Peter Hazell trained as an agriculturalist in the UK before completing his PhD in agricultural economics at Cornell University. He had a long career as a research economist at the World Bank and the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), including serving as director of the environment and production technology division and the development strategy and governance division. He has been Visiting Professor at Imperial College London and a Professorial Research Associate at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London. His extensive and widely cited publications include works on new methods of using mathematical programming to solve farm and agricultural sector planning problems; the impact of technological change on growth and poverty reduction; the appropriate role of agricultural insurance in developing countries; and agriculture's growth linkages to the rural non-farm economy. He has worked throughout Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and Central America. Atiqur Rahman has held various managerial, research, and teaching positions at IFAD and previously worked at the Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies. He was a visiting Professor at the University of California, Riverside and an Adjunct Professor at John Cabot University, Rome. He was the lead co-coordinator and researcher of the IFAD 2001 Rural Poverty Report. He has published widely.