Public Expenditures, Growth, and Poverty assesses the efficacy of poverty reduction programs in Latin America, Africa, and Asia by synthesizing studies conducted by the International Food Policy Research Institute over the past ten years.

Those who study global poverty and ways to reduce it face a perennial set of questions: Do advances in knowledge, research, and technology make a real difference in the lives of poor people? What effect does research have on the poor?

The devastating environmental effects of deforestation and the exploitation of other natural resources in the developing world have been well documented, yet their impact on local communities has received far less attention.

Genetically modified (GM) food crops have inspired increasing controversy over the past decade. By the mid-1990s they were widely grown in the U.S., Canada, and Argentina, but precautionary regulations continue to limit their use elsewhere.

The conditions that produce famine--extreme poverty, armed conflict, economic and political turmoil, and climate shocks--are now most prevalent in Africa.

Kenya is an exciting case for those who suspect that agriculture has powerful linkages with the rest of the economy. Over the period 1965-87 Kenya's agricultural production consistently surpassed the average for Sub-Saharan Africa.

Economic development and structural transformation are dynamic processes in which sectoral interactions are numerous and multidirectional.

Why should there be a book about the commercialization of subsistence agriculture, economic development, and nutrition? There are two compelling resasons.

In countries where farming and fishing are major productive activities, processing enterprises can have a strategic developmental role. Infrastructural, institutional, and contractural issues arise around them.

The Kenyan government has actively encouraged cultivation of cash crops as part of its past and present development policies.

Tree crops such as coffee, cocoa, and oil palm have been promoted for many years in Sierra Leone.

Agricultural commercialization, economic development, and nutrition are linked with one another. Policies influence the strength and direction of these linkages and welfare outcomes.

The Gambia (West Africa) had a population of approximately 0.75 million and a total agricultural cultivated area of only 1,850 square kilometers in 1987-88.

The choice between subsistence food crops, on the one hand, and cash crops, especially nonfood cash crops predominantly meant for exports, on the other hand, is a subject of considerable debate among policy makers as well as development specialist

Malawi is one of the poorest countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a per capita income of about US$170 (World Bank 1990).