Sponsors and clients of agricultural R&D are showing increasing concern about research costs and benefits. R&D organisations need to assess the impact of research to justify spending, obtain continuous technical and financial support from donors, and research sponsors. Further, impact assessment for R&D organisations are essential to assess their management systems in order to optimise the benefits from scarce research resources. At present criteria to assess the performance, objective verifiable indicators and means of verification are not available. No systematic method is in practice to assess the research management performance. Therefore, a study was under taken to develop tea R&D management criteria and incorporated these in a methodology to assess performance of research management in the tea sector. A case study approach was adopted. Six case studies were conducted on Tea Research Institutes of Asia and Africa. Case studies were grouped into two phases. Phase One was exploratory in nature and developed the conceptual framework for the research. This enabled the identification of research management criteria, objective verifiable indicators and means of verification. These can be used to improve in R&D management decision making. In addition, a scoring model was developed to assess the performance of research management in tea. Phase Two applied the developed conceptual model to four tea R&D organisations and analysed their performance. This clearly showed that the identified criteria and developed conceptual model can be used to analyses the performance of tea R&D management. Results indicated that there is lack of a structured approach to organising and conducting R&D activities. Research is carried out without any systematic approach for research prioritisation. Appraisal and resource allocation are inadequately addressed. Management information systems for rational, quick and effective decision making for the most part are weak and unorganised. Data on resource utilisation and benefits derived by individual research projects are rarely recorded and maintained properly. There is a lack of general awareness especially regarding importance of studying the rate of uptake of technology. A good correlation, however, was observed between organisations adopting best practices and suggested guidelines and the performance of tea R&D organisations in terms of perceived benefit to the client industry. The most effective R&D was associated with committee culture, problem identification, monitoring, evaluation, publication, technology dissemination and feedback. The developed model was applied in specific context of Bangladesh Tea Research Institute. Specific suggestions are made on how to improve the linkages with the industry, better ways of problem identification, evaluation and technology dissemination, and there by increased contribution to the productivity of the tea sector. A research management cycle (RPCM) was developed which proposes to carry out research in an organised way emphasising the participation of the beneficiary. Best practices for all the identified criteria and guidelines for major research management criteria were developed to support in R&D decision making. The study recommends further work to monitor and evaluate the application of the guidelines in practice.

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The purpose of this research is to determine why some people in rural communities of Ghana establish new enterprises while others continue in traditional farming. Both individuals who have established their enterprises and those who have not were interviewed using interview schedules and recording of life stories, and the data was analysed qualitatively. Findings indicate that through social interaction rural entrepreneurs identify opportunities to acquire expertise, opportunity to apply the expertise to produce new goods and services, and opportunities to regenerate latent skills for new enterprise establishment as the main opportunities available for new enterprise establishment. These opportunities improve upon entrepreneurs' ability to use available technical innovations for new enterprise establishment. The research identified the following broad conditions that respondents met while establishing their new enterprises: opportunity recognition, resource mobilisation, information search, production/service delivery method selection, enterprise size selection and enterprise establishment. Activities that entrepreneurs undertake while establishing their enterprises are influenced by entrepreneurs' previous expertise, entrepreneurs' marital status, gender, the nature of parental support, availability of technological innovation in the communities among others. The research identified that factors that promote entrepreneurship among rural communities involved in this study are different from those of developed and urban societies. Factors such as relevant technological innovations, ready markets, availability of both financial and material resources, expertise from previous organisations and educational institutions promote new enterprise establishment in urban and developed societies. On the other hand, expertise from socialisation process, dependence on parental material and human resources, and the notion that one's own enterprise is the only means by which one can escape from subsistence livelihood are factors that promote entrepreneurship in the study societies. For the entrepreneurs within the study communities, it is not the recognition of social values embedded in technological innovations that motivates them to initiate entrepreneurial activities, rather it is the possession of relevant expertise (especially domestic expertise), parental encouragement, and the need to escape from subsistence livelihood.

The implementation of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)-started in the early 1960s and soon became the object of a large array of criticisms. However, it was not until 1992 t~at a substantial reform was adopted, even th~ugh some sectorial me~sures had been undertaken before, in order to overcome surplus production and sharp budgetary crises. From 1992 to 2003, the CAP experienced three multi-sector wide-scope reforms, which implied a substantial shift in its policy instruments: the 199iMac Sharry reform, the 1999 Agenda 2000 reform and the 2003 Fischler reform. The aim of this study is to contribute to a better understanding of those CAP _reform processes, attempting to respond to three key questions: why did the reforms come to the political agenda at a given time; which factors were more determinant in influencing their final configurations; and why was the CAP mostly unchanged for thirty years, and then underwent almost a revolution in a short period ofless than fifteen years? Two different, and complementary, approaches will be adopted. t- The first consists of an eclectic political economy inspired analysis of the CAP reform processes on the basis of a structured framework. It is based on factual historic reports, published literature, and personal experience. Coherently with that framework, the analysis of each reform will consider three major points: the economic and social context; an overview of the reform process; and an assessment of the different factors that motivated the reform proposal and ofthose that influenced and determined its final configuration. The second approach consists of launching a two round Delphi process to gather the views of a panel of experienced players who took active part in the three reforms considered. As in the former approach, the aim is to get a live, first-hand, evaluation of what were the more influential factors in the two steps of the CAP policy-making process: the presentation of the proposals and the negotiation. The study concludes that CAP refonns occurred either in response to strong economic and political pressures taking place at a given time, or as a result of the reformist agenda of the ED Commission; and that the Agricultural Council is in general reluctant to accept reform but, once negotiations are underway, the active bargaining games taking place in the Council nonnally result in a weakening of the refonn proposals in order to accommodate the interests of the member states.

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In the context of the prolonged rural crisis affecting both the UK and many other Western regions, the adding of value to agricultural products at, or near the locality of, the farmgate represents a potentially rich form of rural development. One common method for adding value to such products is through the small-scale production of high quality food products that command price premiums in the marketplace, through the targeting of niche consumer demands. Despite a growing interest in this form of value adding, formal understanding of the mechanics of how the businesses that produce these products operate remains limited. This thesis attempts to contribute towards this understanding by taking innovation as a central point of analysis. It aims to contribute both towards our theoretical understanding of micro food firm dynamics and, practically, towards the development of effective policy tools to support food micro firm supply chains. This is achieved through the development of a broad conceptual framework developed through a multidisciplinary literature review. Through this framework, a longitudinal study of six micro food firms is undertaken along with a comprehensive postal survey of Welsh food businesses. The empirical data is subsequently co-analysed and related back to the existing theoretical understanding of the research issues. The thesis concludes by drawing upon a number of central issues that influence the development of food micro firms. Among the findings of the research are that the aims and objectives of microfirm entrepreneurs are central to the development of the firm. Moreover, these are failing to be understood by both policymakers and mainstream food industry interests. In a broader context, the thesis argues that small scale quality food systems must learn to exist under the shadow of conventional interests, and follow development paths that are able to resist mainstream appropriation. Only the development of systems that effectively bridge the two production ethics in a form that ensures the integrity of small scale activities can enable the alternative values encompassed within many microfirm entrepreneurs to cease being alternative.