I am greatly indebted to many people for their advice, encouragement and support, which was invaluable for the successful completion of this work. In the following, some of them who have made this work possible are gratefully acknowledged. First, I would like to thank my supervisor, Prof. Dr. Oliver Musshoff of the Chair of Farm Management for his tremendous support, insightful guidance, indispensable advice and critical feedback throughout the entire period of my doctoral studies. The enthusiasm and interest he showed in my work and the dedication with which he supervised my research have been a source of encouragement and motivation to me to achieve the goal of successfully completing this dissertation. I also wish to express my appreciation to Prof. Dr. Matin Qaim of the Chair of International Food Economics and Rural Development and Prof. Stephan Klasen, Ph.D. of the Chair of Development Economics for being the second and third supervisor of my doctoral thesis committee. Their thoughtful questions and comments during the doctoral seminars were valued greatly.I would also like to thank all my colleagues within the GlobalFood RTG and at the Chair of Farm Management, especially my friends and office-mates De Zhou, Theresia Dominic, and Nico Herforth, for their support and encouragement during my doctoral studies as well as for creating such friendly atmosphere and making my graduate student life so enjoyable.Your support and the various discussions conducted bilaterally and in our doctoral seminars were quite valuable and enriching in developing my research study. In particular, I would like to thank my friends and colleagues Christine Kiria, Simon Kimenju, Ramona Rischke, Brian Chiputwa, and many more, which have been a great inspiration for me and enabled me to finally complete this Ph.D. I specifically appreciated (@Brian) our joint field research in Uganda and our mutual support for each other. This time was a unique and exciting experience full of challenges, fruitful discussions, and of course a lot of fun. My sincere gratitude also goes to the Hanns Neumann Foundation and the National Coffee Farmers' Organisation in Uganda (NUCAFE) in Uganda for allowing us to use their networks and for introducing us to the farmers with whom they were working. I am equally grateful to Prof. Johnny Mugisha, Ph.D. of the Department of Agribusiness and Natural Resources Economics at the Makerere University in Uganda for his cooperation and support in recruiting qualified enumerators. I would like to thank the enumerators who worked with me during my field research in Uganda, namely