AKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to address special thanks to my advisor, Dr. Daniel Taylor for his personableness, support, advice and endless patience in improving my writing. I would like to thank Dr. Michael Bertelsen for providing me with moral support and very useful materials. I also would like to thank Dr. Bradford Mills for his insightful comments. They were more helpful than he may think. I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. George Norton for his guidance and help in the achievement of this work. I would like to thank Dr. David Orden for being a valuable source of ideas and motivation as well. I hope he keeps supporting his students with such vigor. I also would like to thank the support staff: Ms. Patricia Angus, Ms. Marilyn Echols, Ms. Peggy Lawson, Ms. Ann Rogers and Ms. Dot Wnorowsky for their help. Their collaboration is really greatly acknowledged. I am grateful to all the people who agreed to meet with my colleague Jason Bergtold and myself in Senegal. Without their help, this study would not have been possible. I would like to thank Dr. Koumakh Ndour and his colleagues at ENEA, Dr. Ousmane Ndoye and his colleagues at ISRA, Dr. Matar Gaye from IDEP, Mr. Sidy Gaye and his colleagues at the Ministry of Finance, Ms. Youhanidou Ba from the U.S. embassy in Dakar, Mr. Balde Some from the Ministry of Agriculture, Mr. Youssoupha Boye and Mr. Mohamadou Seye from Sonagraines, Mr. Kent Elbow and many other persons who were equally helpful. My sincere gratitude is expressed to all of them. Finally, I would like to thank the Peanut Collaborative Research Support Program (USAID Grant Number: LAG-4048-G-00-6013-00) for providing funds to support this research. iii