Investing in agriculture is one of the most effective ways of reducing hunger and poverty, promoting agricultural productivity and enhancing environmental sustainability. Covering the development of sustainable agriculture, food production and food security, this paper explains the relationship between all levels of investment and their interdependence to be successful. It also describes how to drive increased investment, at what stage and where, providing a useful overview of investment in agriculture for policymakers and researchers.

Diatoms are unicellular photosynthetic algae which constitute the most important and dominant fraction of marine phytoplankton. They are primary producers forming the basic link in the marine pelagic food chain. They also help mitigate the global warming effect through sequestering the green house gases. The planktonic diatoms of the N. Arabian Sea bordering Pakistan, which is characterized by very high primary productivity due to monsoonal upwelling, has long been neglected by marine biologists. The present study deals with taxonomy and ecology of centric diatoms of the area. As many as 79 species belonging to 23 genera are described along with their spatial and temporal distributions. Chaetoceros and Rhizosolenia were the most diverse genera among all with 17 species belonging to each. Several species were first records from the area and a variety Planktoniella blanda var. bilobata even new to the knowledge of science. A peak in species diversity was observed in February during the NE-monsoon season. This study fills an important lacuna in the knowledge of marine diatoms from the world oceans and will appeal not only to marine biologists but also environmentalists.

Documented and analyzed in this comprehensive account are the cross-country evidences in India that establish a relationship between capital and growth as well as between growth and poverty. The accelerated growth of the service sector, the almost stagnant growth of the industrial sector, and the decelerated growth of the agricultural sector have all been registered as patterns of growth in India during the last few decades. As a result, among other things, the rural-urban development divide has broadened and deepened, moving the agricultural sector to the top of the development agenda. The book analyzes macro evidences on investment behavior in Indian agriculture, shifting composition of public and private sector investment in agriculture, and the relationship among capital formation, agriculture growth, and poverty alleviation. It also provides comprehensive micro (field) level evidences on capital structure, growth, composition, capital intensity, the impact of capital stock on productivity of labor and land, and determinants of farm-level capital formation.