Recommending Books for Purchase (Bulletin 133 - Feb 2021) - 2020 Publications: Agricultural Economics

Print Book Price : £39.99

This book looks at food security from a socio-economic perspective. It offers a detailed and systematic examination of food security from its historical backgrounds, concepts and measurements, to the determinants and approaches to achieve food security. The book also introduces the key challenges and root causes of food insecurity. 　 Through country-specific cases, the book highlights instances of both successful and disastrous national food security management and their outcomes. The invaluable learning experiences of these countries shed light on food security practices, and the straightforward demand-supply framework effectively guides readers in understanding food security issues. This is an essential resource for anyone who is keen to learn more about food security, particularly researchers and university students who are new to the field. The book endeavours to help us reflect on the current phenomenon and strategize better for the future.

Print Book Price : £120

Using real cases of food firms and agriculture supply chains as a context, How is Digitalization Affecting Agri-food? New Business Models, Strategies and OrganizationalFormsaims to understand the key themes in strategic and organizational research in this area. Despite the importance of food and agriculture in the current political and societal context, analysis of the impact of digitalization and information technologies on the industry is still limited. The objective of this monograph is to understand the direction of this change. With case studies of food firms and agriculture supply chains it sets out to conceptualize food organizing and organizations as a fruitful object of inquiry, both at the intra and interorganizational levels. It aims to understand new business models, strategies and organizational forms. Contributions in this stream of research have the potential to yield important and relevant insights for both scholars and societies. This book is written for primarily for academics engaged in innovation management or strategy, or conducting organizational behaviour research. It will also be of relevance to practitioners and managers in the agri-food industry.

Print Book Price : £39.99

What is the balance of the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy more than half a century after its birth? Does it illustrate the virtues of the European model of coordinated capitalism, as opposed to US-style liberal capitalism? Or is it an incoherent set of instruments that exert diverse negative impacts and, like Frankenstein's monster, seems to have escaped the control of its designers? The Political Economy of the Common Agricultural Policy does not criticize the CAP from the liberal standpoint that views most public interventions in the economy as bad for efficiency and welfare. The CAP has been costly to Europeans, both as consumers and as taxpayers, and has also generated a number of negative impacts upon third countries, but these costs and impacts have been more moderate than is suggested. This book proposes that the issue with the CAP is not a generic problem of coordinating capitalism but, instead, a more specific problem of low-quality coordination. The text argues that profound reform of the European Union's institutions and policies is required to counter the rapid rise of a more Eurosceptical state of mind but - in the case of agricultural policy - history casts serious doubts on the capacity of the European network of agriculture-related politicians to lead such a reform. This key work is essential reading for researchers, graduate students, and master's level docents of the Common Agricultural Policy and - more broadly - European Union policy and reform.

Print Book Price : £190

"The Routledge Handbook of Gender and Agriculture covers major theoretical issues as well as critical empirical shifts in gender and agriculture. Gender relations in agriculture are shifting in most regions of the world with changes in the structure of agriculture, the organization of production, international restructuring of value chains, climate change, and national and multinational policy changes. This book provides a cutting-edge assessment of the field of gender and agriculture, with contributions from both leading scholars and up and coming academics as well as policymakers and practitioners. The handbook is organised into four parts: Part 1, Institutions, Markets, and Policies, Part 2, Land, Labor, and Agrarian Transformations, Part 3, Knowledge, Methods, and Access to Information, and Part 4. Farming People and Identities. Chapters address both historical subjects as well as ground-breaking work on gender and agriculture which will help to chart the future of the field. The handbook has an international focus with contributions examining issues at both the global and local level with contributors from across the world. With contributions from leading academics, policymakers and practitioners, and with a global outlook, the Routledge Handbook of Gender and Agriculture is an essential reference volume for both scholars, students and practitioners interested in gender and agriculture"--

Print Book Price : £140

"Debates about public expenditure in the agricultural sector have re-opened in many developing and emerging economies because of high budget deficits and changes in public opinion. As a result, agricultural policy in many of these countries is beginning to take a more market-oriented approach to agrarian problems: most notably through the introduction of contract farming. This book explores the policy issues around contract farming, its transformative potential, and addresses the lack of empirical research on this topic by focusing on South Asia: principally India, Bangladesh and Nepal. The book first addresses the effects of contract farming (vertical coordination) on productivity, food security indicators (yield, consumption expenditures, prices) employment, and input usage. Then it draws lessons from the South Asian case studies on the impact of institutional changes, like contract farming, on income and food security of smallholder households. The core of the book will include case study chapters on several commodities that are produced under contract farming, including vegetables and fisheries in Bangladesh, low-value crops in Nepal, and coffee in India. Further chapters also explore contracts, storage, input usage and technical efficiency in these cases. This book serves as an essential guide to academics, researchers, students, legislative liaisons, and think tank groups interested in agrarian issues, agricultural economics, and agricultural policy in emerging economies, and South Asia in particular. Ashok K. Mishra is Kemper and Ethel Marley Foundation Chair, Morrison School of Agribusiness, WP Carey School of Business, Arizona State University, Tempe, USA. Anjani Kumar is Senior Research Fellow, International Food Policy Research Institute, South Asia Office, New Delhi, India. Pramod K. Joshi is former Senior Advisor to the Director General and Director-South Asia, International Food Policy Research Institute, New Delhi, India"--