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The Thailand Village Fund is the second-largest microcredit scheme in the world. Nearly 80,000 elected local Village Fund committees administer loans that reach 30 percent of all households. The value of Village Fund loans has remained steady since 2006, even without new infusions of government funds, and loans go disproportionately to the poor. Based mainly on a custom-built survey of more than 3,000 Village Funds conducted in 2010, this paper evaluates the performance of Village Funds, which it argues are best modeled as altruistic, and do not appear to be subject to elite capture. As expected, profit rates are difficult to model, but the regression analysis shows that loan recovery rates, total lending, credit ratings, and the proportion of loans going to the poor are all higher when a Village Fund borrows additional funds from a formal bank and on-lends to households, as was done by one in five Village Funds. An economic analysis suggests that Village Fund benefits exceed the costs. Most Village Funds are social rather than financial intermediaries; they have little incentive to take risks or to innovate, which explains why Village Fund lending has not kept pace with the growth of the Thai economy.

Agriculture --- Bankruptcy and Resolution of Financial Distress --- Banks & Banking Reform --- Cost-benefit analysis --- Debt Markets --- Economic Theory & Research --- Endogenous switching regression --- Finance and Financial Sector Development --- Fund performance --- Investment and Investment Climate --- Microcredit --- Rural Development --- Village Fund --- Thailand

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The bioeconomy concept aims to add sustainability to the production, transformation, and trade of biological goods. Though implemented around the world, the development of national bioeconomies is uneven, especially in the global South, where major challenges exist in Sub-Saharan Africa. In this context, the international BiomassWeb project aimed to underpin the bioeconomy concept by applying the value web approach, which seeks to uncover complex interlinked value webs instead of linear value chains. The project also aimed to develop intervention options to strengthen and optimize the synergies and trade-offs among different value chains. The Special Issue “Advances in Food and Non-Food Biomass Production, Processing and Use in Sub-Saharan Africa: Toward a Basis for a Regional Bioeconomy"" compiles 23 articles produced in this framework. The articles are grouped in four sections: the value web approach; the production side; processing, transformation and trade; and global views.

value addition --- cassava variants --- Biomass --- pollution --- welfare --- biomass scenarios --- equity --- bio-based --- husk --- bioproductivity --- transdisciplinary research --- groundnut --- land-use --- mucilage --- fiber --- corncob --- neighborhoods --- mixed methods --- crop residue --- impact --- Ghana --- germination --- bamboo --- rural development --- multipurpose tree on farmland --- knowledge-based bioeconomy --- multi-functionality --- access --- value chain --- availability --- development policy --- biomass utilization --- homegarden --- adoption --- primary sector --- cluster analysis --- Nigeria --- food bearing --- innovation --- CGE --- value web --- biomass --- bioenergy --- comparative advantage --- maize --- Policy Analysis Matrix --- basic needs --- multistorey coffee system --- collaboration --- solid waste --- traditional agroforestry --- amylose --- edible --- pulp --- governance --- intensification options --- parchment --- green economy --- farmland --- value-added --- renewable energy --- endogenous switching regression --- smallholders --- food and non-food benefit --- crop model --- carotenoids retention --- family farming --- contract farming --- contract design --- richness --- development --- biological goods --- soil amendment --- Biomass-based value web --- sustainability --- deforestation --- sustainable development --- typology --- cassava smallholders --- push–pull technology --- circular economy --- methane --- Ethiopia --- willingness to pay --- cassava farmers --- biochar --- Yayu Biosphere Reserve --- bioeconomy --- bio-based economy --- food and non-food --- self-purging pyrolysis --- productivity --- demand-driven research --- cassava --- leadership --- probit --- intragenerational justice --- fairness --- productivity differentials --- technology --- high-tech bioeconomy --- cassava processors --- intensity --- phytotoxicity --- global biomass --- food security --- cassava processing --- yellow cassava --- plantain residues --- fertilizer-yield-response