Sugar has traditionally been one of the most important agro-industries in Mexico. In spite of possessing significant comparative advantages it has recurrently suffered from a lack of investment and poor productivity, both under private and public ownership, and during periods of Import Substitution Industrialisation and recent economic liberalisation. This thesis adopts a Neo-Institutional approach to analyse the problems of the Mexican sugar industry during the 1990s based on the study of three 'ejido' communities in the state of Puebla. The thesis argues that successive institutional arrangements, particularly the over regulated and heavily bureaucratic 'agrarian' (ejido) regime have served to constrain the production of sugar cane and the sugar agro-industry as a whole. One consequence of these conditions has been that the burden of funding the sugar agro-industry has been devolved to government, thereby making investment subject to fiscal requirements rather than market conditions. Despite a de facto and latterly more formal withdrawal of the government from funding the sugar agro-industry the investment vacuum has not been filled by the private sector. In the wake of the 1992 reforms to the agrarian law the research also considers the importance of property rights in land to the sugar sector. The thesis argues that prior to 1992, agrarian reform in combination with other economically inefficient but politically useful regulations impeded the emergence of a land market in the ejidos. Without a formal land market, ejidos undertook land subdivisions creating a minifundista scheme rather than the conditions for agricultural intensification and the realisation of economies of scale. Small parcels and insecure property rights further condemned the ejidos to under-investment and poverty. Although the 1992 reforms attempted to regularise informal land transactions, I contend that change has not matched rhetoric: massive privatisation has not occurred and bureaucratic influence remains. At the outset of the twenty-first century we continue to witness the slow self-destruction of agrarian reform.

This thesis discusses technological change among a group of small and resource-poor farmers in North-East Brazil. The core of the dissertation analyses the processes involved in the generation of a new technology and attempts to identify and assess the socio-economic impact of such a technology upon those farmers. They live in the Caruaru region, a semi-arid area of the Agreste of Pernambuco, and practice rain-fed agriculture. The nature of the technological change was carefully considered and is very important because it was part of a new initiative involving local agricultural researchers. After a long history of failing to provide small farmers with a relevant type of new technology, IPA (Institute of Agricultural and Livestock Research of Pernambuco) researchers tried to move away from what is often called the transfer-of-technology (TOT) approach to agricultural development or a top-down, linear and researcher centred research methodology. After adopting a Farming Systems Research (FSR) methodology in the late 1970s, scientists together with farmers realized, among other things, that without a higher degree of farmer participation, it would be very difficult, if at all possible, to promote technological changes which would meet farmer's needs and improve their livelihoods. The case study selected illustrates that agricultural research and the processes of generation of new technologies are anything but well defined, carefully planned and a systematic set of actions. Agricultural research is part of a dynamic process which involves overcoming competing world views, changing alliances and conflicting interests. Improvisation and adaptation on the part of agricultural researchers, as well as farmer participation, proved very important when developing a new research methodology which appears capable of generating technologies which meet farmers' needs. Farmers, not in isolation but organized in their own association which they managed without the interference of outsiders, played a crucial role in promoting the technological change discussed in the following chapters. Contrary to what many have believed, the small farmers of Caruaru, like so many small farmers around the world, possess a vast degree of knowledge or ITK (Indigenous Technological Knowledge) and are constantly experimenting and looking for solutions for their agricultural problems. The thesis concludes that there is scope and a large potential for participatory and systemic/holistic forms of technological change to promote the betterment of small farmers livelihoods in a sustainable manner.

The debate on rural transformation dates back to the school of neo-classical political economy. Its modern version has focused on the role of agriculture in economic development in the 1960s and 1970s, and has then moved on to local livelihoods and micro-economics in the 1980s. Recently, a new debate has emerged between the 'neo-populists' and the 'agro-pessimists' on the role of small-scale farms in economic development and poverty alleviation. This thesis develops a framework, which helps analysis of the process of rural transformation in the age of globalization. Testing the hypothesis in Turkey illustrates a common dilemma faced by many developing countries where the role of agriculture in economic development has been diminishing without leading to a substantial movement of labour out of agriculture. Since this trend is accompanied by a stagnant agricultural economy failing to integrate into global markets, millions of small farmers have been left out of the process of economic development over the last 25 years. This thesis analyzes longitudinal village studies from three different regions of Turkey. The first case exemplifies the damaging impact of the trade distorting policies of developed countries on small-scale cotton producers in developing countries. The second case illustrates the crucial role that non-agricultural activities play in rural economies, especially in unfavourable agro-ecologies. The third shows that inequality arising from social and political factors hinders the efficient allocation of resources, constituting a big obstacle for rural development. Hence, combining assessment of the processes of agricultural and labour transition at the country level with thematic case studies, the thesis argues that the overall state of small-scale agriculture has generally been pessimistic over the last 25 years. Nevertheless, if facilitated by a new institutional framework, such as the new social democracy, designed to take advantage of new opportunities arising from globalization, a realistic policy approach would provide an optimistic prospect for future progress in rural transformation.

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This study investigates the impact of agricultural changes on the rural landscape of South East Scotland, focusing upon the period between 1972 and 1990 under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) of the European Community (EC). Agricultural Returns are used to examine agricultural change at parish level and an integrated analysis of Ordnance Survey maps, aerial photographs and interpretation via GIS is used to investigate the rural landscape change in two sample areas (one in East Lothian and the second in Berwickshire). Great changes in agricultural holdings, average farm size and in land tenure have occurred in South East Scotland reflecting the effects of the CAP policies. Major agricultural changes, due to the price support policy, are found in the area under wheat, oilseed rape, oats, dairy cattle and sheep production whereas remaining crops and livestock showed no significant changes. The area under farm woodland has increased. The sample areas show major differences in the process of landscape change. Field boundaries have been removed to enlarge fields. Hedgerows and post & wire fence boundaries have been the main focus of removal. Hedgerows boundaries have been re-planted in the sample areas mostly replacing post & wire boundaries. The major removals have occurred in areas best suited for crop production but replantation has occurred in all parts of the sample areas. Other farm features have insignificant changes in sample areas. Farmers have intensified agricultural production focusing upon wheat, oilseed rape, beef cattle and sheep production. The increase of field drainage has been a major activity on the farms to increase the farm productivity. Field boundaries especially hedgerows and post & wire have been removed to increase the farm and field size.

Although most developing countries are agrarian in nature and despite the dominant position occupied by the agriculture sector in their traditional economies, many have consistently failed to pay adequate attention to agriculture and rural development. It is widely believed that the governments in these countries intervene in the agriculture sector in many ways, to serve political interests and other non-publicly beneficial ends. This can take the form of: buying crops from farmers at less than the world prices and then selling it to relatively better-off urban dwellers. In this way, resources are transferred out of agriculture which is the main source of livelihood for vast rural and urban populations. To compensate farmers, some governments provide subsidies -- such as credit, fertilisers, seeds, etc -- which are mostly misused and misdirected and benefit mostly landlords. These government intervention policies result in a large waste of resources. This has often led to a stagnant agriculture sector; that, in turn, has resulted in a large shortfall of domestic food production, balance of payment crises and political instability. Pressured by both the World Bank and IMF, there are moves towards liberalisation of agricultural markets in order to gain maximum efficiency. This thesis examines Paddy and Rice Marketing in Pakistan as an example of agricultural marketing with specific emphasis on whether or not is should be liberalised. Going beyond but including the limited published evidence on the subject, empirical data were collected in Pakistan to address the issue. Four and a half months of field work in Pakistan was carried out on various organisations involved in rice marketing, using semi-structured interviews. It was found that in Pakistan, the government uses a mixture of subsidies and taxes in the agriculture sector. These subsidies are misused and misdirected and overall the agriculture sector is taxed to serve urban interests.

The main contribution of this thesis to knowledge, is its analysis of the nature and behaviour of the export sector of the Icelandic fishing industry. The thesis identifies the current structure of the export sector and focuses on the main characteristics of export behaviour of the exporting firms. The thesis starts by providing an insight into the fundamental role of exporting for economic performance in Iceland, and the distinctive role of the fishing industry in generating export income. This is followed by a descriptive analysis of the historical development of the three defined sectors of the fishing industry, i.e. the fishery, processing, and export sectors. A review of the literature on export behaviour of firms, is undertaken in the second part of the thesis, to provide a theoretical background to the empirical investigation, introduced in the third part. The third part contains a qualitative presentation of the primary information collected in the research, together with results from a questionnaire survey, which followed up some of the findings recorded in the qualitative analysis. This section identifies the main types of firm in the export sector, and analysis is made of the export behaviour of different groups of firms in the sector. Consideration is given to factors which encouraged the entry of new firms into exporting, especially during the 1980s, the firms' process of internationalisation, and factors identified by exporters as obstacles in exporting. The study also considers the firms' different objectives in exporting, and the main characteristics of their export marketing strategies and management.