Contributed articles.

The productivity growth of farming in Asian countries over the past few decades highlights the high returns on investments in agricultural research and extension made in the region. This publication examines the performance of agricultural research and extension programmes in Asia, including the World Bank's training and visit (TandV) system, the challenges they face, and ways of improving their relevance, responsiveness, and cost- effectiveness. Conclusions reached include the importance of raising agricultural productivity through new technology in order to promote long- term growth and poverty reduction, and the need for less intensive and more environmentally sound agricultural practices.

This collection of studies on the politics of agricultural development in regions of Asia and Africa emphasizes the need for steady and significant increases in food production in the developing countries. It is a set of exercises in the comparative analysis of agricultural modernization policies.

Agriculture is an important source of survival for all living beings because it produces food, feed, fiber, fertilizer and fuel. Modern agriculture evolving various innovative farming techniques improves farmers' income, increase efficiency, help in conservation of natural resources such as water, soil, and energy etc. To secure future of humankind, more emphasis is given to soil and water engineering. Soil and water will play a key role to produce sufficient food for growing population in future. Advancement in the field of science and technology is the driving force of advance research in the field of Indian Agriculture, which will enable the Indian farmers to feed the growing population. This book is written with aim to understand the engineering inputs in modern agriculture for improving production, productivity & profitability.

Present the process, trend and consequences of modernization of agriculture in M.P., the biggest state of the country. Since the primary objective of farming has been to ensure food supply and agricultural raw materials, it is pertinent to examine critically the spatial pattern of modernization and its impact on agricultural productivity and position of food availability and actual food intake in perspective of physio-cultural environment. Findings of this spatio-temporal study will help in identifying the problematic regions still awaiting special efforts for agricultural development through the application of modern methods and techniques.

The book highlights proceedings from the Berlin 2008: Agriculture and Development conference held in preparation for the World Development Report 2008.