Synopsis The focus on people living the remote, low-density settlements on fragile, lands, and how, with new institutional improvements, they can better manage their portfolio of assets to increase productivity and sustain critical ecosystems. Chapter 1 is about people living in areas closer to lager and increasingly urban markets. These areas will help feed the growing and increasingly higher-income world population. This chapter focuses on the management of and interaction of assets such as land and water and the environment; how to help the poor get better access to land and water; and the importance of asset distribution for the development of good institutions especially in near-market areas where intensification can generate considerable equitable growth. Population in rural areas totals 70 billion people, and more than half of them live in areas with commercial agriculture potential. Some of these people will migrate to cities, and many will live in areas that will be reclassified as urban when the areas’ densities increase. Despite widespread concern over the past 20 to 30 years about food shortages, the rural developing world has exceeded expectations in food production. Will past trends continue, or is there a real cause for concern? For the world to make a smooth transition to relative population stability 50 years from now, its rural areas will have to meet a range of challenges.