This thesis is a comparative study of two forms of intervention aimed at taclding the problems of serious soil erosion and hydrological degradation in the uplands of West Java. These were the Indonesian Government's atanduy n Project and the non-governmental Ciamis Programme of the Bandung Institute of Technology's Centre for Environmental Studies (PSLH-ITB). Both interventions occurred in the Citanduy River Basin at the same time (1980-86) and place. Both attempted to transfer improved environmental practices and farming systems to small farmers. The thesis also investigated the allocation of upland households' land, labour and capital resources and the effects different allocative patterns had on both the local environment and household participation in external development interventions, but especially the Ciamis Programme. Background chapters described the evolution of agro-ecological and land tenure relations in West Java's uplands and the role of the Indonesian State in upland land management and river basin development. The findings for the two forms of upland intervention indicated that the Citanduy II Project reflected a long-standing "top-down- approach to rural development and village governance. This contradicted its own policies for increased decentralisation and made the Project unnecessarily costly and less effective. The intervention was overly programmed, rigidly bureaucratic and failed to seriously involve either local government or project participants in design and implementation, whereas the great heterogeneity of agroecosystems and socio-economic conditions in these upland areas called for just such a strategy. Large financial subsidies replaced grassroots organisation and participation as a means of motivating villagers. By contrast, PSLH-ITB's "action-research" approach started with an overall assessment of community development and environmental problems and gradualJy worked with them to develop a much broader, unsubsidised economic and environmental programme focussed at the hamlet (kampung) level. This had the additional effect of inducing farmer-lead, spontaneous diSsemination of environmental and agricultural technologies over a large area of the river basin. However, PSLH-ITB's strategy required high commitment and leadership from both intervenor and community. Also, its self-reliant, cooperative strategy was constrained by a lack of capital and management expertise in the communities. These constraints suggested a role for credible NGOs acting as intermediaries between government and community. The most important finding for the upland household economy was that, due to low agricultural productivity and market prices and small, fragmented landholdings, households increasingly placed their labour in non-agricultural and wage labour markets, chiefly through circulatory migration, in other regions and the cities. Though this brought some new capital into the villages, its effects were to displace labour from intensive agriculture to less intensive, tree crop and cassava-based farming systems. The most important forms of economic and social cooperation remained at the neighbourhood and hamlet levels. These findings suggested that a land-based environmental strategy, implemented at the village level may encounter long-run problems of sustainability in these upland communities.

This work is a case study of the Gezira cotton scheme. The research falls in three major sections. The first part, which covers the period 1900-1939, is a detailed history covering (a) the origin of interest in the Sudan as a potential for the production of raw cotton, (b) the first venture by European private enterprise at Zeidab concession, (c) the serious shortage of raw cotton and the anxiety of Lancashire textile interests, (d) the combined various pressures upon the British Government to sanction the raising of a Sudan Government loan for the proposed Gezira scheme, and (e) experimentation and the Sudan Government relations with private enterprise. These developments were temporarily disturbed by the outbreak of hostilities in 1914. The war however did not bring a halt to the continuity of efforts to go ahead with the scheme and immediately after its termination funds were released by ~he British Government for the scheme and private enterprise reached an agreement with the Sudan Government. The drawbacks of the Government-Syndicate 1919 agreement did not become manifest until the completion of the work in 1925 When the Government felt that the scheme would not pay its way unless its share was increased a.t the expense of that of the Syndicate and the area was enlarged to produce more cotton in order to improve returns. Negotiations culminated in a new agreement in 1926 which henceforth defined the basic laws governing the Syndicate( 2) Government partnership, leaving little room for any conceivable major alterations, particularly as regards the financial and organisational arrangements. The second part of the research is a study of various aspects of the scheme. Chapter Five deals with the economic effects of the production and export of cotton on the country as a whole and on the Syndicate, Government and tenants in particular. It shows how each party was affected in relation to the others in both prosperous and lean years. It also shows how each party reacted to its gains from the scheme. Chapter Six is a detailed study of the tenants-management relations. It shows how those relations were gradually strained by the development of the scheme until a climax was reached in 1946 When for the first time the tenants entered into a general strike. The chapter also discussed the association of the tenents movement with the Nationalists' movement which marked the beginning of the infiltration of party politics into tenants ranks. Further the study covers the creation and history of various tenants organisations. The chapter on labour deals mainly With the complex problem of the supply of casual labour, which is mainly immigrant labour. Also the study covers developments connected with the settlement of large numbers of casual labourers within the scheme giving rise to a gradual change in the status of many of them and creating new social and economic problems. Chapter Eight is a study of the causes for the government decision to terminate the Syndicate's contract and how agreement was arrived at with regard to the organisation that was to take its place. Chapter Nine traces the history of the need for-the introduction of social development in the scheme which was first called for in the late 1930s, but it was not finally introduced. until after nationalisation in 1950. A general assessment of the scope of the first social development programme 1950-56 is also discussed. The concluding chapter is an attempt to discuss against the main body of the work the causes for the success of the scheme. At the same time the weaknesses are also pointed out and a final assessment is made.

The research presented seeks to contribute to the understanding of how small business growth is achieved within the context of the cut flower industry in the vicinity of Villa Guerrero, State of Mexico in Mexico. In order to do so, some prominent theories about growth were researched using a model of growth proposed in this thesis (figure 3.1). A holistic, multiple case study design using replication logic was considered to be the appropriate methodology for this investigation. Five firms were selected. Three firms show aggressive growth whilst the remaining two firms show little growth. An empirically grounded conceptual framework, which aims to support the understanding of small-medium size firms within the context of this thesis, was generated. This framework is the outcome of applying the case study research methodology to the study of small-medium size firms under the context of this thesis. Businesses with the most impressive growth rates are those that behave in ways that have been incorporated into the refined model of growth depicted in the following pages (figure 11.11). Business owner's characteristics, customer profiles, core business definition, strategy, human capital, and business environment are the categories that, acting together, synergistically influenced the growth of the firms under investigation. These categories are built up from the concepts portrayed in the figures 12.1.a and 12.1. b. The pragmatic approach taken towards this investigation allows the possibility to understand better in a novel way the growth dynamics of the small-medium size firms studied.

The Northern Region of the Sudan is poorly endowed with natural resources. Agriculture is the main economic activity. Because of the aridity of the region and the high cost of irrigation, agricultural production is confined to the vicinity of the Nile. Three forms of agricultural production co-exist in the Northern Region. The Shendi area was selected for field survey. These are state, cooperative and private forms of organization. Several philosophical approaches were considered and structuration approach is adopted. It allows for the explanatory role for structures where these <i>dominate</i> over the <i>participating</i> individuals and/or groups. Within structurational context the study argues that these forms of organization have different impacts on land use and development variables. The variables considered are cropping patterns, land use intensity, land productivity, poverty eradication and income distribution. The three forms are different with regard to their ideological stances, group composition, power relations, motives and objectives. These differences are hypothesised as resulting in different applications of management functions and material agricultural inputs. Production relations, land tenure systems, commercial cropping, rotation system, application of fertilizer and labour inputs are different under the three forms of organization. Differences in their operations were found to be a function of differences in structural composition. Private form of organization ranks first with regard to the application of agricultural inputs followed by state and cooperative forms respectively. Differences in operations resulted in differences with regard to their spatial and development impacts. Cropping patterns are different. Land use intensity is higher under private form of organization followed by state and cooperative forms respectively. There is high degree of land under-utilization under all the three forms. Land productivity, capacity to eradicate poverty and patterns of income distribution are remarkably different between them. With all these variables private form of organization ranks higher than the other two. State scheme ranks second and cooperative is a poor third. The three forms of organization have different structural compositions, different operations and different impacts of space and development.

Small-scale agriculture in the developing world faces an uncertain future at the turn of the century from the dual pressures of globalisation and global environmental change. This thesis focuses on the small island economy of Barbados in the Eastern Caribbean, where these pressures have played an important historical influence in shaping the current nature of small farming. This thesis has two aims: (i) to provide an explanation for changes within the island's small-scale economy; and (ii) to improve the theoretical approach of political ecology as a means by which to examine the nature of conflict and change. This thesis has sought to carry out these aims by examining the decision-making processes of farmers within the framework of socio-economic, political and environmental influences, placing particular emphasis on the importance of farmers' agency (and the way in which this varies between different farmer types). These results are based on analysis of in-depth interviews conducted with 109 small farmers across the island. Secondary data are analysed to examine the broader structural context: (i) changes within agriculture (including policies and markets) since the 1960's and (ii) the nature of environmental influences (including climate and land degradation). Results from this thesis have identified six main different types of farmer, each of which closely relate to variations in farm and farmer characteristics, farmers' perceptions of external structures, and the role of their own agency. The thesis concludes that, since the early 1990's, Barbados has witnessed the emergence of a new group of more commercial small farmers working on a larger scale (10+ acres) and with greater agency. These farmers have competed with the more traditional small farmers and, hence, the disparity between farmers has widened. A large proportion of the new 'commercial small farmers' are white Barbadians, forced from former employment within the sugar industry by the effects of global processes (falling sugar prices and restructuring in the sugar industry). Access to resources within the 'white economy' has meant that these individuals have been able to start working on a larger scale. Results conclude that the Barbados government needs to make all small farms more competitive to deal with the effects of trade liberalisation, and to ensure that the disparity does not widen. The thesis also concludes that re-emphasising the role of agency within political ecology allows a more detailed exploration of the nature of power relations between individuals within a specific group of actors (i.e. small farmers in this example) from within the framework of external socio-economic, political and environmental structures operating at a variety of scales.

The objective of this thesis is to assess the impact of the 2003 Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) refonn and the implementation of decoupled supports on the fanning sector in three EU- J5 countries, namely England, France and Sweden. The main assumption behind the research is that the shift from coupled to decoupled payments will change the remuneration of productive inputs and therefore have an impact on fanners' distribution of allocatable fixed resources between on- and off-fann activities. T~~ thesis focuses more specifically on two factors of agricultural production: labour and lanl The thesis presents a conceptual framework of decoupling and its impacts on land and labour decisions based on economic rationality. On this basis, it empirically explores the detenninants of the intentions to exit and alter the size ofthe fann (measured in land area) and of operators' time allocation between on- and off-fann activities, within a 5-year time horizon from 2006, under three policy scenarios, namely a counterfactual continuing Agenda 2000, the implementation of the Single Fann payment ,as decided in the countries studied and an hypothetical full decoupling scenario. The investigation of the detenninants of intentions in response to a policy change relies on economic and socio-psychological factors to allow interpreting intended behaviours deviating from the prediction of the conceptual model. The main findings of the rese~'rch indicate that fanners are planning some limited adjustments ,consistent with decoupling and that operators' attitudes and opinions do impact on their plans. The first chapter of the thesis introduces the bac;kground and the objectives of the study. Chapter 2 focuses on decoupling and its expected'impacts on fanners and the fanning sector, and the tools available to study those impacts. The motivations and drawbacks behind the choice of a survey of intentions are presented, as well as the interest of using sociopsychological variables in such a context. Chapter 3 is concerned with the questions of exit/growth and time allocation and the development of a conceptual framework within which these can be studied. Methodological approaches and hypotheses are derived. Chapter 4 presents the characteristics of the case-study countries. Chapter 5 is focusing on data requirement and collection. Finally, chapter 6 and 7 present the results and policy implications focusing on exit/growth and time allocation respectively, while chapter 8 concludes.

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