In this book we assemble a range of evidence from a range of sources with a view to developing an improved understanding of recent trends in agricultural productivity around the world. The fundamental purpose is to better understand the nature of the long-term growth in the supply of food and its principal determinants. We pursue this purpose from two perspectives. One is from a general interest in the world food situation in the long run. The other is from an interest in the implications of U.S. and global productivity patterns for U.S. agriculture.

Modern tools, such as GIS and remote sensing, are increasingly used in the monitoring of agricultural resources. The developments in GIS technology offer growing opportunities to agricultural economics analysts dealing with large and detailed spatial databases, allowing them to combine spatial information from different sources and to produce different models. The availability of these valuable sources of information makes the advanced models suggested in the spatial statistic and econometric literature applicable to agricultural economics. This book aims at supporting stakeholders to design spatial surveys for agricultural data and/or to analyse the geographically collected data. This book attempts to describe the main typology of agricultural data and the most appropriate methods for the analysis, together with a detailed description of the available data sources and their collection methods. Topics such as spatial interpolation, point patterns, spatial autocorrelation, survey data analysis, small area estimation, regional data modelling, and spatial econometrics techniques are covered jointly with issues arising from the integration of several data types. The theory of spatial methods is complemented by real and/or simulated examples implemented through the open-source software R.

Due to the widespread use of surveys in agricultural resources estimation there is a broad and recognizable interest in methods and techniques to collect and process agricultural data. This book brings together the knowledge of academics and experts to increase the dissemination of the latest developments in agricultural statistics. Conducting a census, setting up frames and registers and using administrative data for statistical purposes are covered and issues arising from sample design and estimation, use of remote sensing, management of data quality and dissemination and analysis of survey data are explored. Key features: Brings together high quality research on agricultural statistics from experts in this field. Provides a thorough and much needed overview of developments within agricultural statistics. Contains summaries for each chapter, providing a valuable reference framework for those new to the field. Based upon a selection of key methodological papers presented at the ICAS conference series, updated and expanded to address current issues. Covers traditional statistical methodologies including sampling and weighting. This book provides a much needed guide to conducting surveys of land use and to the latest developments in agricultural statistics. Statisticians interested in agricultural statistics, agricultural statisticians in national statistics offices and statisticians and researchers using survey methodology will benefit from this book.

After all the research on agricultural risk to date, the treatment of risk in agricultural research is far from harmonious. Many competing risk models have been proposed. Some new methodologies are largely untested. Some of the leading empirical methodologies in agricultural economic research are poorly suited for problems with aggregate data where risk averse behavior is less likely to be important. This book is intended to (i) define the current state of the literature on agricultural risk research, (ii) provide a critical evaluation of economic risk research on agriculture to date and (iii) set a research agenda that will meet future needs and prospects. This type of research promises to become of increasing importance because agricultural policy in the United States and elsewhere has decidedly shifted from explicit income support objectives to risk-related motivations of helping farmers deal with risk. Beginning with the 1996 Farm Bill, the primary set of policy instruments from U.S. agriculture has shifted from target prices and set aside acreage to agricultural crop insurance. Because this book is intended to have specific implications for U.S. agricultural policy, it has a decidedly domestic scope, but clearly many of the issues have application abroad. For each of the papers and topics included in this volume, individuals have been selected to give the strongest and broadest possible treatment of each facet of the problem. The result is this comprehensive reference book on the economics of agricultural risk.

The world's demand for food is expected to double within the next 50 years, while the natural resources that sustain agriculture will become increasingly scarce, degraded, and vulnerable to the effects of climate change. In many poor countries, agriculture accounts for at least 40 percent of GDP and 80 percent of employment. At the same time, about 70 percent of the world's poor live in rural areas and most depend on agriculture for their livelihoods. 'World Development Report 2008' seeks to assess where, when, and how agriculture can be an effective instrument for economic development, especially development that favors the poor. It examines several broad questions: How has agriculture changed in developing countries in the past 20 years? What are the important new challenges and opportunities for agriculture? Which new sources of agricultural growth can be captured cost effectively in particular in poor countries with large agricultural sectors as in Africa? How can agricultural growth be made more effective for poverty reduction? How can governments facilitate the transition of large populations out of agriculture, without simply transferring the burden of rural poverty to urban areas? How can the natural resource endowment for agriculture be protected? How can agriculture's negative environmental effects be contained? This year's report marks the 30th year the World Bank has been publishing the 'World Development Report'.

Agricultural Economics - Current Issues is a review of topics related to the economics of agriculture in various parts of the world. It contains a total of seven chapters. These contributions are related to some of the significant current problems facing these regions. The book is divided into four parts. The first part is simply an introduction to the field of agricultural economics. It charts the development of the field from its origin of farm management economics to the current state of a variety of subjects in various parts of the world. In the second section, an issue related to marketing is discussed. This is followed in the third section by an issue related to water resource economics. In the last section the remaining three chapters are devoted to agricultural environment-related topics. All chapters present guidance for policymaking.

The United States bans imports of certain agricultural and wildlife goods that can carry pathogens or diseases or whose harvest can threaten wildlife stocks or endanger species. Despite these bans, contraband is regularly uncovered in inspections of cargo containers and in domestic markets. This study characterizes the economic factors affecting agricultural and wildlife smuggling by drawing on inspection and interdiction data from USDA and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and existing economic literature. Findings reveal that agricultural and wildlife smuggling primarily include luxury goods, ethnic foods, and specialty goods, such as traditional medicines. Incidents of detected smuggling are disproportionately higher for agricultural goods originating in China and for wildlife goods originating in Mexico. Fragmentary data show that approximately 1 percent of all commercial wildlife shipments to the United States and 0.40 percent of all U.S. wildlife imports by value are refused entry and suspected of being smuggled.