Rationale for the study and summary of findings; Ukraine: the country and its agriculture; Land reform legislation; The new private sector; Reorganization of farm enterprises; The effect of reorganization on farm employees; Market services and infrastructure; Rural social services and restructuring of the collective sector.

This study summarizes the first five years (1991-96) of agrarian reforms in Ukraine, presenting the results of a farm-level survey conducted in 11 provinces between January and March 1996. The findings show that the growth of private farming has slowed do

"Restructuring has produced a definite favorable impact on labor relations and workers behavior in the reorganized farms. Managers of reorganized farm enterprises give a much more positive assessment of the behavioral patterns of their workers than managers of non-reorganized farms." Agriculture remains the main source of employment and livelihood for the large rural population of many transition countries, especially among the former Soviet republics. Accordingly the World Bank continuously monitors the progress of land reform and farm restructuring in the region because of the potential impact of these processes on rural development and poverty alleviation in rural areas. The present study on Ukraine is the latest addition to a long and growing series of World Bank publications on land reform and farm restructuring in the former socialist countries of Europe and Central Asia. The unique feature of all these publications is their reliance on first-hand empirical information collected through extensive farm surveys of various rural constituencies. Farm surveys have been conducted by the World Bank in many countries of the CIS (Russia, Ukraine, Moldova, Armenia, Georgia, Turkmenistan, Belarus) and Central and Eastern Europe (Poland, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Albania). Analysis of survey findings enables the World Bank to base its policy dialogue with governments in the region on solid empirical facts, making the Bank's recommendation much more credible and relevant. The new findings for Ukraine will similarly provide a platform for useful policy discussions with this country's government and supply the many international donors active on the local scene with essential information for the design of their strategic programs.

A joint FAO and World Bank study which shows how the farming systems approach can be used to identify priorities for the reduction of hunger and poverty in the main farming systems of the six major developing regions of the world.

The State of the World's Land and Water Resources for Food and Agriculture is FAO's first flagship publication on the global status of land and water resources. It is an 'advocacy' report, to be published every three to five years, and targeted at senior level decision makers in agriculture as well as in other sectors. SOLAW is aimed at sensitizing its target audience on the status of land resources at global and regional levels and FAO's viewpoint on appropriate recommendations for policy formulation. SOLAW focuses on these key dimensions of analysis: (i) quantity, quality of land and water resources, (ii) the rate of use and sustainable management of these resources in the context of relevant socio-economic driving factors and concerns, including food security and poverty, and climate change. This is the first time that a global, baseline status report on land and water resources has been made. It is based on several global spatial databases (e.g. land suitability for agriculture, land use and management, land and water degradation and depletion) for which FAO is the world-recognized data source. Topical and emerging issues on land and water are dealt with in an integrated rather than sectoral manner. The implications of the status and trends are used to advocate remedial interventions which are tailored to major farming systems within different geographic regions.

The new edition of this annual publication (previously published solely by IFOAM and FiBL) documents recent developments in global organic agriculture. It includes contributions from representatives of the organic sector from throughout the world and provides comprehensive organic farming statistics that cover surface area under organic management, numbers of farms and specific information about commodities and land use in organic systems. The book also contains information on the global market of the burgeoning organic sector, the latest developments in organic certification, standards and regulations, and insights into current status and emerging trends for organic agriculture by continent from the worlds foremost experts. For this edition, all statistical data and regional review chapters have been thoroughly updated. Completely new chapters on organic agriculture in the Pacific, on the International Task Force on Harmonization and Equivalence in Organic Agriculture and on organic aquaculture have been added. Published with IFOAM and FiBL

This book documents frontier knowledge on the drivers of agriculture productivity to derive pragmatic policy advice for governments and development partners on reducing poverty and boosting shared prosperity. The analysis describes global trends and long-term sources of total factor productivity growth, along with broad trends in partial factor productivity for land and labor, revisiting the question of scale economies in farming. Technology is central to growth in agricultural productivity, yet across many parts of the developing world, readily available technology is never taken up. We investigate demand-side constraints of the technology equation to analyze factors that might influence producers, particularly poor producers, to adopt modern technology. Agriculture and food systems are rapidly transforming, characterized by shifting food preferences, the rise and growing sophistication of value chains, the increasing globalization of agriculture, and the expanding role of the public and private sectors in bringing about efficient and more rapid productivity growth. In light of this transformation, the analysis focuses on the supply side of the technology equation, exploring how the enabling environment and regulations related to trade and intellectual property rights stimulate Research and Development to raise productivity. The book also discusses emerging developments in modern value chains that contribute to rising productivity. This book is the fourth volume of the World Bank Productivity Project, which seeks to bring frontier thinking on the measurement and determinants of productivity to global policy makers.

This book details and analyzes an extensive farm survey of Armenian land reform. Zvi Lerman and Astghik Mirzakhanian, two principal contributors to the design of the study, present their invaluable insight into the rapid land reform strategy implemented in Armenia. Unique among the former Soviet Republics, the entire agricultural sector of this country shifted from collective, large-scale, farm enterprises to individual production in 1992. The authors pay special attention to the commercialization of private farms and their access to supply and marketing channels outside the old state-controlled system. Family incomes from farming and off-farm sources are discussed, as well as problems of rural social services and social infrastructure. The authors demonstrate how official statistical measures and record keeping practices in Armenia do not adequately account for this dramatic transition.