Each reader of this book brings its pages to life, using your own history and insights to interpret and apply what we have written. Before writing this book, Amelia and William were students then researchers and teachers in a variety of places. We worked in agricultural schools, liberal arts colleges and health-science campuses in the U.S., E…
In the early 1990s, Mr. H, who was in his thirties at that time, was already the general manager of a state- owned tea company in the Jiangxi province of China. However, he was struggling to find customers for tea produced in his county, Wuyuan— which had been famous for its green tea for more than 1,000 years— in a free and open market after the government had ceas…
Changing consumption preferences towards high value, nutrient and protein richfoods are signaling agricultural diversification in India. Currently, India is the largestproducer of milk, pulses, banana, mango, pomegranate, papaya, lemon, okra, gingerand non-food crops like cotton and jute; the second-largest producer of rice, wheat,fruits and vegetables, tea and one of the leading producers of e…
The world is more interested in issues surrounding agricultural and food issues than ever before. Are pesticides safe? Should we choose locally grown food? Why do some people embrace new agricultural technologies while others steadfastly defend traditional farming methods? In the debates about organic food, genetically modified organisms, and farm animal welfare, it's not always clear what the …
In their definitive review of the Asian rice economy in the 1970s, Barker and Herdt wrote: “Most Asian rice farms are small ... and employ inten-sive labour practices in place of mechanisation ... [R]ainfall is the domi-nant climatic variable, and the rice crop is normally limited to the rainy season ... Rice dominates not only production and consumption patterns, but is also ine…
Agricultural development in Asia has undergone multiple phases and has experienced a remarkable evolution that also advanced general economic development. The region has become a major agricultural producer in the world due to the Green Revolution in the second half of the twentieth century (Hazell 2009). In particular, its rice exports have become essentia…
The farming and agricultural robotics industries are inextricably linked. This connection is reinforced every year at the FIRA International Forum of Agricultural Robots, where, inevitably, there are new players and new problems, bigger goals and better solutions.As the circumstances change, the innovators, disruptors, regulators and users change, too. This growth depends on everyone’s abilit…
Between 2015 and 2017, FAO organized a series of multistakeholder workshops on Responsible Investment in Agriculture and Food Systems (RAI) in Ghana, Malawi, Mozambique, Senegal and Tanzania as part of the Inter-agency Working Group (IAWG) programme on principles guiding new investment in agriculture. In Ghana, workshop participants identified gender and youth issues as particularly relevant to…
Behind all the food that we eat is a vast realm of unaccounted for interactions:the diversion of water from rivers; the extraction of nutrients from soil; thedischarge of pollutants to air and water; the exaction of labor to grow, manage,pick, and package; the release of carbon dioxide to transport and deliver; and soon. When we shine a light on these interactions it becomes clear that a 99¢ha…
ollowing the reign of nation states, there is every reason to believe that the twenty-first century will be a new era for cities.First because, from a structural standpoint, currently over half of the world popu-lation is urban (compared to 30% in 1950), and it will increase to two-thirds by 2050 according to the United Nations (2014). Medium-sized cities have consider-able weigh…