In this second edition of a bestseller, authors Paul H. Brunner and Helmut Rechberger guide professional newcomers as well as experienced engineers and scientists towards mastering the art of material flow analysis (MFA) from the very beginning to an advanced state of material balances of complex systems. Handbook of Material Flow Analysis: For Environmental, Resource, and Waste Engineers, Second Edition serves as a concise and reproducible methodology as well as a basis for analysis, assessment and improvement of anthropogenic systems through an approach that is helpfully uniform and standardized. The methodology featured in this book is a vital resource for generating new data, fostering understanding, and increasing knowledge to benefit the growing MFA community working in the fields of industrial ecology, resource management, waste management, and environmental protection. This new second edition takes into account all new developments and readers will profit from a new exploration of STAN software, newly added citations, and thoroughly described case studies that reveal the potential of MFA to solve industrial ecology challenges.

This first volume in the series "Advances in Agricultural Economic History," includes articles on the topics of Italian sharecropping, agricultural wage discrimination, factor endowment and contract choice, as well as new total factor productivity measures for the United States.

1. Provides comprehensive analysis of the eco-physiological aspects of the novel plant growth regulators 2. Useful for investigators in plant physiology, developmental biology, crop biotechnology, plant breeding, plant signaling and communication. 3. Explains the integrative role of strigolactones, karrikins and alkamides in plant development and signaling

This edited volume analyzes land utilization data from farm surveys taken in China between 1929 and 1933. This data, which was the foundation for John Lossing Buck's seminal work Land Utilization in China (1937), was thought lost to history until rediscovered in 2000. The book presents the first modern analyses of agricultural economics in Republican China using Buck's micro-data, covering important topics such as nutritional poverty, tenancy issues, land productivity, surplus labor, workers' incomes, credit supply, and regional differences. Through using modern analytical methods, this book presents a more accurate picture of the agricultural economy in the Republican Era and will be of particular interest to agricultural economists, economic historians, and Chinese studies scholars.

This book addresses the diversity of tropical microorganisms and its applications in agriculture, renewable energy production and environmental protection. It covers several tropical habitats such as rain forests, mangroves, sea and river waters and describes how microorganisms isolated from these regions can be used to control insects and plant diseases, to improve sugar cane and biofuels production among other applications. The book also aims to bring researchers' attention to the potential of tropical microorganisms for biotechnological purposes, an area that is still far from being well explored.

This book assesses recent developments in the analysis of agricultural policy and water resource management, and highlights the utility and theoretical rigor of quantitative methods for modeling agricultural production, market dynamics, and natural resource management. In diverse case studies of the intersection between agriculture, environmental quality and natural resource sustainability, the authors analyze economic behavior - both at aggregate as well as at individual agent-level - in order to highlight the practical implications for decision-markers dealing with environmental and agricultural policy. The volume also addresses the challenges of doing robust analysis with limited data, and discusses the appropriate empirical approaches that can be employed. The studies in this book were inspired by the work of Richard E. Howitt, Emeritus Professor of Agricultural Economics at the University of California at Davis, USA, whose career has focused on the application of robust empirical methods to address concrete policy problems.

This up-to-date reference book compiles the recent developments, innovations, and perspectives on second and third-generation bioplastics. It discusses the main commercialized bioplastics, such as polylactic acid (PLA) and polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs). Chapters include the use of alternative raw materials and innovations in bioplastic production processes to reduce costs and decrease environmental impacts. It covers bioplastic production from lignocellulosic biomass, sugars, or oils produced by microbes and municipal waste material. It also includes techno-economic aspects. The book is meant for researchers and industry experts in biotechnology, environmental sciences, and applied microbiology.

Originally published in English in 1957 this book quickly became a classic of comparative agricultural studies. The book brings together a wide range of case studies from the UK, Europe, Africa and South East Asia which together form a broad yet highly detailed view of world agriculture in the 20th Century.

Originally published in 1985, this book argues forcefully and practically for new relationship between science and the small farmer. It advocates scientific research seeking out changes which are already taking place within the smallholder farming sector and building on local initiatives. Drawing on his experience of West Africa, the author demonstrates that many of the most successful innovations in food-crop production during the 20th century have indigenous roots and that there should therefore be less emphasis on ‘teaching’ farmers how to farm and more emphasis on how to foster and support local adaptation and inventiveness. This book will be of interest to students of agriculture, environmental studies and rural development as well as those working with relief and development agencies.

Originally published in 1986, Coping with Hunger demonstrates that effective agricultural development in resource-poor regions must be based in a respect for the indigenous farmer’s understanding of the environment. Based on participant-observation of rice farming in Sierra Leone, the book challenges the prevailing of attitudes of policy makers in the late 20th Century and restores indigenous culture and local wisdom to their rightful place. After analysing the fate of a number of ‘top-down ‘attempts to improve rice cultivation in Sierra-Leone the author derives an alternative agenda of research and development issues more closely reflecting the resource-poor farmers’ major interests and priorities. As a significant research-based contribution to the widespread general debates about the relevance of social factors in technological change, this book will be of interest to students in social and environmental sciences.

Originally published in 1984, this text was written as a guide to agricultural policy makers, planners and project managers in developing countries, particularly for those in the areas of programme formulation and implementation. Elements from successful agricultural and rural development plans have been selected. The work discusses the link between agricultural and overall planning, the various aspects of agricultural planning (including the usual components and deficiencies of plans, time horizons and scope of plans, and regional planning), and it concludes with brief look at the preparation of a plan and objectives for agricultural development.

Originally published in 1972, this work shed new light on the study of land use. The key to the analysis was the proprietary land unit, within which all positive decisions touching land use are made. The analysis has a universal relevance, irrespective of social order, economic philosophy and judicial systems. The work will be of interest to lawyers, economists, agriculturalists, town and country planners and those in central and local government.

Originally published in 1959, this post-war study of farm rents marshals the evidence from a nation-wide survey. Not since the National Farm Survey of 1941-3 had similar information about the national average level of farm rents been available. In certain details and aspects of its scope, this study was unique. What was analysed, tabulated and commented upon was of vital importance to the farming and landowning communities, of immediate relevance to professional practice and original in its contribution to academic knowledge. Attention was focussed on the farm rents of England and Wales over the post-war period, but comparison with war-time and pre-war farm rents in Scotland was possible.

The English systems of land tenure have influenced land-holding far beyond Britain. Freehold, for example, a common-place in many places, has its origin in the feudal tenure of Anglo-Norman England. Much has been written about the origins of English land ownership but the contributions are hidden. This book, originally published in 1958 draws together legal, economic and social historical themes, introducing the reader to the authoritative texts of the many aspects of the subject up until the 16th Century.

Originally published in 1988, this book was written at a time of excessive budgetary costs, huge surpluses and damaging trade conflicts. This study examines why a crisis situation was allowed to develop, nd proposes the most effective ways, both nationally and internationally – to chieve more rational agricultural support and trade policies. It concentrates on the efforts to reform the Common Agricultural Policy in the EU, on United States support policies, and on the GATT negotiations.

Although originally published in 1928, many of the issues discussed in this book remain pertinent today: in unstable markets grappling with labour shortages, how to pay the producers of food a fair price, at a price the consumer can afford, whilst maximising efficiency and minimising waste. Against this backdrop, the book discusses co-operative movements from the UK, Denmark, New Zealand, the former USSR and the USA.

Originally published in 1957, this book introduces the term ‘estate capital’ to distinguish investment in land and buildings, in which agriculture rests, from investment in agricultural machinery and other forms of capital which are essentially agricultural. The book provides a general review of the formation of estate capital from estate income, the provision of estate capital from other sources the level of investment on agricultural estates. Concluding chapters describe the influence of estate character upon the formation, provision and investment level of estate capital. Estate duty levy on agricultural estates, tenants’ contributions to capital investment, and charity estates receive special attention.

Originally published in 1938, this book explores the problem of the adjustment of the population in the early 20th century to the agricultural-economic environment in a geographical and economic setting. The study of the modern problem of population growth is also one of human adjustment in its wider sense to the whole of the environment, which in itself is an ensemble of various interdependent factors. The study is based on a classification of agricultural regions in the Ganges Valley which shows some of the world’s highest records of agricultural productivity.

Originally published in 1989, this book is a unique examination of subsistence farming in the developing world, and its potential for development. The author writes from the conviction that the farming system is limited in its potential for development by the energy value of manpower and that unless the plight of developing world communities is understood and the importance of manpower constraint recognized, inputs of development funds will be wasted. Clarifying the strengths and limitations of the subsistence farming system, the book makes clear the complexities and difficulties encountered in achieving agricultural development in the poorest countries – providing an informed insight into the inevitability of future famine.

Originally published in 1973, this book tells the story of the English countryside and its inhabitants between 1560 and 1760; the time when British agriculture became the wonder and envy of the world. The history of the land itself is covered, as well as farming techniques and a farming as a business. The day-to-day existence of rural people, their ambitions and conditions of work are brought to life. The book distils the history of rural England and takes the reader to the heart of England itself.

Originally published in 1967, this was the first book to discuss why agricultural supply became more ‘responsive’ and to provide broadly based evidence of the ways in which that ‘responsiveness’ may have influenced the growth of the economy. The editor chose 7 essays, reprinted in full, to illustrate altered perspectives of agricultural change. His substantial introduction places the beginnings of a significant rise in farm output as far back as the mid-seventeenth century and concludes that agriculture played a vital but complicated role in the economy of eighteenth-century England.

Originally published in 1994, this book examines the importance of family agricultural systems in both the developed and the developing worlds. Throughout the world, and throughout history, the family unit has been at the heart of agricultural systems. Working together, families not only furnish their own needs, but form the basis for society itself: they provide the labour, population, resources and the market to maintain much of the world’s economic and social development. But the global race for financial prosperity, with its large-scale intensive farming techniques, is increasingly undermining the family’s role in food production and social cohesion. This book explores both traditional and modern farming techniques and looks at their different consequences for national agricultural resources and for rural societies. Finally, it suggests ways in which technology can be harnessed to meet the needs of the family rather than undermine it, in order to achieve a viable and sustainable agriculture for the future.

Originally published in 1975, yet prophetic in its wisdom this book deals with major aspects of man’s ecological destruction in an industrial framework. As well as discussing the destruction of forests by early civilizations the book examines the rate and extension of environmental deterioration in more recent times and the importance of the integrated ‘feed-back’ controls which maintain stability in the ecosphere of which humankind forms a part. Examining the role of entropy, energy quanta and indeterminacy in overthrowing both science and economic theory, the book provides examples from the 20th Century of the uncontrolled demands for energy and material resources, as well as of increasing toxic hazard in the biosphere.

Originally published in 1971, this book resulted from a 2-year study of the implications of the Common Market agricultural policy in relation to agricultural marketing in Britain. It provides the background to agricultural policies and explains why marketing developed differently in Britain and European countries. There are specific chapters on cereals, sugar, diary produce, horticultural products, livestock and meat, vegetable oils and oilseeds, eggs and poultry-meat and other farm products such as hops potatoes and wool). The book discusses such issues as the possible effects on British agricultural and horticultural marketing of adopting the CAP and the role played by the producer organisations.

This volume collects the results from the Politecnico di Milan's award-winning "Boa_Ma_Nha, Maputo!" research-by-design project, which studied various transdisciplinary approaches to development in the context of the Global South. The challenges of urbanization are well known, but that only goes so far in aiding implementation. From local considerations like water access and housing rights to global issues like climate change, territorial development demands solutions that address the needs of the specific population while keeping such goals as sustainability and inclusion in mind. By focusing on a number of towns within the Maputo Province of Mozambique, and thus addressing many of the issues endemic to Sub-Saharan Africa, the research, structurally presented so as to aid those who may require introduction to the issue, makes a clear case in favor of always keeping the Water-Energy-Food (WEF) Nexus in mind when formulating development strategies for improving people's lives, as well as the wisdom of marrying academic findings with the insights accrued by local NGOs and institutions, thereby expanding the potential idea bank beyond the Eurocentric status quo that has tended to dominate the field.