Group items tagged

Natural disasters and extreme events in agriculture: impacts and mitigation M. V. K. Siva Kumar, Mannava V. K. Sivakumar, Raymond P. Motha, Haripada P. Das 0 Resenhas Springer, 2005 - 367 páginas Agricultural production is highly dependent on weather, climate and water availability and is adversely affected by the weather and climate-related disasters. Droughts and natural disasters such as floods can result in crop failures, food insecurity, famine, loss of property and life, mass migration and negative national economic growth. It may not be possible to prevent the occurrence of these natural disasters, but the resultant disastrous effects can be reduced considerably through proper planning and effective preparation. Vulnerability associated with the hazards of natural disasters can be controlled to some extent by accurate and timely prediction and by taking counter-measures to reduce their impacts on agriculture. This book based on an expert meeting held in Beijing, China should be of interest to all organizations involved in disasters reduction and mitigation of extreme events. TOC:Preface.- Impacts of Natural Disasters in Agriculture.- The Role of Disaster Preparedness in National Planning.- The Occurrence and Predictability of Extreme Events.- Accessibility of Database Information.- Tools for Forecasting or Warning.- Agrometeorological Impact Assessment.- Damage Assessment of Agrometeorological Relevance.- Impacts of Tropical Cyclones on Chinese Lowland Agriculture.- Frost and High Temperature Injury in China.- Impacts of Sand Storms/Dust Storms on Agriculture.- Disaster Reduction Planning and Response.- Agricultural Drought Policy and Practices in Australia.- Agrometeorological Disaster Risk Management in China.- Degradation of Vegetation and Agricultural Productivity.- Agricultural Drought Mitigation.- Early Detection and Monitoring of Drought and Flood in China.- The Decision of the Center of a Tropical Cyclone.- Application of Remote Sensing and GIS fo

Special Issue "Renewable Agriculture" Quicklinks Special Issue Editors Published Papers Special Issue Information Keywords Planned Papers A special issue of Sustainability (ISSN 2071-1050). Deadline for manuscript submissions: closed (30 October 2009) Special Issue Editor Guest Editor Dr. Stephen S. Jones Director, Northwestern Research and Extension Center, Washington State University, Mount Vernon, Washington 98273, USA E-Mail: joness@wsu.edu Published Papers Click here to see a list of 19 papers that have been published in this special issue. Special Issue Information Dear Colleagues, For centuries the perceived need for an immediate and dramatic increase in agricultural production has been a theme throughout the developed world. But only very recently, and with less urgency, has society recognized the need for the true sustainability of agricultural production. For long-term sustainability, agriculture must have the capacity for renewal. Even the most basic forms of agriculture require an input of energy, this in essence is what defines the system as agricultural. Starting with human and animal labor, energy inputs have developed into an industrial system using fertilizers, water, seed, pest control, and other products often brought in from off the farm. While these products may increase production, for the most part they are non-renewable, require vast amounts of fuel to produce and transport, are costly, and may harm the native organisms and environment. Additionally, most seed in industrial agriculture is non-renewable due to legal and genetic mechanisms that make it problematic for farmers to save and replant what they have grown on their farms. Is a renewable agriculture with a high level of productivity possible? What research is underway to test the robustness of current systems when measured against a standard of true long-term sustainability? Stephen S. Jones, Ph. D. Guest Editor   Submission Information All papers should be submitted to

Platforms, Markets and Innovation Annabelle Gawer 0 Resenhas Edward Elgar Publishing, 2010 - 396 páginas 'In her pioneering book Platform Leadership (with Michael Cusumano), Gawer gave us the strategy of building coalitions of customers, suppliers, and complementors. Now, she brings together a number of the leading researchers in the area of platform strategy to give us a book that will be a key reference for both practitioners and academics. Adam Brandenburger, New York University, US 'Annabelle Gawer's collected volume of research shows that a vibrant community of scholars has arisen around platforms and innovation. Each of the chapters is first rate, with top researchers offering some of their latest work. This will be an indispensable book for students of innovation and technology management everywhere. Henry Chesbrough, University of California, Berkeley, US 'Annabelle Gawer's Platforms, Markets and Innovation is the first serious exploration of the critical but subtle role that platforms play in business, society and our personal lives. As digital technologies penetrate every nook and cranny of the world around us, we rely on platforms to both help us use the new technologies, as well as to organize new markets of innovation that add applications on top of the platforms and make them far more valuable. Dr Gawer's excellent book is designed to help us understand the mysterious nature of platforms. It brings together the insights of twenty-four experts around the world who contributed to the fourteen chapters of the book. Dr Gawer's book is invaluable to anyone trying to understand the nuanced nature of platforms, and their implications for the evolution of innovation in the 21st century. Irving Wladawsky-Berger, IBM Academy of Technology, US The emergence of platforms is a novel phenomenon impacting most industries, from products to services. Industry platforms such as Microsoft Windows or Google, embedded within industrial ecosystems, have redesigned our in

Institutions and Sustainability: Political Economy of Agriculture and the Environment - Essays in Honour of Konrad Hagedorn Volker Beckmann 0 Resenhas シュプリンガー・ジャパン株式会社, 2009 - 387 páginas The institutional perspective on the management of natural resources in the light of the interdisciplinary debate on sustainability is the focus of the agricultural and resource economist Konrad Hagedorn. Institutions and Sustainability reflects the latest trends in combining institutions and sustainability, summarises new conceptual developments in environmental economics and outlines new approaches towards the analysis of governance of natural resources.The political economy of economic development and agricultural policy highlights the role of political institutions and the difficulties of reform towards sustainability. International scholars provide approaches and frameworks for analysing modes of governance in natural resource management. Empirical studies look into the role of property rights and collective action for coping with environmental problems and outline theoretical and methodological challenges of the institutional analysis for sustainability

Search About CSDi CSDi is firmly committed to proven, results-based solutions to end suffering and poverty. Our goal is to spread these solutions across the globe through our in-depth field guides and interactive online workshops. Work with us and become the solution. We've trained development professionals... in 103 countries who have developed course projects... impacting over 100,000 people. ~ What our students are saying: I really appreciate the time you have taken to go through correcting assignments.... I am very confident that all your labours are producing lots of learning and stimulation for your students. MATT, IRELAND Facebook Like Box Upcoming Courses ¡Cursos Nuevos en Español! May 17 - July 11 101: From the Ground Up May 17 - July 11 341: Community Based Adaptation to Climate Change May 17 - July 11 Adaptación Basado en la Comunidad-CBA May 17 - July 11 Upcoming Online Development Courses May 2011 Community Based Adaptation: 300 Hands-On Field Activities Donate CSDi, a 501c3, relies on your generous donations for our work, training individuals to be the solution in communities across the globe. News Newsletter: March Newsletter: Project Sustainability: Put the Community in Charge. Field Project of the Month: Rainwater Harvesting: Mexico City Google Translate Translate This Website Powered by Google Tradutor iLearning Experience Student Testimonials International Partnerships Learning Environment Student Field Projects Example Assignment: Kenya Student Countries, Organizations, Project Challenges HANDS-ON FIELD ACTIVITIES FOR COMMUNITY-BASED ADAPTATION Module OL 340: Community-Based Adaptation to Climate Change Posted by Tim Magee CSDi is pleased to present a compilation of Community Based Adaptation Field Activities-complete with links to source materials and technical information-compiled from case studies & from projects developed by CSDi field partners & online students. We encourage you to submit activities: Onl

Tragedy of the Commons by Garrett Hardin About the Author Search CEE Home | CEE | 2nd edition | Tragedy of the Commons In 1974 the general public got a graphic illustration of the "tragedy of the commons" in satellite photos of the earth. Pictures of northern Africa showed an irregular dark patch 390 square miles in area. Ground-level investigation revealed a fenced area inside of which there was plenty of grass. Outside, the ground cover had been devastated. The explanation was simple. The fenced area was private property, subdivided into five portions. Each year the owners moved their animals to a new section. Fallow periods of four years gave the pastures time to recover from the grazing. The owners did this because they had an incentive to take care of their land. But no one owned the land outside the ranch. It was open to nomads and their herds. Though knowing nothing of Karl Marx, the herdsmen followed his famous advice of 1875: "To each according to his needs." Their needs were uncontrolled and grew with the increase in the number of animals. But supply was governed by nature and decreased drastically during the drought of the early 1970s. The herds exceeded the natural "carrying capacity" of their environment, soil was compacted and eroded, and "weedy" plants, unfit for cattle consumption, replaced good plants. Many cattle died, and so did humans. The rational explanation for such ruin was given more than 170 years ago. In 1832 William Forster Lloyd, a political economist at Oxford University, looking at the recurring devastation of common (i.e., not privately owned) pastures in England, asked: "Why are the cattle on a common so puny and stunted? Why is the common itself so bare-worn, and cropped so differently from the adjoining inclosures?" Lloyd's answer assumed that each human exploiter of the common was guided by self-interest. At the point when the carrying capacity of the commons was fully reached, a herdsman might ask himsel

Examines the concepts of wilderness protection & biodiversity conservation & the different priorities & perceptions of indigenous peoples living within many regions that have been established as protected areas. Discussion is included on wilderness & protection; indigenous peoples & their rights; protecting biodiversity, the social impacts of wilderness protection; the politics of parks; society & biodiversity; parks for people: management alternatives; conservation outside protected areas; from national parks to global benefits: conservation of the global commons; & indigenous intellectual property rights.Ó Extensive bibliography. « Menos

ntroduction: On the nature and scope of dynamic capabilities Katkalo et al. Ind Corp Change.2010; 0: dtq026v1-dtq026

Between the local and the global: confronting complexity in the contemporary agri-food sector Terry Marsden, Jonathan Murdoch 0 Resenhas Emerald Group Publishing, 2006 - 358 páginas The volume presents a range of critical perspectives on the contemporary agri-food sector. The starting point is the recognition that geography matters in agri-food more than ever, and it plays a diverse range of roles in shaping production-consumption relations. With hindsight, it may be argued that the extensive rural sociological literature on the globalisation of food over the past twenty years has tended to over-emphasise the degree to which food products and processes have indeed been industrialised and standardised. But if diversity and variety have become increasingly significant in distinguishing food commodities, spaces of production, and the practices of consumption, how are we to critically understand and theorise this complexity? What are the features of the institutional, private, public and civic frameworks that work to promote and sustain diversity and complexity in the international food sector both within and between the global and the local? What new or reconfigured sets of power relations are developing through the unfolding of this complexity; and what do these suggest for the sustainability or vulnerability of rural locales and natures? Through the two sections of the book- first concerning Theorising Complexity, and the second, problematising Local development and Local complexities- and bringing together under this theme international theoretical and empirical comparisons, the book begins to explore this rich rural sociological and development field. The chapters examine in detail the ways that constellations of organisations, cultures and entrepreneurial practices become embedded in discrete spatial areas. They show the importance of these areas and their associated institutions to the contemporary, and increasingly contingent development of the international

The genetic modification of crops continues to be the subject of intense debate, and opinions are often strongly polarised. Environmental Impact of Genetically Modified Crops addresses the major concerns of scientists, policy makers, environmental lobby groups and the general public regarding this controversial issue, from an editorially neutral standpoint. Included is a chapter by Bruce Tabashnik on the recent discovery of the first documented case of field-evolved resistance to a crop genetically modified to carry the gene for the Bacillus thuringiensis toxin. While the main focus is on environmental impact, food safety issues for both humans and animals are also considered. The book concludes with a discussion on the future of agricultural biotechnology in the context of sustainability, natural resource management and future global population and food supply.

Intellectual Property Rights And Concentration In Agricultural Biotechnology William Lesser Cornell University AgBioForum Fall98 v.1, n.2 The relationships between intellectual property rights (IPRs) and structural change are examined in this paper. Intellectual property rights are a complex, multifaceted area and one in which corporate strategies are poorly understood. Nevertheless, it is argued here that IPRs can affect firm entry, can make vertical integration in downstream industries more or less necessary, and can create financial incentives for downstream mergers and acquisitions. Hence, IPRs can have significant structural impacts. Key words: intellectual property rights; agrobiotechnology; industry structure; research and development (R&D) The later 1990s have been a tumultuous time for merger and acquisition activity among firms involved in agricultural biotechnology. By the end of the third quarter of 1998, Monsanto alone had been involved in 18 acquisitions and had itself agreed and then reneged on a merger with American Home Products. In addition, Monsanto completed overseas acquisitions worth a total of $7.3 billion over two years. Novartis was formed by the merging of Sandoz and Ciba-Geigy, while DuPont chose to enter the market through joint ventures; a total of 20 joint ventures valued at over $5 billion (Moore, 1998). These mergers have contributed greatly to a restructuring of the seed industry. Most notably, Monsanto controlled up to 40 percent of seed for the 1998 United States (U.S.) soybean crop and, if approved, full acquisition of Delta & Pine Land will give Monsanto ownership of at least 80 percent of the U.S. cotton seed industry (Kilman & Warren, 1998). This is not the only incidence of major acquisition activity, a previous one occurred about 20 years earlier. Butler and Marion (1985) list 27 mergers during the period 1978-80. The 1980 date is pivotal as it marks some strengthening amendments to the United States Plant Variety Prot

ombining theory, research and policy Consuming Interests provides a topical interdisciplinary exploration into the nature of food provision, policy and regulation. The book provides a detailed examination of corporate retailers, state agencies and consumer organisations involved in the food sector. The analysis explores questions including: * what can the public expect from the state * what limits are there on state action * what are the most appropriate balances between public and private interests in the provision of 'quality' foods.

his 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 theimpacts along the whole supply chain. The book considers a variety of theoretical and cultural approaches to the analysis of change in the organization and management of the agri-food supply chain, and presents a series of studies focusing upon the effects of changes in Europe, North America and less developed countries. The impacts on farmers and workers, and implications for the environment, are also considered. The contested nature of these changes suggests a number of possible future scenarios for the global agri-food system, which are also analysed and evaluated.This book will be of great interest to postgraduate and undergraduate students in business studies, sociology, politics, geography, and cultural studies. Academic researchers and teachers, and policy mak

Globalization has reshaped the nature of regulation within developed nations. This book draws upon the expertise of some of the most prominent names in rural sociology, geography, and anthropology to show how globalization has opened up a new regulatory politics in which increasingly, non-political sites, spaces, and agents play an increasingly influential role in shaping agricultural production and consumption

Innovation and globalization are changing the nature of economic life. This book argues that the transfer and use of knowledge requires the development of appropriate institutional infrastructures. The opportunities offered by globalization will only be fully realized by actively pursuing policies to enhance the absorption and development of knowledge. The book is relevant for courses in management and business, economics, geography, international political economy, and innovation and technology studies. It will be of interest to all concerned with public policy toward the economy

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 theimpacts along the whole supply chain. The book considers a variety of theoretical and cultural approaches to the analysis of change in the organization and management of the agri-food supply chain, and presents a series of studies focusing upon the effects of changes in Europe, North America and less developed countries. The impacts on farmers and workers, and implications for the environment, are also considered. The contested nature of these changes suggests a number of possible future scenarios for the global agri-food system, which are also analysed and evaluated.This book will be of great interest to postgraduate and undergraduate students in business studies, sociology, politics, geography, and cultural studies. Academic researchers and teachers, and policy makers and researchers in business, government and industry will also find much of interest.

Globalization has reshaped the nature of regulation within developed nations. This book draws upon the expertise of some of the most prominent names in rural sociology, geography, and anthropology to show how globalization has opened up a new regulatory politics in which increasingly, non-political sites, spaces, and agents play an increasingly influential role in shaping agricultural production and consumption.

A Green New Deal A Green New Deal is a report released on July 21, 2008 by the Green New Deal Group and published by the New Economics Foundation, which outlines a series of policy proposals to ... Wikipediafrom 1 More Wikipedia Result Green New Deal @green_newdeal Get short, timely messages from Green New ... Results from Google The Green New Deal Act now and a positive course of action based on the framwork set out in A Green New Deal http://www.greennewdealgroup.org/ The Green New Deal | the new economics foundation The report, A Green New Deal, described the global economy facing a http://www.neweconomics.org/proje... Obama urged to create 'Green New Deal' Nov 24, 2008 ... The worldwide economic crisis is prompting a growing number of countries to back away from pledges to cut greenhouse gas emissions and ... http://www.boston.com/news/scienc... Press Releases October 2008 - "Global Green New Deal ... Mobilizing and re-focusing the global economy towards investments in clean technologies and 'natural' infrastructure such as forests and soils is the best ... http://www.unep.org/documents.mul... How Green Technology Can Spark Economic Growth Oct 25, 2008 ... In a good year the U.S. economy adds 2 million jobs, so Obama is talking about goals so ambitious that they amount to a green New Deal http://www.newsweek.com/2008/10/2...

This paper contributes a preliminary analysis of the process of agrarian capitalist transition in Arunachal Pradesh, one of the least studied regions of India. Primarily based on information collected through a field survey in eleven villages, the paper seeks to explain the nature and implications of institutional unevenness in the development of capitalism. Institutional diversity is not simply mapped across space, it is also manifested in the simultaneous existence of market and non-market institutions across the means of production within the same village or spatial context. In addition, there is a continuous and complex interaction among these institutions which both shapes and is shaped by this capitalist transition. Primitive accumulation emerges as a continuing characteristic of the on-going agrarian and non-agrarian capitalist transition. Institutional adaptation, continuity and hybridity are as integral to the emergence of the market economy as are the processes of creation of new institutions and demise of others. There is no necessary correspondence between the emerging commercialization of the different productive dimensions of the agrarian economy. These uneven processes are deeply influenced by existing and emerging power relations and by the state. Framed by the Bernstein-Byres debate about the contemporary (ir)relevance of the agrarian question, evidence is presented to justify the conclusion that although the processes at work are far from the classical models of the transition to capitalism, all aspects of the agrarian question remain relevant.

Does the present socio-ecological impasse - captured in popular discussions of the 'end' of cheap food and cheap oil - represent the latest in a long history of limits and crises that have been transcended by capital, or have we arrived at an epochal turning point in the relation of capital, capitalism and agricultural revolution? For the better part of six centuries, the relation between world capitalism and agriculture has been a remarkable one. Every great wave of capitalist development has been paved with 'cheap' food. Beginning in the long sixteenth century, capitalist agencies pioneered successive agricultural revolutions, yielding a series of extraordinary expansions of the food surplus. This paper engages the crisis of neoliberalism today, and asks: Is another agricultural revolution, comparable to those we have known in the history of capitalism, possible? Does the present conjuncture represent a developmental crisis of capitalism that can be resolved by establishing new agro-ecological conditions for another long wave of accumulation, or are we now witnessing an epochal crisis of capitalism? These divergent possibilities are explored from a perspective that views capitalism as 'world-ecology', joining together the accumulation of capital and the production of nature in dialectical unity.