The findings demonstrate the very developmental stage the olive growers are undergoing, as well as several challenges, including marketing issues, that are limiting the further development of olive growers’ operations. Implications include the need to strengthen marketing efforts of the olive oil product, both at a domestic and at an international level, particularly in view of the potential future increase of olive oil production in New Zealand.

An ATP, at the Huashan area in mid-Taiwan, was selected as our illustration in this study. First, discussion and analysis on the whole environment of Taiwan's rural area and the ATP were carried out via information collection, case study and Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats (SWOT) analysis. Strategies toward the local sustainability development were also proposed.

It is concluded that there is complete control of the State Government in managing the village common lands of the state. The State Government possesses all requisite executive and administrative powers for the said purpose. The executive authority vested in officials from secretariat to village levels enables the Government for effective management of shamlat land related affairs in the state. The Gram Panchayat is entrusted with the significant responsibility to perform all kinds of functions relating to the utilization, protection and preservation of these lands.

But inspite of an effective constitutional arrangement, it is found that a large area of common land in the state has remained unutilized mainly because of the absence of resources and innovative ideas in this regard. Therefore, there is an urgent need to evolve a policy measure for improving the potentiality of common lands to earn more income for the village panchayts in the state.

We argue that Indian agriculture is undergoing a fundamental change wherein the technology and inputs are moving out of the hands of the farmers to external suppliers. This, over a period of time may have resulted in the de–skilling of farmers and without adequate public investments in support services and without appropriate risk mitigation products, has created a near–crisis in agriculture. Thus, we argue that policy interventions have to be necessarily patient and holistic.

Looking specifically at the rural financial markets using some primary data, we argue that it is necessary to understand the rural financial markets from the demand side. We conclude the article by identifying some directions in which the policy intervention could move, keeping the overall rural economy in view rather than being focussed only on agriculture.