In the modern globalized economy, it is important for businesses of all sizes to take advantage of the opportunity to enter diverse markets around the world. Through an international presence, organizations can remain competitive. Agricultural Finance and Opportunities for Investment and Expansion provides emerging research on the sources and profitable uses of funds in agricultural enterprises and sustainable agricultural production. While highlighting topics such as agricultural credit, enterprise expansion, and risk management, this publication explores the theoretical applications of agriculture through a business perspective. This book is an important resource for managers, academics, researchers, scholars, and graduate-level students seeking current research on the implementation of agriculture as a means of improving society and economy.

Neuroendocrine Regulation of Animal Vocalization: Mechanisms and Anthropogenic Factors in Animal Communication examines the underpinning neuroendocrine (NE) mechanisms that drive animal communication across taxa. Written by international subject experts, the book focuses on the importance of animal communication in survival and reproduction at an individual and species level, and the impact that increased production and accumulation of endocrine-disrupting chemicals (EDCs) can have on these regulatory processes. This book discusses sound production, perception, processing, and response across a range of animals. This includes insects, fish, bats, birds, nonhuman primates, infant humans, and many others. Some chapters analyze how neuroactive substances, endocrine control, and chemical pollution affect the physiology of the animal's perceptive and sound-producing organs, as well as their auditory and vocal receptors and pathways. Other chapters address the recent approaches governments have taken to protect against the endocrine disruption of animal (vocal) behaviors. The book is a valuable resource for researchers and advanced students seeking first-rate material on neuroendocrinological effects on animal behavior and communication.

Horse Pasture Management, Second Edition provides updated coverage on strategies for managing behavior, grouping, environments and feeding needs of grazing horses. Sections cover the structure, function and identification of forages, continuing into nutritional value of pasture plants. Management of soil, the function of a pasture ecosystem and management of plants in a pasture is covered next, followed by forage yield determination, horse grazing behavior, feed choices of horses, management of grazing horses, and how to calculate how many horses should be grazing relative to land size. Advantages of grazing more than one species of animal are described. Management of hay and silage are included since year-round grazing is not possible on many horse farms. Several chapters deal with interactions of a horse farm with the environment, including climate and weather and other living things. The book also covers strategies for managing manure, erosion, and water quality. It is ideal for researchers, scientists and students involved in animal science, specifically equine studies. Agriculturists, equine managers and veterinarians will also find this book useful.

Social ecology is a philosophy rooted in deep-seated social problems, particularly in hierarchical political and social systems. Social ecologists throughout the world maintain a theory that present, ecological problems cannot be clearly understood, much less resolved, without resolutely dealing with problems within society. Therefore, social ecology locates the roots of these ecological crises firmly in the relations of domination between people. Sustainable Policy Applications for Social Ecology and Development establishes a new set of platforms for intellectual discourse and identification of critical and strategic emerging issues, the formulation of cogent and useful policies, and practice recommendations. This publication highlights provocative, but scholarly, views that diverge from the current conventional wisdom taking into consideration the concepts of robust competitiveness, sustainable entrepreneurship, and democratic capitalism, central to its philosophy and objectives. The aim of this book is to highlight emerging research and practice at the dynamic intersection of these fields, where individuals, organizations, industries, regions, and nations are harnessing creativity and invention to achieve and sustain growth.

This book presents abiotic stresses that cause crop damage in the range of 6-20%. Understanding the interaction of crop plants to the abiotic stresses caused by heat, cold, drought, flooding, submergence, salinity, acidity, etc., is important to develop resistant crop varieties. Knowledge on the advanced genetic and genomic crop improvement strategies including molecular breeding, transgenics, genomic-assisted breeding, and the recently emerging genome editing for developing resistant varieties in cereal crops is imperative for addressing FPNEE (food, health, nutrition, energy, and environment) security. Whole genome sequencing of these crops followed by genotyping-by-sequencing has facilitated precise information about the genes conferring resistance useful for gene discovery, allele mining, and shuttle breeding which in turn opened up the scope for 'designing' crop genomes with resistance to abiotic stresses. The nine chapters each dedicated to a cereal crop in this volume are deliberate on different types of abiotic stresses and their effects on and interaction with crop plants; enumerate on the available genetic diversity with regard to abiotic stress resistance among available cultivars; illuminate on the potential gene pools for utilization in interspecific gene transfer; are brief on the classical genetics of stress resistance and traditional breeding for transferring them to their cultivated counterparts; elucidate on the success stories of genetic engineering for developing abiotic stress-resistant crop varieties; discuss on molecular mapping of genes and QTLs underlying stress resistance and their marker-assisted introgression into elite varieties; enunciate on different emerging genomics-aided techniques including genomic selection, allele mining, gene discovery, and gene pyramiding for developing adaptive crop varieties with higher quantity and quality, and also elaborate some case studies on genome editing focusing on specific genes for generating abiotic stress-resistant crops.

Numerous solvents used in chemical processes have poisonous and unsafe properties that pose significant ecological concerns ranging from atmospheric emissions to the contamination of water effluents. To combat these ecological threats, over the course of the past two decades, the field of green chemistry has grown to develop more natural reaction processes and techniques involving the use of nonconventional solvents to diminish waste solvent production and thus decrease negative impact on the environment. Ionic liquids in particular are more environmentally friendly substitutes to conventional solvents, and as such, have seen more widespread use in the past decade. They have been used in such processes as extraction, separation, purification of organic, inorganic, and bioinorganic compounds, reaction media in biochemical and chemical catalysis, green organic and drug synthesis, among other industrial applications. Thus, in proving themselves a suitable greener media for economic viability in chemical processes, ionic liquids are leading to more sustainable development. This edition explores the application of ionic liquids as a green solvent. It contains a state-of-the-art overview on ionic liquids as green solvents for chemical processes and techniques, as well as some of their useful industrial applications.

Climate change is expected to influence several productive sectors, the most significant of which is agriculture. Agriculture comprises an important sector of the global economy that includes crops, livestock, and seafood. Agriculture, aquaculture, and fisheries are closely linked to the climate, with changes in climatic conditions able to drastically affect animal and plant productivity, which in turn has a direct impact on human well-being. Impacts of Climate Change on Agriculture and Aquaculture is a critical scholarly publication that provides an integrated assessment of climate change impacts on agriculture, aquaculture, and fisheries and explores a set of strategies to secure sustainable food security. While highlighting the associations between climate change, food security, and socio-economic development, the book establishes an inventory of good agricultural practices for the adaptation to climate change and presents solutions for making agricultural and food systems more sustainable. Featuring a wide range of topics such as carbon sequestration, ecosystem management, and desertification, this book is ideal for agriculturalists, environmentalists, fisheries, marine biologists, ichthyologists, government officials, academicians, policy makers, scientists, professionals, researchers, and students.

The agricultural and food sectors have developed into a prominent industry, impacting economic markets on an international scale. In certain regions, there is a significant potential for creating increased competitive advantage in these business areas. Exploring the Global Competitiveness of Agri-Food Sectors and Serbia's Dominant Presence: Emerging Research and Opportunities includes academic coverage and perspectives on enhancing the competitiveness of the Serbian food industry in the global marketplace. Highlighting pertinent topics such as exports, international trade, and manufacturing considerations, this book is an ideal resource for academics, researchers, graduate students, and professionals actively involved in the agri-food industry.