The contributions to this edited volume emerged from a series of seminars in development economics given to students at the University of Nottingham between 1990 and 1992, which were sponsored by Maxwell Stamp pic. We would like to express our gratitude to Maxwell Stamp for facilitating the organisation of the seminar programme, without which there would have been no material from which to conceive this volume. We are of course especially grateful to the individual contributors. Not only were they willing and able to come to Nottingham and present a seminar to our students, but they were also willing and diligent in preparing their contributions to this volume (which in some cases were only tentatively related to the actual subject of their seminar). We endeavoured to select from some twenty seminars over three years those that would contribute to the theme of rural development, and commend the authors in tailoring their contributions to the theme. Poverty afflicts more than a fifth of the world's population, the majority in rural areas, and we hope this volume can contribute to our understanding of the process of rural development and to the design and implementation of policies to alleviate poverty. Finally, a general thanks to all those who have made this volume possible, notably staff at Macmillan. In particular, we should register the support and encouragement of David Greenaway who initiated the series of Case-Studies in Economic Development, of which this is the third volume.