A Conceptual Framework for Studying Institutions in Watershed Development
Ahmedabad Gandhi, Vasant P. (2010)
The experience of a few watershed programmes in India point towards the need for better improved governance for watersheds to play an effective role in raising agricultural productivity and conserving natural resources.

African Export Successes: Surprises, Stylized Facts, and Explanations
William Easterly and Ariell Reshef (2010)
This paper examines the determinants of African export successes with interesting case studies and finds that those determinants are remarkably similar to those in the rest of the world

Agricultural Innovation
Brian D. Wright and Tiffany M. Shih (2010)
This paper investigates recent developments and challenges in agricultural innovation.

African Poverty is Falling… Much Faster Than You Think!
Xavier Sala-i-Martin and Maxim Pinkovskiy (2010)
This paper impressively documents trends in poverty and inequality in Africa, where outcomes are more positive than many scholars and organizations claim.

Agriculture, food, and water nanotechnologies for the poor
Guillaume Gruere, Clare Narrod and Linda Abbot (2011)
The paper provides an overview of key technologies that can have a large impact on the poor through increased agricultural productivity, improved food and water safety and nutrition.

Building Sustainable Small-Scale Agriculture in Southern Africa
International Finance Corporation (2010)
This report summarizes a recent conference that brought together representatives from agriculture, development organizations, and financial institutions to identify ways to improve productivity in African agriculture.

Dial 'A' for Agriculture: A Review of Information and Communication Technologies for Agricultural Extension in Developing Countries
Jenny C. Aker (2011)
This paper makes the case for mobile phone based agricultural extension services.

Economic Liberalization and Indian Economic Growth: What's the Evidence?
Ashok Kotwal, Bharat Ramaswami, and Wilima Wadhwa (2010)
This article reviews India's economic development and reforms since the 1980s and concludes with arguments about what India must do next, including focusing on agricultural development to reduce poverty.

Enhancing Food Security in an Era of Global Climate Change
William C. Clark, Patti Kristjanson, Bruce Campbell, Calestous Juma, Noel M. Holbrook, Gerald Nelson, and Nancy Dickson (2010)
The spectre of climate change casts a shadow over already pressing food sustainability issues. This report documents major themes to emerge in discussions on strategic approaches to food security and climate change at the recent Harvard-organized session in Venice bringing together over 25 experts on the issue.

Evaluating the Long-term Impact of Antipoverty Interventions in Bangladesh: An overview
Agnes R. Quisumbing, Bob Baulch and Neha Kumar (2011)
This paper provides an overview of a research project that assessed the long-term impact of three antipoverty interventions in Bangladesh. The analysis of the long-term impact on outcome, including positive gender outcomes, shows that the divergence from short-term impact evaluation can arise from factors such as the characteristics of the technology introduced, targeting methods applied as well as the modalities of implementation used.

Globalization, Brain Drain and Development
Frederic Docquier and Hillel Rapoport (2011)
This article reviews the past 40 years of economic scholarship on the brain drain of skilled labor from developing to developed countries. It concludes that the welfare impact of outmigration is highly dependant on policies in developing countries.

India's rural financial system: does it support pro-poor innovation?
Sonne, Lina (2010)
The rural financial system in India, in spite of its deep and elaborate nature, provides inadequate support to pro-poor entrepreneur-led innovations, which are essential for growth and development.

Inequality, Human Capital Formation and the Process of Development
Oded Galor (2011)
This paper reviews a recently popular thesis in development economics that income distribution has an important impact on human capital formation and the development process.

Local knowledge and agricultural sustainability: a case study of Pradhan tribe in Adilabad District
K. Anil Kumar (2010)
A field survey in tribal village in India locates the linkages between indigenous knowledge and sustainable agriculture and underscores the importance of preserving local knowledge in agriculture in the interests of maintaining bio-diversity and food security.

Measures of fixed capital in agriculture
Butzer, Rita, Yair Mundlak, and Donald F. Larsen (2010)
A new dataset for capital stock which distinguishes between livestock, treestock, and fixed capital, highlights the changing composition of capital stock and finds that fixed capital accounts for most of the change in agricultural productivity.

Measuring the effect of transaction costs for investment in irrigation pumps: application of unobserved stochastic threshold model to the case of Nigeria
Takeshima, Hiroyuki, Adetola I. Adeoti and Sheu Salau (2010)
A study of small-scale private irrigation schemes in Nigeria finds that unobserved transaction costs are sufficiently high to discourage investment, particularly among female farmers, the landless, and farmers located furthest from markets, suggesting that policies to lower transaction costs are as effective in encouraging investment as is raising profitability.

R&D Investment in National and International Agricultural Research: An Ex-Ante Analysis of Productivity and Poverty Impact
Pratt, Alejandro Nin, and Shenggen Fan (2010)
This study estimates the allocation of agricultural R&D investment necessary to maximize productivity growth and poverty reduction in developing countries.

Raising voice – securing a livelihood: The role of diverse voices in developing secure livelihoods in pastoralist areas in Ethiopia
Surabhi Mittal, Sanjay Gandhi and Gaurav Tripathi (2010)
“Field investigations conducted from August 2008 to November 2008 in the states of India where mobile-enabled agricultural information service providers are operating, show that mobile telephones are being used in ways that contribute to agricultural productivity improvements, implying that along with improvements in supporting infrastructure and capacity building, mobile telephony can help in disseminating information to realize much needed productivity gains in agriculture.

Diana Fletschner and Lisa Kenney (2011)
Enhancing financial access for women is contingent upon specific targeting of women through suitable innovations in financial products that account for the differential socio-economic working conditions for women.

State-led or market-led green revolution? role of private irrigation investment vis-à-vis local government programs in West Bengal's farm productivity growth
Pranab Bardhan, Dilip Mookherjee, and Neha Kumar (2009)
A study of West Bengal farms finds that both public initiatives and private investment in irrigation were drivers of the region's spectacular growth in agricultural productivity.

Sustainable agricultural practices and agricultural productivity in Ethiopia: does agroecology matter?
Kassie, Menale, Precious Zikhali, John Pender and Gunnar Kohlin (2009)
An analysis of plot-level data from Ethiopia reveals that agro-ecological conditions play a crucial role in determining which cultivation technology is most appropriate for adoption be farmers.

Smallholder agriculture in East Africa: trends, constraints and opportunities
Adeleke Salami, Abdul B. Kamara and Zuzana Brixiova (2010)
This paper investigates trends and opportunities in smallholder farming in Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, and Tanzania.

The Decline and Rise of Agricultural Productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa Since 1961
Block, Steven (2010)
Contrary to consensus, this paper argues that agricultural productivity growth in Sub-Saharan Africa has been a “qualified success.” Though total factor productivity was nearly stagnant between the 1960s and 1980s, it has accelerated since then and particularly in the 2000s, with a net 36% crop output increase between 1960 and 2002. 

Unleashing Rural India's Economic Potential—The Role of ICT
Archana G. Gulati (2009)
This article explores how ICT might promote rural empowerment in India.

When is Capital Enough to Get Female Microenterprises Growing? Evidence from a Randomized Experiment in Ghana
Marcel Fafchamps, David McKenzie, Simon Quinn, and Christopher Woodruff (2011)
In contrast to the results of three recent randomized controlled trials conducted in Asia, this randomized controlled trial finds that grants benefit male enterprise owners more than female enterprise owners, and wealthier female enterprise owners tend to benefit more than poor female enterprise owners.