In this innovative book, Laura E. Huggins finds path breaking entrepreneurial solutions to difficult environmental challenges in some of the world’s poorest areas. The approaches entrepreneurs are taking to these challenges involve establishing property rights and encouraging market exchange. From beehives to barbed wire, these tools are creating positive incentives and promoting both economic development and environmental improvements. The case studies are from the developing world and reveal where the biggest victories for less poverty and more conservation can be won. The pursuit begins by learning from local people solving local problems. Learn More

The urgent need to enhance sustainable development in developing countries has never been greater: poverty levels are growing, land conversions are uncontrolled, and there is rapid loss of biodiversity through land use change. This timely book highlights the need for integrated assessment tools for developing countries, considering the long-term impacts of decisions taken today. Learn More

This book explores the interaction between climate change and the agriculture sector. Agriculture is essential to the livelihood of people and nations, especially in the developing world; therefore, any impact on it will have significant economic, social, and political ramifications. Scholars from around the world and from various fields have been brought together to explore this important topic. Learn More

Food safety and hygiene is of critical importance to us all, yet, as periodic food crises in various countries each year show we are all dependent on others in business and public regulation to ensure that the food we consume in the retailing and hospitality sectors is safe. Bridget Hutter considers the understandings of risk and regulation held by those in business and considers the compliance pressures on managers and owners, and how these relate to understandings of risk and uncertainty. Learn More

Improving Irrigation in Asia is based on a longitudinal study over two decades on innovative intervention for sustained performance of irrigation systems. The work identifies key factors that can help explain the performance of interventions, and explicates lessons for resource management and the management of development assistance. Learn More

This book explores the links between globalization, agriculture and development in a number of contemporary Asia-Pacific nations. It highlights the complex and diversified nature of agricultural change in these contexts, and the ways in which this shapes patterns of economic and social development. Globalisation, Agriculture and Development shows that while agriculture continues to play an important role in local, regional and national development, both the industry and the communities it supports are facing an increasing number of economic, social and environmental challenges. Learn More

The agriculture sector around the world has experienced profound changes in recent years. This unique and path-breaking Handbook draws together the best current research in the area of entrepreneurship in agriculture, food production and rural development. Learn More

This unique book explores the varied perspectives on contemporary processes of rural transformation and policy intervention in China. The expert contributors combine a critical review of current theoretical viewpoints and global debates with a series of case studies that document the specificities of China’s pathways to change. Central issues focus on the dynamics of state–peasant encounters; the diversification of labour and livelihoods; out-migration and the blurring of rural and urban scenarios; the significance of issues of ‘value’ and ‘capital’ and their gender implications; land ownership and sustainable resource management; struggles between administrative cadres and local actors; and the dilemmas of ‘participatory’ development. Learn More

Drawing on insights from theoretical applications, empirically based approaches and case study experience, this book contributes to the improved design and use of trade and related policy interventions in staple food markets. Learn More

Despite its great importance, there are surprisingly few economic studies of the impact of climate on agriculture and how agriculture can adapt under a variety of conditions. This book examines 22 countries across four continents, including both developed and developing economies. It provides both a good analytical basis for additional work and solid results for policy debate concerning income distributional effects such as abatement, adaptation, and equity. Learn More

International agricultural trade regulation remains problematic despite the creation of the WTO and a specific Agreement on Agriculture in 1995. Fiona Smith challenges this orthodoxy and presents a new conceptual method by which the problem of international agricultural trade in the WTO can be understood. Learn More

In large parts of the world, the reduction in viability of agriculture and rural areas is an escalating problem. Driven by a range of factors, including insufficient economic returns from land used agriculturally, ageing populations in rural areas and limited economic perspectives from agriculture and other land-based activities, marginalisation could induce harmful abandonment of the land or the loss of biodiversity and landscape features. New perspectives arise in rural areas and multifunctionality is often seen as a strategy to cope with marginalisation. This important book offers a contemporary overview of strategies employed to cope with marginalisation of the land and improve viability of the rural countryside. The study is based on detailed case studies undertaken in Europe, the USA, Japan and a number of developing countries. Learn More

This book analyses the gradual shift in the distribution of power in agri-food supply chains, away from the manufacturers of branded food products to the global supermarket chains such as Wal-Mart and Tesco. This transformation has had a profound effect on the food we eat, together with the ways in which food is produced, processed and marketed. The authors assess the causes and consequences of this transformation, and evaluate the impacts along the whole supply chain. Learn More

This important collection prepared by Robert E. Evenson and Terri Raney – leading scholars in the field – focuses on one of the most controversial issues of our time – the genetic modification of agricultural produce. Whilst the US and Canada are supportive of GM crops, the European Union urges other countries to involve the ‘precautionary principle’ in regulatory policy. This comprehensive volume, which will appeal to scholars and practitioners alike, includes papers discussing this European Union–North American divide and possible resolutions of differences on this subject. Topics examined include: the technology; the industry; farmer adoption; consumer acceptance; economic impacts; the emergence of GM free markets and GM products for developing countries. Learn More

The importance of agricultural growth to poverty reduction is well known, but the specific channels through which the poor can take advantage of growth require further research. Beyond Food Production takes on this challenge, investigating four important channels: rural labor markets, farm incomes, food prices, and linkages to other economic sectors. Learn More

The book argues that the viability of many observed market and non-market interventions in various countries in agricultural products depends considerably on the underlying behaviour of the relevant commodity markets. Many of these policies have had distortive impacts, resulting in much discussion and controversy in the context of the World Trade Organization (WTO) Doha Round of trade negotiations. The book reviews a wide range of issues related to agricultural commodities, and provides a survey of current methodological and empirical research related to our understanding of the nature of commodity markets, and the implications especially for commodity dependent developing countries. Learn More

This book presents a detailed picture of the evolutionary processes at work in water markets with a particular focus on theory and practice in Australia. Policymakers are striving to strike a balance between the pros and cons of a property rights/market based approach to the allocation of water resources, as opposed to an approach that centres on government regulation. The current movement in Australia is toward the use of markets, and numerous reforms are either underway or under consideration in that direction. This provides an ideal opportunity to observe the factors at play in determining the balance and hence the mix of policy instruments at work. The distinguished contributors offer a range of perspectives – economic, legal, environmental – and combine conceptual analysis with evidence from real policy decisions. Learn More

This timely new book analyzes the possible linkages between agricultural trade liberalization and the environment, and assesses the negative and positive impacts of any possible reforms. The authors begin by providing an extensive empirical examination of the potential environmental consequences of agricultural trade liberalization at both a global and US level. However, not only might changes in trade policy affect the environment, but environmental policy can also influence trade. Consequently, the authors conduct a detailed study of the impact of US agri-environmental policies on trade flows. To conclude, they investigate conceptual and policy aspects of the important inter-relationship between agricultural trade and unintentional environmental by-products, transboundary concerns and multilateral environmental agreements. Learn More

Apart from food and raw materials, agriculture can also provide ancillary benefits such as landscapes, biodiversity, cultural heritage and thriving rural communities. This book offers a state-of-the-art overview of strategies for sustainable management practices and their implementation through the adoption of suitable instruments. Such practices aim to sustain and support the multiple functions provided by agriculture and natural resources in the rural countryside. Learn More