The National Agricultural Decision Support System (NADSS) is a web based geospatial decision support system used to aid producers and decision makers in analyzing and effectively mitigating the effects of drought. The NADSS application is unique in its implementation, containing web-based implementations of commonly utilized drought indices including the Newhall Simulation Model (NSM), Palmer D...

EUWAB-Project (European Union Welfare effects of Agricultural Biotechnology), Project VIB/TA-OP/98-07: “Microand Macro-economic Analysis of the Economic Benefits and Costs of Biotechnology Applications in EU Agriculture Calculation of the Effects on Producers, Consumers and Governments and Development of a Simulation Model”. This paper (pdf) can be downloaded following the link: http://www.agr....

Agriculture could be one of the most vulnerable economic sectors to the impacts of climate change in the coming decades, with impacts threatening agricultural production in general and food security in particular. Within this context, climate change will impose a challenge to policy makers, especially in those countries that based their development on primary sectors. In this paper we present a...

trous 2007–2008 food price crisis, it was that it prompted governments and international donors to re-examine their priorities for agricultural development. They committed to invest in agriculture and food security in a manner that prioritizes small-scale producers (especially women), enhances the environment and contributes to the development of rural economies. While their promises to spend m...

Agricultural irrigation practices will likely be affected by climate change. In this paper, we use a statistical model relating observed water use by U.S. producers to the moisture deficit, and then use this statistical model to project climate changes impact on both the fraction of agricultural land irrigated and the irrigation rate (m³ ha⁻¹). Data on water withdrawals for US states (1985-2005...

purpose: the main object of this research is to investigate the effective factors on wheat producers' knowledge of soil management in ardabil province. mythology: this study is quantitative in terms of its nature, non-experimental in terms of controlling variables, applied in terms of its objectives and descriptive- analytic in terms of data-gathering procedure. the number of samples was 17500 ...

Increased demand for corn grain as an ethanol feedstock is altering U.S. agricultural landscapes and the ecosystem services they provide. From 2006 to 2007, corn acreage increased 19% nationally, resulting in reduced crop diversity in many areas. Biological control of insects is an ecosystem service that is strongly influenced by local landscape structure. Here, we estimate the value of natural...

The recycling of rural and urban organic waste materials onto agricultural land provides a challenge to the producers and end-users who both have a 'duty-of-care' to ensure the method of disposal is managed in a sustainable way. Careful management means that soil and water resources are not contaminated, the agricultural production system remains stable, and land use alternatives remain availab...

This paper begins with the presumption that rapid economic development requires an effective state. An effective state is able to act independently of powerful interest groups with the aim of allocating resources so as to maximize long-term economic growth. It will be argued that such states are more likely to arise in situations within which the state must earn its income. That is, it must con...

Plant-based transportation fuels were the focus of extended criticism in the press, especially during 2008 when a portion of the blame for a spike in global food prices was associated with growth of the United States’ corn ethanol industry. The critique is based on an unsophisticated portrayal of the ethical issues at stake in the food security implications of biofuel. Three ethical critiques c...