This paper characterizes access to assets and agrarian institutions of households engaged in agricultural activities in a sample of developing countries. The evidence presented in the paper draws from 15 nationally representative household surveys from four regions of the developing world. We first describe the extent and distribution of the access of rural households to a range of agricultural-specific assets and institutions. We further show how it is essential that this heterogeneity be taken intoaccount when analyzing the impact of shocks or agricultural policy decisions on different household types. We do that by looking at two examples: households‘ ability to engage successfully in commercial farming and the impact of high food prices on rural households. The paper concludes thatit is essential for agricultural policy modeling in developing countries to be able to account for thisheterogeneity