The world trade of plants and plant products is gradually increasing in both quantity and variety. Also, as more and more citizens are nowadays travelling to distant destinations, there is an increased risk of unintentionally importing harmful organisms and invasive species. Governments respond to increased phytosanitary risks by imposing trade-restricting measures. However, they are under increasing pressure of the private sector and the World Trade Organization to justify costly and trade-restricting phytosanitary policies. On the other side, current phytosanitary policies are required to account for impacts on the environment. This book presents a number of recent scientific developments regarding the economic analysis of impacts that harmful organisms have on agriculture and the environment, and of measures to control these organisms. It also contains a number of new approaches that integrate economic and epidemiological modelling and economic approaches for measuring these impacts.

Floriculture is emerging as an important commercial crop sector in India from the point of view of both domestic and foreign markets. Demand for floricultural products is steadily increasing both in the domestic as well as export markets. The industry is gaining prominence from three broad counts: creating more employment, ensuring higher incomes to rural people and earning more foreign exchange. India is the second largest producer of flowers after China. According to National Horticulture Board (NHB), area under floriculture at all India level had increased from 53,000 hectares in 1993-94 to 2,48,000 hectares in 2015-16. The compound annual growth rate (CAGR) for the area was 7.66 per cent, while the CAGR of production of loose and cut flowers were 9.44 per cent and 23.10 per cent, respectively. The proportion of the area under high-tech floriculture to the total floriculture area is 70 per cent in Netherlands and 90 per cent in Colombia, whereas in India it is hardly 500 hectares accounting for just 0.56 per cent of the total area under floriculture, while the rest is under traditional flowers. In India, nearly 77 per cent of area under floricultural crops is concentrated in eight states viz., Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, and Delhi. India has a scope to bridge the gap between demand and supply, as global demand of floricultural products is growing at a faster rate. India is enriched with diverse agro-climatic conditions such as, fertile land, suitable climate, abundant water supply, low labour cost, availability of skilled manpower etc. which are quite beneficial for growing a variety of flower plants throughout the year. Floricultural crops are highly labour intensive and in a country like India floriculture as an industry has tremendous potential for generation of gainful employment in rural as well as urban areas.

An explanation of universal economic principles that are illustrated primarily by examples drawn from agriculture, rural areas and the food industry.

This volume celebrates the life and career of Gordon Rausser, pioneer and leader in natural resource economics, while critically overviewing the emerging literature in the field. As the chair of the Agriculture and Resource Economics department at UC Berkeley, Rausser led the transformation of the department from a traditional agricultural economics department to a diverse resource economics department addressing issues of agriculture, food, natural resources, environmental economics, energy, and development. This book builds on this theme, showcasing not only the scope of Rausser's work but also key developments in the field. The volume is organized into two parts. The first part speaks about the lessons of Gordon Rausser's career, in particular, his role as a leader in different spheres, his capacity to integrate teaching and entrepreneurship, and his impact on the world food system. The second part will address some of the significant developments in the field he contributed to and how it relates to his work. The chapters include contributions from modern leaders in the economics field and cover diverse topics from many subfields including public policy, public finance, law, econometrics, macroeconomics, and water resources. Providing an excellent reference, as well as a celebration of a pivotal figure in the field, this volume will be useful for practitioners and scholars in agricultural and resource economics, especially the many individuals familiar with Gordon Rausser and his career.

This book contains a selection of the papers presented at the Joint Conference on Food, Agriculture, and the Environment, which was held in Bologna, Italy, on June 12-14, 2001. This was the seventh gathering of a biennal meeting born from a cooperation agreement between US and Italian academic and research institutions. This round of the Conference was organized in the Faculty of Agriculture in Bologna by the Dept. of Agricultural Economics and Engineering (DEIAgra) and the CNR Land and Agri-System Management Research Centre (GeST A-CNR) of Bologna. There were two main reasons for the choice of this location: fIrst, the Conference was dedicated to Maurizio Grillenzoni and Franco Alvisi, two colleagues and friends who passed away in recent years, and who committed themselves and played an important role in developing the collaboration agreement and promoting the past Conferences; second, in the year 2000 the Faculty of Agriculture in Bologna celebrated its fIrst centennial, and this Con ference was part of a wide set of events organized to highlight the relevant role of the Faculty in the research activity, both at an Italian and international level. The Conference papers were articulated both in plenary and concurrent sessions, dealing with key topics for agricultural economists. A structure similar to the Conference was adopted for grouping the papers into the four sections contained in this book: • food, nutrition, and quality, focusing i. e.