To promote development, there is increasing need for activities and policies which generate and diversify income in rural areas.

Geographic targeting is often recommended as a way to improve the impact of social spending and infrastructure investments on rural poverty. Previous research shows that such targeting is not very accurate unless the geographic units are small.

In February 1987, the Government of Pakistan (GOP) abolished the wheat ration shop system.

The paper describes the spectacular growth of rice exports from Viet Nam during the period 1989 to 1997. From a situation of food shortages, the country is now the second largest rice exporter after Thailand.

Viet Nam has undergone a profound transformation in recent years and, as a result of a series of macroeconomic and institutional reforms since 1986, it has made substantial progress toward becoming a market economy.

Through a survey of approximately 1300 farmers, millers and traders, this study undertook an in-depth investigation of the rice marketing system in the midst of its transition from a centrally planned to a market-based economy.

This first in a series of regional conferences on this subject brought together more than fifty agricultural scientists and policymakers from China, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, and from international agricultural resea