Experts from inside and outside the USAID program evaluate the effectiveness of governmental intervention aimed at ensuring adequate agricultural production and food security in Third-World nations. They consider in depth the question of how best to assure food security with the least amount of investment of scarce resources, looking in particular at the results of the $1 billion annual expenditure on Third-World agriculture by the USAID program.

As more and more people join the do-it-yourself revolution, they are breathing new life into many time-honored skills and crafts. Blacksmithing is among the trades that are enjoying a resurgence for both practical and artistic uses, yet there is not an abundance of readily accessible information available to beginning blacksmiths to help them get started and understand the craft. Author Ryan Ridgway, a veterinarian and blacksmith with more than fifteen years of metalworking experience, hopes to fill that void with this comprehensive volume geared toward answering the many questions that new blacksmiths often have. By explaining the physics of moving metal, the different styles of anvils and forges, and alternative fuel sources, Ridgway sets his book apart from less detailed volumes. Forty practical, easy-to-follow projects are presented, showing aspiring blacksmiths how to make tools, such as hammers and chisels; farm implements, such as gate latches and hoof picks; and items for home use, including drawer pulls and candle holders. Inside The Home Blacksmith: The evolution of blacksmithing around the world and the differences between the tools specific to each region The behavior of heated metal and the science of metalworking Setting up a shop safely and economically The heart of your shop--the anvil and forge--and the other essential tools Working with different types of steel, including how to salvage steel for different uses Techniques from beginning to advanced Step-by-step instructions for forty blacksmithing projects: tools and other implements as well as decorative pieces for personal use or sale

By setting industrialization against the background of wider processes of economic growth, recent trends in economic history have once again placed agriculture at the center of debate on the formation of modern economies. The nine essays in this volume examine the broader terms and implications of this new emphasis, and reassess the contribution of agriculture to economic growth in contexts that range from the eighteenth to the twentieth centuries and from Europe to Russia and Asia.
The essays are tightly focused around a set of central themes. Emphasizing how contexts of time and place have determined the relationship between agricultural change and economic growth, they explore comparatively such issues as the problems of interpretation and methodology posed by the close inter-dependence between agriculture and social organization, the critical role of political intervention in agricultural change, as well as the technical difficulties involved in measuring changes in productivity and their wider impact on economic growth. As a result the volume offers a uniquely broad but coherent and critical assessment of current trends in the interpretation of agriculture's major but complex historical role in modern economic growth.

The ancient Greeks were for the most part a rural, not an urban, society. And for much of the Classical period, war was more common than peace. Almost all accounts of ancient history assume that farming and fighting were critical events in the lives of the citizenry. Yet never before have we had a comprehensive modern study of the relationship between agriculture and warfare in the Greek world. In this completely revised edition of "Warfare and Agriculture in Classical Greece," Victor Davis Hanson provides a systematic review of Greek agriculture and warfare and describes the relationship between these two important aspects of life in ancient communities. With careful attention to agronomic as well as military details, this well-written, thoroughly researched study reveals the remarkable resilience of those farmland communities.In the past, scholars have assumed that the agricultural infrastructure of ancient society was often ruined by attack, as, for example, Athens was relegated to poverty in the aftermath of the Persian and later Peloponnesian invasions. Hanson's study shows, however, that in reality attacks on agriculture rarely resulted in famines or permanent agrarian depression. Trees and vines are hard to destroy, and grainfields are only briefly vulnerable to torching. In addition, ancient armies were rather inefficient systematic ravagers and instead used other tactics, such as occupying their enemies' farms to incite infantry battle. "Warfare and Agriculture in Classical Greece" suggests that for all ancient societies, rural depression and desolation came about from more subtle phenomenaOCotaxes, changes in political and social structure, and new cultural valuesOCorather than from destructive warfare."

Agricultural Bioeconomy: Innovation and Foresight in the Post-COVID Era presents recent advancements in biotechnology, exploring the optimal utilization of technologies to provide rapid and impactful economic recovery and sustainable resources in a future that will bear the mark of COVID-19. Understanding that there is a necessary balance between risk and reward, this book provides a foundational hypothesis as well as operational direction for addressing the commercialization and regulatory issues in a bio-based economy where agricultural output is at the core. By presenting adaptable practices to successfully establish and progress agri-based global bioeconomies, the book features a new paradigm focused on technological foresight and response to future risks and disasters. Key considerations include assessing and managing the urban bioeconomy, climate change mitigation, biofuels and bioenergy, GMOs, and employment generation. This book provides the solid next step toward future-proofing global economies using a combination of agricultural technologies and economic goals. Professionals and advanced students focused on the production of renewable biological resources and their conversion into value-added products including food, feed, bio-based products, and bioenergy will find this book useful.

This book aims to describe, though in a quite light way, the social role of plant diseases, letting the reader know the topical importance of plant pathology, as well as the role of plant pathologists in our society. Plant diseases caused, in the past, significant economic losses, deaths, famine, wars, and migration. Some of them marked the history of entire countries. One example among many: the potato late blight in Ireland in 1845. Today plant diseases are still the cause of deaths, often silent, in developing countries, and relevant economic losses in the industrialized ones. This book, written with much passion, neither wants to be a plant pathology text. On the contrary, it wants to describe, in simple words, often enriched by the author's personal experience, various plant diseases that, in different times and countries, did cause severe losses and damages. Besides the so-called "historical plant diseases", in the process of writing this book, she wanted to describe also some diseases that, though not causing famine or billions of losses, because of their peculiarity, might be of interest for the readers. Thus, this book has not been conceived and written for experts, but for a broader audience, of different ages, willing to learn more about plant health and to understand the reasons why so many people in the past and nowadays choose to be plant pathologists. This is because plants produce most of the food that we consume, that we expect to be healthy and safe, and because plants make the world beautiful. The title "Spores" is evocative of the reproduction mean of fungi. Spores are small, light structures, often moving fast. The chapters of this book are short and concise. Just like spores!

Country names are used to describe people who were--or are--engaged in agricultural pursuits. They indicate status, occupation, duties, geographical location, type or level of skill, economic function, and many other conditions of rural life. This new historical dictionary provides an important key to country life in English-speaking regions from the twelfth to the twentieth centuries. It presents information on the usage, meanings, and historical background for more than 1,778 names that have been given to the country people of Britain, North America, and the West Indies, as well as Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa.

The entries identify agrarian meanings of the names, the occupational groups that used them, dates of use, geographical range, and common and uncommon variants. Connotations are noted--whether the terms are respectful or derogatory, playful, or merely descriptive--and cross-referencing is supplied for terms that appear in more than one entry. This reference is the only comprehensive work of its kind. It will be a useful and informative companion to the researcher concerned with agricultural and economic history, the history of English-speaking peoples, and the history of the English language.

This book describes the alarming condition of agriculture in the Anthropocene, when the ethical conception of agriculture as a service of common utility for both society and environment has progressively been marginalized. The ethical utility of agriculture has been sidetracked with the increasing industrialisation of society, the involvement of agriculture in the business-as-usual economy, and the consequential environmental and societal impacts it has had. Thus, re-establishing a meaningful bridge between ethics and agriculture is necessary. A relatively new science (ecology) with both a new epistemological tool (that of the ecosystem concept), and a unique narrative of sustainable development, can help bridge this gap. This book focuses on ethics as a lever for raising scientific, technical, social, economic and political solutions to adopt in agriculture as a model of symbiotic relationships between man and nature. It provides a detailed discussion of the ecological intensification practices in order to maximize ecological and ethical services, wherein agroecosystems will follow.

Interest in cereals and other healthy grains has increased considerably in recent years, driving the cereal processing industry to develop new processing technologies that meet consumer demands for sustainable and nutritious cereal products. Innovative Processing Technologies for Healthy Grains is the first dedicated reference to focus on advances in cereal processing and bio-refinery of cereals and pseudocereals, presenting a broad overview of all aspects of both conventional and novel processing techniques and methods. Featuring contributions from leading researchers and academics, this unique volume examines the selection and characteristics of raw ingredients, new and emerging processing technologies, novel cereal-based products, and global trends in cereal and pseudocereal use, processing and consumption. The text offers balanced coverage of advances in both the development and processing of cereal and pseudocereal products, exploring topics including gluten-free products, cereal-based animal feed, health and wellness trends in healthy grain consumption, bioaccessibility and bioavailability of nutritional compounds, gluten-free products, and the environmental impact of processed healthy grains. This timely and comprehensive volume: Focuses on innovative cereal processing and bio-refinery of cereals and pseudocereals Provides informed perspectives on the current global trends in cereal and pseudocereal use, processing and consumption Describes the characteristics of healthy grains and their production, nutritional value, and utilization Explains the origin, production, processing, and functional ingredients of pseudocereals Reviews healthy grain products such as cereal-based beverages, fortified grain-based products, and cereal-based products with bioactive benefits Part of Wiley's IFST Advances in Food Science series Innovative Processing Technologies for Healthy Grains is an essential resource for food scientists, technologists, researchers, and other professionals working in the grain industry, and academics and advanced students of food technology and food science.

Climate changes will affect food production in a number of ways. Crop yields, aquatic populations and forest productivity will decline, invasive insect and plant species will proliferate and desertification, soil salinization and water stress will increase. Each of these impacts will decrease food and nutrition security, primarily by reducing access to and availability of food, and also by increasing the risk of infectious disease.

Although increased biofuel demand has the potential to increase incomes among producers, it can also negatively affect food and nutrition security. Land used for cultivating food crops may be diverted to biofuel production, creating food shortages and raising prices. Accelerations in unregulated or poorly regulated foreign direct investment, deforestation and unsustainable use of chemical fertilizers may also result." "Biofuel production may reduce women s control of resources, which may in turn reduce the quality of household diets. Each of these effects increases risk of poor food and nutrition security, either through decreased physical availability of food, decreased purchasing power, or increased risk of disease.

"The Impact of Climate Change and Bioenergy on Nutrition" articulates the links between current environmental issues and food and nutrition security. It provides a unique collection of nutrition statistics, climate change projections, biofuel scenarios and food security information under one cover which will be of interest to policymakers, academia, agronomists, food and nutrition security planners, programme implementers, health workers and all those concerned about the current challenges of climate change, energy production, hunger and malnutrition.

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Sound forest management planning requires cost-efficient approaches to optimally utilize given resources. Emphasizing the mathematical and statistical features of forest sampling to assess classical dendrometrical quantities, Sampling Techniques for Forest Inventories presents the statistical concepts and tools needed to conduct a modern forest inventory. The book first examines design-based survey sampling and inference for finite populations, covering inclusion probabilities and the Horvitz-Thompson estimator, followed by more advanced topics, including three-stage element sampling and the model-assisted estimation procedure. The author then develops the infinite population model/Monte Carlo approach for both simple and complex sampling schemes. He also uses a case study to reveal a variety of estimation procedures, relies on anticipated variance to tackle optimal design for forest inventories, and validates the resulting optimal schemes with data from the Swiss National Forest Inventory. The last chapters outline facts pertaining to the estimation of growth and introduce transect sampling based on the stereological approach. Containing many recent developments available for the first time in book form, this concise and up-to-date work provides the necessary theoretical and practical foundation to analyze and design forest inventories.

The agricultural sector can benefit immensely from developments in the field of smart farming. However, this research area focuses on providing specific fixes to particular situations and falls short on implementing data-driven frameworks that provide large-scale benefits to the industry as a whole. Using deep learning can bring immense data and improve our understanding of various earth sciences and improve farm services to yield better crop production and profit. Smart Agricultural Services Using Deep Learning, Big Data, and IoT is an essential publication that focuses on the application of deep learning to agriculture. While highlighting a broad range of topics including crop models, cybersecurity, and sustainable agriculture, this book is ideally designed for engineers, programmers, software developers, agriculturalists, farmers, policymakers, researchers, academicians, and students.

In recent years, there has been a rise in the demand of alternative agricultural commodities, specifically camel milk-based products. Camel products have become highly coveted items in today's commercial market due to their environmental and health advantages. However, there is a lack of research and literature on camel milk and related camel goods. Up-to-date information is needed to give researchers a better understanding of the compositional and functional properties of camel milk production. Health and Environmental Benefits of Camel Products is an essential reference source that discusses the nutritional, physical, and chemical factors of camel milk in comparison to other animal and plant-based milks and introduces benefits attributed to camel meat. The up-to-date potential health benefits of fresh and fermented camel milk in vitro and in vivo will be also covered in addition to the link between functional constituents and the functional properties of milk. The authors will review the recent research on the functional properties of camel milk such as the angiotensin converting enzyme, antimicrobial, anticancer, and hypocholesterolimic effects. Featuring research on topics such as colostrum composition, meat production, and nutritional value, this book is ideally designed for health professionals, environmentalists, dieticians, food industry professionals, researchers, academicians, and students seeking coverage on the compositional and physiological aspects of camel products.