Agricultural entrepreneurs in conflict and post-conflict regions face special challenges; not just everyday personal risks, but also the difficulties of building small businesses when real or threatened violence can disrupt business growth cycles and economic security. Alongside establishing secure institutions, building a secure economy is rightly seen as the best way for conflict-torn regions to establish a peaceful future. But current agricultural entrepreneurship training and development starts from an assumption of peace, meaning that it is not always fit for purpose. The result is sub-optimal program design and inefficient use of resources. A product of a collaboration of experts in the fields of agri-business, agricultural marketing, and international development, this book gives officials and agencies developing entrepreneurship programs the practical real-life examples they need. Key Features: * Based on research by experienced field practitioners. * Establishes best practice approaches for supporting agri-entrepreneurship in conflict regions. * Range of global case studies to illustrate lessons learnt.

Conservation agriculture systems have long-term impacts on livelihoods, agricultural production, gender equity, and regional economic development of tribal societies in South Asia. This book presents South Asia as a case study, due to the high soil erosion caused by monsoon rainfall and geophysical conditions in the region, which necessitate conservation agriculture approaches, and the high percentage of people in South Asia relying on subsistence and traditional farming. The book takes an interdisciplinary approach to analyse systems at scales ranging from household to regional and national levels.

Photovoltaic electricity generation is a rapidly growing industry, and a key pillar of a decarbonised energy system. In modern solar cells, laser technology is used to form localised structures such as a selective emitter through doping or to locally ablate dielectric layers for contact definition. A critical factor is the ability to passivate the laser-induced defects to prevent premature charge carrier recombination reducing the cell efficiency. Hydrogenation is such a passivation technique. The exact mechanisms have until recently been poorly understood, so this timely reference covers the recent breakthroughs in the understanding of hydrogen passivation. The book addresses key technologies for improving the efficiency of solar cells, including the industry-dominating PERC concept with an added rear passivation layer to reduce recombination. Coverage includes hydrogen passivation mechanisms, bulk and surface defect passivation, hydrogenation of light-induced defects, potential negative impacts of hydrogen, and laser doping for rapid diffusion and for selective emitter formation. This work also provides brand new results that enable low-quality silicon to be used for heterojunction applications and could pave the way for future low-cost, high-efficiency silicon solar cell technologies featuring passivated contacts to be fabricated on p-type wafers. This work is indispensable for researchers in the field of photovoltaic energy, in academia as well as industry.

This book presents major challenges and opportunities facing agriculture sectors in the wake of the transition from a planned to market economy. Using Albania as a case study, it examines the shift from communism to free markets and the lasting effects of such change on agricultural production and education. Using primary research sources to give readers an accurate portrayal of the path that lies ahead for many developing countries, the book also looks at the future of agriculture in transitioning economies.