practices, in the context of sustainable development; 2) to identify where critically important information gaps exist in order to more effectively target research; 3) to make the resulting state of the art, objective, analyses accessible to decision makers at all levels from small producers to those who create international policy; and 4) to further the capacity of developing country nationals and institutions to generate, access, and use agricultural knowledge, science and technology that promote sustainable development. The IAASTD was a useful experience at the nexus of politics and science. However, agricultural technology, with its complexity, diversity and politics, proved to be a bridge too far. The process itself was instructive and there is much useful information in the reports. However, the present review concludes that, for the substantial resources used, the program did not offer sufficient new knowledge or conceptual frameworks for decision makers.

This paper tells us briefly the background and aims of the foundation of IFAD. It points out that IFAD plays an important part in helping the development of agricultural and food production in developing countries, and in reducing the poverty conditions in the poorest countries. It tells us that IFAD has offered donation to China for 8 times, with a total amount reaching to 56.839 million dollars. With the development of the economy of China, IFAD has changed its leading financial policies to China from a highly beneficial policy to a moderate lending policy. The operation of the loan projects have greatly improved the living conditions and of the local and the conditions of agricultural production, promoting the improvement of economy, social stability, and environment. It discusses several lending patterns of IFAD China’ s rural financial projects. The government-lending model, which is represented by the IFAD financial loan. Market-oriented model of formal financial institution, which is represented by IFAD Rural Credit Cooperatives, with market oriented. Government supporting as secondary model, which are dominated by IFAD Women’s lending patterns and Village Development Fund lending model. In this paper, advantages and disadvantages are analyzed and evaluated. It discusses the development trend of IFAD financial lending patterns in terms of Rural Credit Cooperatives and a pattern which is community –oriented and farmers-benefited.

Parallel to the growing attention being devoted to the relationship between empowerment and development, an increasing number of tools are being developed to measure empowerment and determine the link between these two phenomena. This paper details the methodological processes used to construct, test and possibly refine one such instrument, the Community Capability Index, an innovative tool to measure community capabilities in the domain of natural resource governance. Empirical reference is made to research conducted in 85 villages in North and South Kordofan, Sudan. Following this, the paper presents findings from analyses of the determinants of community capabilities, including geographic, economic, and institutional variables. The results suggest that in Kordofan a number of factors influence capabilities. Possessing a village market, proximity to the nearest town, and access to credit are economic variables that have a significant and highly positive effect on community capabilities. Regarding the environment, capabilities are found to be greater where there is more rainfall, but access to groundwater from lower-quality aquifers and cracking clay soils have negative impacts on capabilities. War shocks, as might be expected, have a negative and significant effect. Particularly interesting is the generally weak correlation found between capabilities and wealth, along with strong correlations between institutional and social dimensions of community capabilities and participation in donor-funded projects. This combination suggests that development interventions must take into account the non-identity of poverty reduction and empowerment processes, at least when the targeted agents are communities rather than individuals or households. The findings reveal areas for further investigation into the relationship between the determinants and dimensions of capabilities, and the potential significance of the relationship for some dimensions suggests context-specific interventions to strengthen the relevant capabilities.

In this paper we present the findings of a qualitative investigation into some dimensions and implications of policy volatility in the realms of natural resource (NR) governance and devolution in contemporary Sudan, with particular reference to Greater Kordofan. Our goal is to map out some aspects of the interplay between volatility, disempowerment processes affecting both state agents and the rural population, and certain problems of governance that are characteristic but not unique to Sudan. In particular, we argue that volatility is a dimension of poor governance worthy of investigation in its own right, as it is a primary ingredient of what we may call a “self-disempowering state,” where adaptive learning in policy processes is impeded and successful devolution faces particularly complex obstacles. The policy domain that we consider for analysis includes laws, regulations and policies enacted under the label of “Decentralization, Land Allocation and Land Use,” as well as large development projects supporting the decentralization or devolution of NR management to local communities in the region.

International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD)