In light of public concerns about sustainable food production, the necessity for human and environmental protection, along with the evolution of herbicide resistant weeds, call for a review of current weed control strategies. Sustainable weed control requires an integrated approach based on knowledge of each crop and the weeds that threaten it. This book will be an invaluable source of information for scholars, growers, consultants, researchers and other stakeholders dealing with either arable, row, cash, vegetables, orchards or even grassland-based production systems. The uniqueness of this book comes from the balanced coverage of herbicide effects on humans and environment in relation to best weed control practices of the most important cropping systems worldwide. Furthermore, it amalgamates and discusses the most appropriate, judicious and suitable weed control strategies for a wide range of crops. It reviews the available information and suggests solutions that are not merely feasible but also optimal.

This book helps readers understand the concepts of marketed and marketable surplus, as well as the role of the government and marketing agencies, including those in the private sector, in improving market efficiency. It also examines the impact of various socioeconomic, technological, institutional, infrastructure, and price factors on the marketed surplus of major crops. While Indian agriculture has become increasingly market-oriented and monetized, the importance of market orientation of agriculture is also being recognized at the international level. The proportion of agricultural production that is marketed by farmers has increased significantly over the last few decades in India: in the early 1950s, about 30–35 per cent of food grains output was marketed, which has now increased to more than 70 per cent. In this context, the marketed surplus is proportionately higher in the case of commercial crops than subsistence crops. Recognizing its importance, the Government of India initiated a nation-wide survey to estimate marketable surplus and post-harvest losses in the early 1970s, which continued up to the late 1990s. As Indian agriculture, has undergone significant transformation, and no reliable estimates of marketed and marketable surplus are available, the study was conducted to estimate the marketed and marketable surplus of major food crops in leading producing states, and to examine important factors which determine the level of marketed surplus for various categories of farms. The results of this study offer a valuable resource for designing effective food procurement, distribution and price policies. Further, they provide reliable estimates of household farm retention pattern for self-consumption, seed, feed, wages and other payments in kind, which can be used as the basis for planning infrastructure development of storage and distribution. This essential information can help policy-makers determine how much marketed surplus is generated by the different categories of farmers and how marketable surplus would respond to changes in diverse economic and non-economic variables, allowing them to design policies accordingly.

In Bangladesh, IFPRI has received support from USAID through its Policy Research and Strategy Support Program in Bangladesh (PRSSP) to work in the geographic areas targeted by Feed the Future interventions (known as the Zone of Influence) to construct this new WEAI4VC module. The qualitative research study, conducted by IFPRI field officers, complements a 1,200 household quantitative survey, looking in greater depth at the individual, household, and community level experiences of men and women to understand the consequences of value chain participation on them as producers, entrepreneurs, and wage workers on women’s empowerment. The quantitative study sampled 400 households for each of the three economic activities of interest – (1) agricultural production, (2) agricultural entrepreneurship, and (3) agriculture sector employment. It was carried out in ten administrative units (upazilas or sub-districts), and five villages in each upazila to total 50 villages.

This paper conducts a political economy analysis to understand the factors that affect provision of and access to reliable agricultural statistics and data systems in Niger. A conceptual framework that identifies selected political economy aspects including political will, transparency and accountability, state capacity, and international commitments is developed. The predictions of the framework are tested using information collected through informal and formal interviews with professionals and staff of different institutions and organizations that provide or use agricultural statistics to analyze how different components of agricultural statistics and the underlying capacity and systems are differentially influenced by various political-economy factors. Implications for Niger and at the global level for developing an effective strategy to improve agricultural statistics and data (availability, quantity, and quality) that go beyond technological and methodological fixes are drawn.

This book is outcome of the research report on “Assessment of the Status of Dairying and Potential to Improve Socio-Economic Status of the Milk Producers and Convergence of all Central & State Schemes at District level in India” covering seven eastern and two western states of India, viz. Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, Eastern UP, West Bengal, Gujarat, and Rajasthan carried out at the Agro-Economic Research Centre, Sardar Patel University, Vallabh Vidyanagar, Anand, Gujarat, as entrusted by the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India, New Delhi. The study is based on both primary and secondary level data. This book would be helpful to enhance efficiency of implementation of dairy development activities in eastern states of India and thus benefitting the milk producers.

The 2016 referendum resulted in a vote for the United Kingdom to withdraw from the European Union. This has led to frenzied political debate across the whole spectrum of policy, and agriculture is no exception. For the first time in a generation, the future of agriculture is unclear and unfettered by the constraints and incrementalism of the Common Agricultural Policy. This book makes an empirical contribution to the Brexit debate, bringing a social dimension to agri-Brexit and sustainable agriculture discourses. Understanding the social in the context of farmers is vital to developing a way forward on food security and agricultural sustainability. Farmers are the recipients of the market and policy signals that link to global uncertainties and challenges. This book is a commitment to understanding farmers as occupiers and managers of land. Chapters in this book explore farmers’ own aspirations and knowledge about patterns of land use and production, which underpin discussions around the environment and sustainability. There is a deficit in understanding what kind of agricultural industry we now have, following years of restructuring and repositioning. This book is an attempt to address that deficit and will appeal to students and researchers exploring agriculture, food politics and rural sociology.

This book presents recent developments in statistical methodologies with particular relevance to applications in forestry and environmental sciences. It discusses important methodologies like ranked set sampling, adaptive cluster sampling, small area estimation, calibration approach-based estimators, design of experiments, multivariate techniques, Internet of Things, and ridge regression methods. It also covers the history of the implementation of statistical techniques in Indian forestry and the National Forest Inventory of India. The book is a valuable resource for applied statisticians, students, researchers, and practitioners in the forestry and environment sector. It includes real-world examples and case studies to help readers apply the techniques discussed. It also motivates academicians and researchers to use new technologies in the areas of forestry and environmental sciences with the help of software like R, MATLAB, Statistica, and Mathematica.