This article examines the role of institutional services of credit, input supply, and extension in the overall commercial transformation process of smallholder agriculture in Ethiopia. Survey data collected in 2006 from 309 sample households in three districts of Ethiopia are used for the analyses. Tobit regression models are used to measure the effect of access to services on the intensity of inputs use for fertilizer and agrochemicals. A probit model is used to measure these effects on the adoption of improved seeds. Intensity of use of seeds is analyzed using an ordinary least squares model. Logarithmic Cobb-Douglass functions are estimated to analyze the effect of access to services on crop productivity. Heckman's two-stage estimation is used to examine determinants of household market participation and the extents of participation. Results show that access to institutional support services plays a significant role in enhancing smallholder productivity and market orientation. Our results imply that expanding and strengthening the institutional services is critical for the intensification and market orientation of smallholder agriculture in Ethiopia. In particular, appropriate incentives and regulatory systems are urgently needed to encourage the involvement of the private sector in the provision of agricultural services. Copyright (c) 2009 International Association of Agricultural Economists.

We studied how the failure to take into account gendered roles in the management of a communal pasture can affect the resilience of this social-ecological system. Data were collected using qualitative methods, including focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, and participant observations from one community in the highlands of Ethiopia. The results show that women are excluded from the informal institution that defines the access and use rules which guide the management of the communal pasture. Consequently, women’s knowledge, preferences, and needs are not taken into account. This negatively affects the resilience of the communal pasture in two ways. Firstly, the exclusion of women’s knowledge leads to future adaptation options being overlooked. Secondly, as a result of the failure to address women’s needs, they start to question the legitimacy of the informal institution. The case study thus shows how excluding women, i.e., side-lining their knowledge and needs, weakens social learning and the adaptiveness of the management rules. Being blind to gender-related issues may thus undermine the resilience of a social-ecological system.

Although from the start ICRAF recognized the importance of the socio-economic dimensions of agroforestry land-use systems, it was only five years after its official commencement that an economist was added to the staff.During the last five years no attempt has been made to create a separate Economics Department with its own programme. Rather, the emphasis has been on supporting on-going ICRAF activities by trying to make "economics" an integral part of each of these activities.Nevertheless, in summarizing these efforts, five major areas of work can be identified: (i) Economic concepts; (ii) Methods and tools for economic assessment; (iii) Economic information gathering; (iv) Economic analysis proper;(v) Training and dissemination.The achievements in each of these areas, as well as some ideas on possible trends, will be summarized in this paper.

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