Effects of Grain Marketing Systems on Grain Production gives readers valuable insight into the grain marketing and production systems of China and India. Researchers, scholars, and government officials involved in agricultural commodity economics and marketing will be particularly interested in this work, as few studies have focused on the agriculture of China and India, and even fewer on their grain industries. The grain issue is of crucial importance in China and India, since they are the two most populous countries in the world. In Effects of Grain Marketing Systems on Grain Production, Author Zhang-Yue Zhou investigates and analyzes the effects of these countries'grain marketing systems on grain production over the past four decades using expert surveys, farm-level surveys, and qualitative analyis of national aggregate data. He sets the stage for future research in this important field as he gives you specific information about: the minimum price support scheme grain procurement methods grain production subsidies government reserve stocks market infrastructures grain movement between regions non-government marketing channels supply responsesThe study's three-step procedure lessens bias, and its cross-checked results further strengthen the validity of its findings. The information presented in Effects of Grain Marketing Systems on Grain Production helps professionals at research institutes, universities, and government agencies, especially those emphasising Indian, Chinese, or Asian food economics, understand agricultural economics in developing countries. The book is also useful as a supplemental text for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate classes on Chinese and Indian economies and agricultural commodity economics in developing countries.

This book provides a non-technical, accessible primer on sustainable agricultural development and its relationship to sustainable development based on three analytical pillars. The first is to understand agriculture as complex physical-biological-human systems. Second is the economic perspective of understanding tradeoffs and synergies among the economic, environmental and social dimensions of these systems at farm, regional and global scales. Third is the understanding of these agricultural systems as the supply side of one sector of a growing economy, interacting through markets and policies with other sectors at local, national and global scales. The first part of the book introduces the concept of sustainability and develops an analytical framework based on tradeoffs quantified using impact indicators in the economic, environmental and social domains, linking this framework to the role of agriculture in economic growth and development. Next the authors introduce the reader to the sustainability challenges of major agroecosystems in the developing and industrialized worlds. The concluding chapter discusses the design and implementation of sustainable development pathways, through the expression of consumers’ desire for sustainably produced foods on the demand side of the food system, and through policies on the supply side such as new more sustainable technologies, environmental regulation and payments for ecosystem services.

This book addresses the dynamics of China's grain production, consumption and trade with a particular emphasis on China's demand for feedgrain vis-a-vis its demand for foodgrain and the likely implications of this on the international grain trade given that China is now a member of the WTO. The book provides the reader with insight into the latest developments in China's foodgrain and feedgrain consumption and draws attention to the rising importance of feedgrain (and the relative decline in importance of foodgrain) in the overall Chinese grain economy. It also offers deliberations on many important issues concerning China's grains that are currently hotly debated. The book can be used as a valuable reference by government officials, grain traders, food market analysts, researchers and university students who are interested in China's food issues in general and foodgrain and feedgrain issues in particular.

In this chapter we compute measures of total factor productivity (TFP) growth for developing countries and then contrast TFP growth with technological capital indexes. In developing these indexes, we incorporate schooling capital to yield two new indexes: Invention-Innovation Capital and Technology Mastery. We find that TFP performance is strongly related to technological capital and that technological capital is required for TFP and cost reduction growth. Investments in technological capital require long-term (20- to 40-year) investments, which are typically made by governments and aid agencies and are the only viable escape route from mass poverty.

This comprehensive overview of local food systems explores alternative definitions of local food, estimates market size and reach, describes the characteristics of local consumers and producers, and examines early indications of the economic and health impacts of local food systems. Defining ¿local¿ based on marketing arrangements, such as farmers selling directly to consumers at regional farmers¿ markets or to schools, is well recognized. Statistics suggest that local food markets account for a small, but growing, share of U.S. agricultural production. For smaller farms, direct marketing to consumers accounts for a higher percentage of their sales than for larger farms. Charts and tables.

This conference proceedings reflects upon the likely impacts of freer trade on China’s agricultural sector. Based on the results of China’s WTO negotiations with key trading partners, it assesses the compatibility of China’s WTO commitments with domestic policies and the need for specific changes.