Summary : The fictional country described here, "Southland", is a lower middle-income country, with a record of uneven economic and social progress. From Independence until the early 1990s, public ownership was a central feature of the economy. This case study is intended for use in familiarizing professionals in agricultural, food and rural development, it is not focused on learning analytical methods, e.g., estimating protection, modeling markets or the impact of policy changes. Nevertheless the data and the institutional and political context could be used for this purpose, if desired, but the case study does not seek to teach these methods. The information presented in the Background Note, the ten documents and the statistical files give a willingly non-structured non-comprehensive picture of the country. They contain repetitions, contradictions and gaps, just as would documents available to a policy practitioner working in a particular country. This case study aims to explore these issues by "learning to swim by jumping into the swimming pool at the deep end". The exercise is designed around the notion of "discovery learning". Clues as to the connections between the issues of concern are scattered liberally in the material which follows, some being obvious, while others are well hidden. Participants should benefit from reading the material, analyzing and discussing it with colleagues, producing a joint written report, and discussing the results and issues arising with the facilitators.