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This document is an editorial from the Vadose Zone Journal, announcing a special section on soil physics in agricultural production, water resources, and waste management. The special section includes nine papers, some of which focus on African scenarios. The papers cover topics such as catchment hydrology, modeling of hydrological processes, uncertainty in modeling and measuring vadose zone hydrological processes, and nutrient dynamics. The special section aims to advance soil physics knowledge and its practical applications in agricultural and environmental management. The editorial also acknowledges the contributions of the authors and the legacy of Don and Betty Kirkham, who supported the 2022 Kirkham conference where the research was presented. [Extracted from the article]

Background and Aims: Two main problems the globe currently facing are migration and weather variation. Weather change has a significant impact on the agricultural industry, which affects the majority of poor people. There is a dearth of adequate methodological documentation when examining the relationship between weather variation, agricultural output, and migration. We aimed to identify methodological reporting difficulties by reviewing the quantitative literature on weather‐related migration through agricultural channels. Methods: A systematic evaluation was conducted using papers published between January 2010 and June 2022, indexed in the SCOPUS, PUBMED, and Google Scholar databases. Using inclusion/exclusion criteria, we selected 22 original research articles out of 18,929 distinct articles for review, in accordance with the PRISMA guidelines. We extracted data from each study to understand how various concepts, research designs, and investigative techniques influence our understanding of migration patterns related to weather in the agricultural sector. Results: The majority (64%) of the study's data consisted of time series data. In 50% of the studies, secondary data were used. Additionally, 55% of these studies did not state the sample size. In 40% of the studies, model assumptions were fully adhered to, whereas in 36% of the studies, they were not followed at all. The majority of the articles used the Ordinary Least Squares technique, while about 41% applied the Two‐Stage Least Squares technique. Various tests were conducted across these studies, such as robustness checks (59.1%), endogeneity tests (31.8%), omitted variable bias tests (22.7%), sensitivity analyses (22.7%), and weak instrument tests (13.6%), to name a few. In the research we selected, the methodology section had various shortcomings and lacked organization. Furthermore, the justifications for deviations from model assumptions were unclear, potentially affecting the study outcomes. Conclusion: This study has important indications for researchers in studying climatic (weather) migration through agricultural channels besides for policymakers by giving a thorough review of the methods and techniques. Key points: Providing narrative insights on how various issues, research designs, and analytical techniques shape our understanding of the association between weather variation and migration via agricultural production.Providing a broad overview of the pertinent literature, covering 22 articles, as a complement to earlier studies.Our study has important ramifications for researchers studying climatic (weather) migration through agricultural channels as well as for policymakers by giving a thorough review of the methods and techniques currently used in this sector.Future studies on weather variation, agricultural production, and migration should use prudent and comparable models that capture whole climatic (weather) impacts on migration through mediating factors like agricultural production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article extends the Chavas–Cox approach to non-parametric analysis by incorporating undesirable outputs to provide a more complete representation of the production technology. Inner and outer non-parametric technology bounds are constructed. The methods are illustrated with application to time series data for the Canadian pulp and paper industry. Conventional measures that ignore changes in pollutant outputs underestimate true productivity growth. Further, there is a large gap between estimates generated with reference to inner and outer bounds to the technology, suggesting that researchers need to be aware of the limitations of results derived from analyses relying only on DEA methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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While a lot has been written on the socio‐economic and welfare impacts of agricultural technologies, there has been a bias toward crop production systems to the neglect of improved livestock production methods and technologies. This paper explores the welfare impacts of improved livestock production practices and technologies using data from a low‐income country. Using an econometrics technique that corrects selection bias, the paper shows that the adoption of improved livestock production practices has a positive impact on household welfare, measured by consumption expenditure and diet quality. The study also identified increased consumption of animal source foods, reducing animal death and income from the sale of animals as potential mechanisms through which such improvements in livestock production affect family welfare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Why do modern states allow parts of their territory to be governed by non‐state actors? We study this question using the Frontier Crimes Regulation (FCR) in Pakistan, a British Colonial law abrogated only in 2018, which left governance to pre‐colonial tribal councils in large parts of modern day Pakistan. In areas where the FCR did not apply, the British and then Pakistani state built modern political and bureaucratic institutions. Using primary legal documents, we build a dataset of when and where the FCR applied between 1901 and 2012. The territorial extent of the formal state is both cleanly demarcated by this law and varies substantially over time, permitting an empirical examination of the determinants of state control. The data reveal that the Green Revolution's potential to transform agriculture played a major role in extending the formal state. The law was repealed first from areas where agricultural productivity benefited the most from the Green Revolution. This is consistent with a model in which technological changes that shift the returns to control influence where states choose to govern. This paper is part of the Economica 100 Series. Economica, the LSE "house journal" is now 100 years old. To commemorate this achievement, we are publishing 100 papers by former students, as well as current and former faculty. Michael Callen is an Associate Professor at the LSE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examined the risk preferences and management strategies of cereal and legume farmers of Ghana's savannah zones using both the exploratory factor analysis and the linear regression model. Using primary cross‐sectional data and employing the multistage sampling technique made up of purposive, cluster and random sampling techniques, the paper found that cereal farmers are more risk averse than legume farmers. Rainfall variability was ranked topmost by cereals and legumes farmers. Both cereal and legume farmers employ multiple but dissimilar risk management strategies to manage these sources of risk. The commonest sources of risk to cereal and legume farmers were climate and market risk, while off‐farm activities are the commonest management strategy. Production risk faced by cereal farmers was managed by both off‐farm and farm production strategies whereas human risk faced by legumes farmers was managed by both off‐farm and financial management strategies. The importance of market risk implies that policy initiatives should aim at reducing market‐related risks by focusing on increasing off‐farm opportunities for rural households. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines agricultural productivity growth in the Andean Region. Rate of total factor productivity growth; Importance of land quality, war and violence and political freedoms in understanding behavioral differences across countries.

Agriculture is weather dependent, and changes in climate can have a drastic impact on our ability to feed, fuel, and clothe the world's population. Climate change is causing more frequent and unprecedented extreme weather events that are already negatively affecting agriculture. We need to assess the effects of extreme temperatures and rainfall on agriculture. Patterns of short‐term extreme weather events, such as elevated temperatures, flooding, and strong winds, are not predictable enough to design field experiments around. Process‐based crop and soil simulation models allow us to explore new management options and thus provide whole‐system‐based knowledge and management guides for different locations over variable climate conditions. By using crop simulation models, researchers can test different adaptation strategies and assess their effectiveness in reducing the impacts of climate change on agricultural production. In this paper, we discuss the development of crop models and how they have been used to assess the effects of a changing climate on agricultural productivity and propose methods for agriculture to adapt to those changes. We describe potential applications of crop models to assess regional issues such as irrigation demand, greenhouse gas emissions, and policy decisions. Better understanding of how weather and climate forecasts at various scales are provided and the reliability of these forecasts is important for using crop models as a planning tool. Different approaches for simulating long‐term climate change impacts on crop yield and seasonal yield forecasting are discussed. The use of ensemble models to better assess climate change impacts is also discussed. Core Ideas: Assessment of climate change impacts on agriculture requires a systems approach.Agriculture is weather dependent, and changes in climate can have a drastic impact on food production.Crop models can extend the results of physical experiments to better assess long‐term climate change effects on agriculture.Crop models are critical in assessing climate change impacts and developing adaptation and mitigation strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper proposes a new method for evaluating green growth in agriculture (GGA) based on a set of key performance indicators and a synthetic index. To this end, we used the zero unitarisation method. The objects of study were seven countries/groups of countries with the largest share in agricultural production in 2020. This paper attempts to answer the following questions: (1) Has there been any progress in fulfilling the assumptions of the green growth concept implemented in the agricultural sector of the examined countries? (2) Which countries do better, and which do worse in that respect? (3) What are the challenges respective countries need to face? In the analysed years, the mean GGA index increased from 0.3287 to 0.3342, which means that the overall level of 'greening' in agriculture grew insignificantly. Out of the seven analysed countries/regions, China did the best in handling the challenges of GGA, while India did the worst. The paper discusses the reasons for this state of affairs, simultaneously making recommendations for improving the existing situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The stable development of agriculture is of great significance to alleviate the problem of food insecurity. As a significant yield zone along the Belt and Road Initiative, the Black Sea area is an ideal object for China to invest in agriculture. Therefore, it is particularly important to evaluate the agricultural investment environment in this region reasonably and effectively. This paper selects the countries around the Black Sea as the research objects and uses an Entropy‐ technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution (TOPSIS) model to analyse the agricultural investment environment and its influencing factors. The results show that: (a) There are significant differences in the agricultural investment environment among the six countries around the Black Sea, ranking as follows: Russia(0.5583) > Bulgaria(0.4782) > Georgia(0.4072) > Ukraine(0.3539) > Turkey(0.3493) > Romania(0.3167); (b) in primary indexes, agricultural production conditions, political environment, and social development have a relatively large impact, among which agricultural production is the most important factor; (c) among the secondary indexes, human capital index and railway (total kilometres) have high levels of impact. Unemployment rate, inflation rate and employment in agriculture (% of total employment) also have a significant impact. On this basis, suggestions are put forward according to the research results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Produced through pyrolysis, biochars are used as a soil amendment. Differences in feedstock and processing result in differentiated products which impact their values in different soil conditions. Despite the enormous potential, biochars have not been widely used. This paper overviews the benefits and potential demand for biochar and features of supply chain, and identifies opportunities for viable introduction of biochars. The value of biochars should be evaluated as a part of the pyrolysis system that coproduces biochars and biofuels. Biochars can improve agricultural productivity and soil functioning and contribute to climate change mitigation through carbon sequestration. Furthermore, it can provide extra benefit by contributing to fire prevention. The cost of biochar system depends on the costs of feedstock acquisition, transportation, and processing. Biochar is most likely to be adopted in locations with marginal land and high‐value crop, and near low‐cost feedstock sources. The adoption of biochar can be enhanced by compensation for carbon sequestration, further investment in research, and learning of producers to enhance efficiency of the supply chain. Biochar is a charcoal that has been used to improve soil quality. It is obtained through heating organic materials such as crop and forest residues without oxygen. Diverse types of biochar can be coproduced with biofuels. The paper reviews the benefits and potential demand of biochar, and features of the supply chain that would be used to produce and market it. Biochar can improve agricultural productivity and mitigate climate change. Current adoption is low but will be improved with compensation for carbon sequestration, placing processing facilities closer to the biomass sources, and investment in research to reduce cost of production. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An evolving green agenda as the UK seeks to achieve 'net zero' in greenhouse gas emissions by 2050, coupled with our new trading relationship with the European Union, is resulting in new government policies, which will be disruptive to Britain's traditional food and farming practices. These policies encourage sustainable farming and land‐sparing to restore natural habitats and will provide an opportunity to address issues such as high emissions of GHGs and dwindling biodiversity resulting from many intensive agricultural practices. To address these and other food challenges such as global conflicts and health issues, Britain will need a revolution in its food system. The aim of this paper is to make the case for such a food revolution where additional healthy food for the UK population is produced in‐country in specialised production units for fruits and vegetables developed on sites previously considered unsuitable for crop production. High crop productivity can be achieved in low‐cost controlled environments, making extensive use of novel crop science and modern controlled‐environment technology. Such systems must be operated with very limited environmental impact. In recent years, growth in the application of plasticulture in UK horticulture has driven some increases in crop yield, quality and value. However, the environmental cost of plastic production and plastic pollution is regarded as a generational challenge that faces the earth system complex. The distribution of plastic waste is ubiquitous, with a significant pollution load arising from a range of agricultural practices. The primary receptor of agriplastic pollution is agricultural soil. Impacts of microplastics on crop productivity and quality and also on human health are only now being investigated. This paper explores the possibility that we can mitigate the adverse environmental effects of agriplastics and thereby exploit the potential of plasticulture to enhance the productivity and positive health impact of UK horticulture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stability analysis plays a crucial role in plant breeding programs aimed at enhancing crop productivity and resilience. Chili yield stability studies based on the interaction of genotype × environment have been widely conducted, as stable yield is very substantial in the formation of sustainably high‐yielding chili varieties. Multi‐environmental trials, conducted across different seasons, locations, or both, are used to assess these G × E interactions through various statistical models. In this context, this review paper explores the understanding of stability analysis in chili breeding, the significance of genotype by environment interaction, and the methods employed in this domain, providing a comprehensive update on recent advancements in stability analysis specific to chili breeding. Furthermore, research studies conducted on stability analysis in chili breeding programs and software used to assess crop stability are featured, shedding light on the application, challenges, and future prospects in the field. The importance of stability analysis in developing stable genotypes and enhancing agricultural productivity amid evolving environmental conditions is herewith underscored. These insights are critical for breeding programs aiming to create robust genotypes capable of adapting to changing environmental conditions, ultimately contributing to more sustainable agricultural practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highly fragile small island states experience disproportionate climate impacts given their limited capacity to implement cost‐effective tools for detecting emerging signals of drying conditions and monitoring systems for sensitive sectors such as agriculture, especially for uncertain, 'creeping' events such as droughts. Despite the existence of open‐source Google Earth Engine datasets, untapped potential remains for their full deployment in disaster management infrastructure. Given this gap, this paper explores the utility of the Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) for detecting spatio‐temporal variations of Mid‐Summer Drought (MSD) impacts on vegetation in the small island of Jamaica, with emphasis on major historical drought events. Geospatial analyses of EVI datasets from the Terra Moderate‐Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) between 2000−2015 archived by the United States Geological Survey (USGS), were computed, and validated by station‐based precipitation and production data for selected parishes for historical case study MSD events. Results revealed highly asymmetrical drought impacts, with Jamaica's agriculturally intense Southern coastline displaying the most stressed vegetation (EVI < 0.5). North‐Western and North‐Eastern regions had the healthiest vegetation during the MSD (EVI > 0.6). A 'fair' to 'moderate' concurrent correlation was found between EVI and precipitation (R > 0.6), with lower correlations vis‐a‐vis agricultural production (R = 0.2–0.4). The results provide evidence of EVI's utility as a drought monitoring tool in a small island context. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing interest in exploring contemporary financialisation in terms of the geographies of debt. Many economic geographers have adopted a financial ecologies approach to explain these geographies. While this approach provides analytical benefits, it nonetheless analyses debt almost exclusively in terms of consumer finance, thereby overlooking the relations of production in which many indebted households engage. To address this issue, I develop the agrarian financial ecologies concept, which both directs analysis towards the diversity of credit–debt relations in rural economies, and highlights the relationship between land, labour and debt in the process of agricultural production. I apply this concept to study farm household debt in Cambodia, where indebtedness has become a widespread problem among farmers facing rapid economic transformation in the countryside. By focusing on land and labour, I demonstrate how diverse credit–debt relations within Cambodia's agrarian financial ecology have produced uneven socio‐spatial outcomes, namely debt‐driven land dispossession. This paper advances geographic theory about the dynamics of value production, circulation and appropriation within geographies of debt. It also extends the empirical remit of existing financial ecologies scholarship by attending to the credit–debt relations that characterise many agrarian livelihoods today. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Growth in agricultural total factor productivity (TFP), which explains most of the long‐term growth in U.S. agricultural output, may be slowing. The Economic Research Service (ERS) of the USDA is confident that current levels of below‐average growth will eventually regain the long‐term trend line. Others disagree, arguing instead that due to declining public expenditures on agricultural research, TFP growth experienced a downward and seemingly permanent structural shift about 30 years ago. In this paper, I argue that neither perspective is accurate since agricultural TFP is best modeled as a random walk with drift and thus not governed by a deterministic trend line. When I use a first difference model to accommodate the unit root, I do not find a structural break in the rate of drift. However, I acknowledge that this finding may not be general because I show that my test for a structural break has low power. To add theoretical relevance, I develop a simple model of stochastic innovation and farm technology adoption, and then use simulation results from my model to explain why a random walk for agricultural TFP is a theoretically sound proposition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The proposed reductions in farm input uses foreseen in the European Green Deal may penalize European farm production while increasing environmental leakages to foreign countries where production may expand. These expected impacts have led to calls for a more restrictive trade policy based on mirror clauses. This paper considers as a case study a potential ban on glyphosate in vegetable and fruits production. We develop an original computable general equilibrium model with endogenous adoption of new European production standards by foreign producers on currently latent markets. We find in our case study that adding mirror clauses to the Green Deal marginally improves European farm income and the global environmental footprint of food. We find that foreign producers as a whole can gain from these clauses and not lose as in a standard analysis. European households support these clauses by paying higher food bills while consuming vegetables and fruits produced without glyphosate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many countries of the world have implemented subsidy programs to maintain a minimum amount of farm production especially for rice. Agricultural support programs usually cause significant fiscal burdens on government budgets. These programs can be generally categorized into decoupled and coupled programs, and one longstanding research interest of previous literature is whether these programs are decoupled or coupled with farm production practices. In Taiwan, a unique land direct payment (LDP) program to rice farms was implemented to ease severe financial burden of the price support program with government purchase. In contrast to production control programs imposing quantity restrictions on farm production, this program is voluntary for rice farms, and participants are paid at a fixed rate per hectare of farmland. This paper examines the impacts of this program on farm income and farm production practices in Taiwan. The causal effect of the program is identified based on the exogenous rollout of the policy across multiple times and areas. We construct a dataset linking nationally representative rice farm surveys over several years and administrative records on program recipients to estimate the local average treatment effect of the program. We find that the effect is 4% of farm income. In addition, program participants rely less on price support programs and produce less rice and use less fertilizer, pesticide, and machinery. Although the LDP reduces rice production, we find that it causes overall government spending on the price support and direct payment programs to increase by 8.7% after the LDP. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Outdoor agricultural workers often work in harsh environmental conditions, including high temperatures and poor air quality. This paper studies how these factors impact worker productivity, which can have implications for worker health, well‐being, and income as well as farm payroll, production, and profitability. Our analysis uses 6 years of payroll records of harvesters on two large farms combined with pollution and weather monitor data from multiple sources. We address simultaneity issues by exploring pollution measurements from nearby upwind and downwind monitors and incorporating an alternative PM2.5 measure that better captures ambient or regional concentration. Across all specifications, results suggest that heightened concentrations of ground‐level ozone and PM2.5 are associated with reduced productivity. In our main specification, we find that one standard deviation increases in ozone and PM2.5 are associated with reductions in productivity of 2% and 1.1%, respectively. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agricultural production in developing countries is heavily rainfall dependent. Any unexpected variation in rainfall can affect the welfare of households. Using unit record data from India, this paper shows that households can insure against agricultural productivity (rainfall) shocks. Evidence suggests that they do so by varying the time allocation of individual members to different activities, particularly to regular wage work and human capital accumulation. There is a gender‐differentiated aspect to this response. Rainfall shocks adversely affect women's human capital accumulation. While there is no evidence that households use participation in NREGS to insure against rainfall shocks, the availability of NREGS helps reduce the impact of rainfall shocks on human capital accumulation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to provide an analysis of the agricultural productivity of food grains across the states of India. Despite agriculture's diminishing role as a share of overall gross domestic product (GDP) in India, it plays a crucial role by providing a large proportion of jobs to the workforce. Acknowledging the central role of agriculture in the economy as well as the diversity between the states in terms of availability of resources, this study analyses the impact of various inputs like land area, fertilizers, electricity and labour use on the production efficiency of food grains at the state level from 2006 to 2017 using Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) and Malmquist Productivity Index (MPI). The results highlight the variation in the performance of states with five out of selected 20 states experiencing efficiency under the CCR model of DEA and nine out of 20 states being efficient under the BCC model of DEA. MPI results indicate that 11 out of 20 states have progressed in terms of MPI during the period under consideration. The paper highlights the possibility of increasing agricultural production with optimizing the inputs by focusing on efficient resource deployment and enhanced production management. The paper investigates the relationship between various agricultural inputs and food grain production efficiency using DEA and provides a way to improve on the allocation of these resources across various Indian states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A better understanding of the dynamics involved in grain production is critical for food security and poverty reduction. To this end, several factors influence grain production, including capital (i.e. R&D investment and agricultural credit), agriculture environment (i.e. CO2 emissions), and technical progress (i.e. fertilizers and agricultural machinery). This paper analyses the combined effects of these factors on China's grain crops output from 1990 to 2017 by using the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) approach. The ARDL‐bounds testing approach provided the long‐run connection amid the variables. The findings include: (i) agricultural R&D spending has an encouraging and meaningful influence on grain crops yield in the long‐run and short‐run; (ii) agricultural credit significantly and positively stimulates grain crops output; (iii) CO2 emissions negatively impact grains' output in the short‐ and long‐run; (iv) area under grain crops and fertilizers used also endure a positive spur on grain crops production in the long‐run and short‐run; and (v) short‐run nexus among the variables is navigated for robustness rationale via the vector error correction model Granger causality practice. Hence, the strategy specialists should also acquaint finances through prescribed organizations on comfortable provisions and minimal interests. In addition, the Chinese Governments and agricultural extension organizations should support the easy acquisition of high‐tech cultivating machinery to harvest crops swiftly and explore substantial markets for further business. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper estimates the impact of trypanosomiasis on crop‐livestock production, economic loss and poverty in Ethiopia. We use unique panel data to estimate how the disease affects livestock deaths, production costs and crop production. We then use these estimates to evaluate the disease's total economic loss and its implications on poverty in the study districts and the country. Estimates of the fixed effect regression models indicate that trypanosomiasis increases the value of livestock deaths by 33% and production costs by 63%. Crop production decreases by 14% when trypanosomiasis and oxen death coexist. We estimate that the direct economic loss is about US$58,300 per annum in the study districts. The estimated countrywide economic loss is about US$94 million per annum. Had the government prevented this economic loss and invested it in social protection programmes, it could have lifted about 9000 people in the study districts and about 200,000 people in the country above the national poverty line per annum. These findings indicate that trypanosomiasis remains a major production constraint. Controlling the disease appears to be pro‐poor, calling for more policy attention. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The relationship between the productivity of crops of agricultural interest and their interactions with physicochemical soil properties is widely explored. However, there is still a gap concerning the contribution of biological soil attributes and especially the relationship between crop productivity and the structures of organism communities within the soil, such as the enchytraeids. This paper aimed to evaluate the diversity and structures of enchytraeids communities in subtropical soils and their relationship with soybean productivity and soil properties within a no‐tillage system. This study was conducted in soybean growing grounds working under no‐till farming systems in southern Brazil. Samples were collected according to ISO 23611‐3 and extracted with the hot–wet methodology. The organisms were identified up to their genus level. Enchytraeids density increased with the increase of soybean productivity for both evaluated crops. Enchytraeus, Fridericia, and Hemienchytraeus were more abundant in high productivity and genus Achaeta was only found in the second crop and was not a sensitive indicator toward changes in soybean productivity. Regarding the relationship between the enchytraeid community and soil attributes, the variables clay, phosphorus, moisture contents, pH, Ca/Mg as well as carbon and nitrogen from soil and litter, affected Enchytraeidae distribution. Enchytreids showed significant correlations with soybean productivity in the no‐tillage system for subtropical soils in Brazil, demonstrating potential bioindicators of soil quality and consequently of soybean productivity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Invasive alien plant species (IAPs) are causing significant negative impacts on agricultural production, threatened native species and ecosystems, the services they provide and public health thereby affecting European biodiversity and its economy. IAPs invade all types of natural and managed habitat and their impacts, through increased numbers and area invaded, are growing exponentially. Current control options in Europe are largely limited to manual and chemical control, which is high cost, short‐term in effectiveness and with regards to chemical control declining in public acceptability. Globally, classical biological control (CBC) is widely and successfully used to manage many IAPs. CBC aims to redress the ecological imbalance caused by the IAPs, generally being released without their natural enemies. The steps are to select, risk assess potential specific natural enemy biocontrol agents of the IAP (from the IAP's native range) and follow regulatory approval prior to releasing them to ecologically suppress their abundance. CBC is not widely used in Europe. Only five active programmes exist. In this paper, we apply an existing framework to develop a ranked list of environmental IAPs named in the EU Regulation on Invasive Species for biocontrol. We used a scoring system based on existing knowledge on the IAPs impacts, the amount of effort needed to deliver a CBC programme targeting them and the feasibility and likelihood of success of such programmes. We identify 16 IAPs in Europe for which CBC has relatively high potential and discuss existing knowledge that can underpin any future investments in such activities against each of these IAPs. The top three species being Pontederia crassipes, Pistia startiotes and Acacia saligna. This research should support decision‐making on the instigation of future CBC programmes against environmental IAPs in Europe. We set this analysis in the context of other operational and regulatory constraints on developing CBC programmes against environmental IAPs in Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analysing the agricultural sectors of Taiwan, Malaysia and Singapore, this paper examines the capability‐building process that encourages productivity and innovation. It describes and explains the origins and subsequent evolution of three forms of agricultural production system, each generating different farming capabilities and distinct forms of competitive advantages. The paper argues that Taiwan's rice‐oriented agricultural production system stimulates both productivity and innovation, helping Taiwanese farmers raise their income level and living standards. The active deployment of state institutions and a malleable labour force, evidenced in the Malaysian palm oil industry, is effective in raising farming productivity but not the ability to innovate. Singapore's aquaculture‐oriented agricultural production system is somewhat useful in stimulating productivity and innovation. Yet the city‐state's inherent lack of space and open international trade regime have circumscribed the potential of its aquaculture industry. It now relies on the regional ethnic Chinese business networks to expand the aquaculture industry's knowledge base and its industrial commons. The principles discussed in this paper provide policy lessons, or at least some initial guidance, for other developing economies aspiring to modernise their agricultural sector. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agriculture is thought to play a number of roles in the early development process. All of these roles involve fostering non‐agricultural development, in particular manufacturing. It is argued in this paper that agriculture plays a role that has hitherto been ignored. Specifically, if agricultural labor productivity increases faster than manufacturing labor productivity, the real effective exchange rate will depreciate. This depreciation of real effective exchange rate occurs because in very poor countries agriculture makes up the dominant share of both GDP and employment. The depreciation also makes it easier for a country to expand the production of tradables relative to nontradables, with manufacturing being the main tradable. This proposition, which as agricultural labor productivity increases relative to manufacturing labor productivity the real effective exchange rate depreciates, is tested using data drawn from 10 sub‐Saharan African countries. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China has recently become an agent of intensified agricultural production in Southeast Asia by constructing large‐scale irrigation systems. Funded with Chinese development finance, such infrastructure projects have been interpreted as a 'spatial fix' for capital accumulation in China, which helps explain the shifting balance of power within the region's political economy. However, we argue that explaining the local outcomes of these projects requires mapping out Chinese development finance in relation to the multi‐scalar network of actors, circuits of capital, and struggles over water that produce irrigated landscapes. We draw on our joint research about the Chinese‐funded and built Kanghot Irrigation Development Project in Cambodia. We explain how the construction of Kanghot was shaped by the historical and political relations between China and Cambodia. Since completion in 2016, Kanghot irrigation has transformed agricultural production by enrolling farmers into a network of volatile commodity markets and harmful pest ecologies. There have also been ongoing community struggles over Kanghot's water due to the project's design and institutional management. By broadening the idea of infrastructure as spatial fix to include these material and social processes of agrarian landscape production, this paper advances a political ecology of Chinese development finance in Southeast Asia. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The survival of humans depends critically on crop production, making crop protection absolutely essential. Numerous studies have suggested that nanopesticides could soon fully replace conventional pesticides since they are far more effective than those now in use. Due to an increase in their surface‐to‐volume ratio, nanomaterials exhibit different properties from their bulk counterparts. Nanopesticides are pesticides that have been made with these nanoparticles and have a high application efficiency and significantly fewer hazardous environmental impacts than pesticides that have been made chemically. Various formulation strategies, which include the containment of the active substance by the nanoparticles, have previously been established, exhibiting promising effects on the pests. Target specificity, high stability, and controlled active ingredients (AIs) release are a few of the noteworthy qualities these nanopesticides offer. The development of green nanopesticides derived from nature, which have very low ecotoxicities and nanoscale qualities, can also have a significant positive impact on crop output. However, before being mass‐produced and used, the discovery still has to be thoroughly examined to determine its effects on people and the environment due to the lack of conclusive proof demonstrating its toxicity. This paper aims to represent the use of nanopesticides in crop protection and a detailed overview of the various methods for the formulation of nanopesticides. Also, the possible negative impacts on the non‐target species by the application of nanopesticides have been briefly discussed. The need for the development of green nanopesticides to avoid the negative aspects of nanopesticides has also been highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing on long‐term ethnographic fieldwork with Seasonal Worker Programme (SWP) workers in south‐east Australia, I reflect in this paper on the experience of interminable temporariness and on its implications for the structural conditions underpinning contemporary horticultural labour in Australia. Although in many ways reflective of the specificities of a unique historical moment, the interminable temporariness experienced through the COVID‐19 pandemic also speaks to broader, enduring conditions produced within contemporary Australian agriculture. Here, the restructuring of the agri‐industry produces for many what Lauren Berlant describes as the "impasse" or "crisis ordinariness" of life under neoliberalism. At the same time, logics of development—including racialized imaginaries and border regimes—articulate with agricultural guest worker schemes in ways that seek to fix whole populations and regions in relations of suspended hope. In this context, I argue, the pandemic exposed and intensified structural vulnerabilities and unequal distributions of risk, which are encoded in the political economy of farm work in Australia, while also cleaving open new, if tentative, possibilities for agency and solidarity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In India, progress against undernutrition has been slow. Given its importance for income generation, improving diets, care practices, and maternal health, the agriculture sector is widely regarded as playing an important role in accelerating the reduction in undernutrition. This paper comprehensively maps existing evidence along agriculture-nutrition pathways in India and assesses both the quality and coverage of the existing literature. We present a conceptual framework delineating six key pathways between agriculture and nutrition. Three pathways pertain to the nutritional impacts of farm production, farm incomes, and food prices. The other three pertain to agriculture-gender linkages. After an extensive search, we found 78 research papers that provided evidence to populate these pathways. The literature suggests that Indian agriculture has a range of important influences on nutrition. Agriculture seems to influence diets even when controlling for income, and relative food prices could partly explain observed dietary changes in recent decades. The evidence on agriculture-gender linkages to nutrition is relatively weak. Sizeable knowledge gaps remain. The root causes of these gaps include an interdisciplinary disconnect between nutrition and economics/agriculture, a related problem of inadequate survey data, and limited policy-driven experimentation. Closing these gaps is essential to strengthening the agriculture sector's contribution to reducing undernutrition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite their potential as a sustainable source of soil nutrients and organic matter, waste organic residues are often discarded rather than utilized in agriculture. This review examines the current state‐of‐the‐art in the application of organic residues in agricultural production systems by analysing trends and results in published research conducted on their use for soil health and crop production purposes. For this, a bibliographic analysis was conducted on 81 papers collected from the Web of Science database. Our research shows a growing trend in the field, particularly in recent years, with articles from India, China and the United States at the forefront. The most commonly evaluated organic residues were compost, animal manure, crop residues, municipal solid waste and biochar. Soil pH, bulk density and especially organic matter/total organic carbon (TOC) were the chemical, physical and biological attributes most frequently evaluated, respectively. This review indicates that the application of organic residues improves soil health, positively affecting crop productivity in crops such as maize, wheat and rice. However, further research is needed to address the potential risk of soil contamination from potentially toxic metals (PTMs) associated with organic residues, as well as to identify best practices to guarantee food safety and environmental preservation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Recently, dynamic induction control is gaining the interest of the wind energy community as a promising strategy to increase the overall wind farm power production. Such a technique is based on a dynamic variation of the upstream rotor thrust, generated through a suitable blade pitch motion, to promote a faster wake recovery. Notwithstanding some promising results already published, the knowledge of the physical mechanism, connecting dynamic induction to the increased in‐wake velocity, was not yet exploited to enhance control effectiveness. This paper, through a computational fluid dynamics procedure based on large eddy simulations coupled with actuator line models, provides a description of the working principles of this control from a fluid dynamics standpoint. The analyses show that the faster recovery is strictly connected to the ability of the blade tip vortices to roll up and sucking energy from the outer flow. Exploiting such knowledge, a novel control strategy, which improves the vortex roll up mechanism, is proposed and analyzed. The new control proved more effective than standard techniques especially for very low turbine spacing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Canopy temperature is an important physiological and ecological characteristic of rice plants. It can comprehensively reflect their individual characteristics, such as their adaptability to the environment and the quality of the population. This paper reviews influencing factors, variation patterns, practical applications, formation processes, and measurement techniques of rice canopy temperature. Moreover, we analyzed the weaknesses of current studies on this topic, proposed improvements to the existing methods and techniques used to measure rice canopy temperature, and systematically assessed the effects of canopy temperature on rice production. This study provides a theoretical support for the construction of an auxiliary decision‐making system to guide rice crop production practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of GCB Bioenergy is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Increasing evidence shows that farm households in developing countries maintain a portfolio of income‐generating activities. Concerns have been raised that household income diversification to include nonfarm activities will stifle farm works, and thus reduce agricultural productivity. On the contrary, some evidence of complementarity between the farm and nonfarm activities in rural areas has been found. This paper uses data from the fourth and the fifth waves of Tanzania's National Panel Surveys to examine whether there exists complementarity or substitutability between farm and nonfarm activities in rural Tanzania. The findings show that participation in off‐farm work and nonfarm business activities has no clear relationship to the adoption and use of improved agricultural practices, namely, irrigation, fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides. Participation in off‐farm work and nonfarm business activities does not also seem to directly influence agricultural investments, production, and productivity nor overall household income. These results suggest that the complementary and substitution effects of nonfarm activities offset each other in Tanzania, implying that proper policies are required to unleash the potential impact of nonfarm activities on agriculture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

China's poor rural households produce substantially less grain compared with non-poor rural households. The present paper applies a decomposition approach and uses China's rural household survey data to investigate the causes of this grain output gap. The paper first compares the grain output gap between poor and non-poor rural households, and then decomposes the gap into differences in yield and area sown. The results indicate that the gap in grain output mainly results from differences in the amount of inputs used in production. Differences in the number of labor days and the level of intermediate inputs account for 13.6 and 47.5 percent of the gap, respectively. Poor rural households are also less efficient in their use of intermediate inputs, which contributes to 13.2 percent of the gap. However, the efficiency of poor households' labor days reduces the gap by 7.2 percent, while agricultural physical capital, household head education and agricultural training have no substantial impact on the household grain output gap. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ecological compensation is an innovative and effective tool to explore the coordinated development of socioeconomic prosperity and ecological protection, especially for a watershed crossing different regions. It converts the externalities of ecosystem services into practical financial incentives for local stakeholders. This empirical study applies a quantitative policy evaluation approach to evaluate the environmental and economic effects of an ecological compensation policy, using the paddy land–to–dry land (PLDL) program implemented in China's Miyun Reservoir watershed as an example. The study is based on responses to a 2017 questionnaire regarding agricultural production inputs and outputs administered to 269 households in Hebei Province, where the PLDL program has been operational for over 10 yr. The results show that the program has reduced nitrogen usage by 24% on average in 2017 and decreased the total nitrogen emission load by 16.98 tons for the entire case area, which accounts for approximately 18.6% of the total nitrogen load reduction of the Miyun Reservoir basin. However, the upstream households involved in this program have experienced agricultural income losses higher than that allowed for by the current compensation criterion. Therefore, this paper discusses the factors that should be considered in the process of determining ecological compensation criteria. In particular, the paper proposes a differential compensation scheme based on the environmental effect at the individual level to avoid a standard payment for all households irrespective of their different contributions. This differential compensation payment scheme facilitates the fair treatment of environmental contributors and maximizes environmental benefits through an equitable allocation of limited ecological compensation funds. This study serves as a theoretical and practical reference for further improvement of the current ecological compensation policy in China. The study also sheds light on practices for estimating ecological compensation criteria and formulating ecological compensation policies for other regions or countries in the future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years concerns have been raised regarding the environmental consequences of over-use of nitrogen fertilizers on a global level. However, the balance between sustainability and agricultural productivity, a central concern for policy makers in developing countries, has not been sufficiently addressed. In this paper, I evaluate farmers' fertilization practices and their effect on yield using unique plot level data from India. I estimate quadratic crop response functions for different crops and cropping systems. To address endogenous input choices, I use input prices and cost shifters from the fertilizer industry as instrumental variables for the fertilization practice. I find that a large share of Indian cultivators overuse nitrogen relative to the other two nutrients, and could benefit from simply reducing the amount of nitrogen used while keeping the other nutrients fixed. This suggests a potential win-win situation where both productivity and sustainability can be improved by changing fertilizer application. The widespread "nitrogen-only" fertilization pattern is rejected as optimal in most cases. [EconLit Citations: Q12, Q15, Q16, E23, C26, C14]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes changes in agricultural productivity gender gaps in Côte d'Ivoire between 2008 and 2016 using decomposition methods. The analysis finds that the gender gap went from 40% in food crops and 17% in exports crops in 2008, to 19% in food crops and a statistical zero in export crops in 2016. The overall gender gap decreased by 15 percentage points over this period, and is statistically insignificant in 2016 once accounting for whether households farm export crops. Moreover, our results show that while some drivers of the gender gap remain stable across the decade (including total land cultivated, and pesticide and fertilizer use), others change their contribution (number of plots, crop choice and household labor). Despite substantial improvements, female‐headed households in the bottom half of the distribution remain disadvantaged. Our results indicate that strengthening women's access to agricultural labor and adoption of export crops are policy priorities to reach gender parity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a comprehensive picture of extreme precipitation across Nepal from 1976 to 2015 based on high‐quality daily precipitation observations from 28 precipitation stations spatially distributed across the country. We computed 11 extreme precipitation indices. The selected indices allow the analysis of extreme events (such as flood/inundation) related to heavy precipitation and evaluate the linkage with indications of agricultural production and drought (such as consecutive dry and wet days). Using a simple daily intensity index (SDII) and the number of days with daily precipitation ≥10 mm (R10), along with the total amount of annual precipitation (PRCPTOT), we summarized the distribution of the wet periods of the year at different locations. We divided the study period into two halves (T1: 1976–1995 and T2: 1996–2015) to examine the temporal mean, trends, and their shift. We emphasized the changes in those indices between these two periods across the country. Our results show that although the amount of precipitation (in terms of PRCPTOT and SDII) did not change significantly between the two periods (i.e., T1 and T2), there exists a clearly increasing trend of extreme precipitation indices in T2 compared to T1. In addition, the consecutive dry days show the rising tendency of elongated dry spells that can adversely affect plant/crop growth in the future. Our study recommends the need for effective management of both precipitation extremes (i.e., drier and wetter), for instance, by introducing irrigation facilities and flood mitigation measures. Plain Language Summary: We computed different precipitation indices using daily data from 28 precipitation stations spatially distributed across Nepal to obtain a clear picture of extreme precipitation from 1976 to 2015. We divided the study period into two halves of 20 years each. This study emphasizes the changes in magnitudes and trends of extreme precipitation between the two periods. Overall, we find that heavy precipitation indices increased significantly in the later period. Notably, dry spells (i.e., no rainfall) for consecutive days showed a remarkably increasing trend. Our results indicate the need for mitigation of this extreme precipitation to prevent both floods and drought. Key Points: We divide the study period (1976–2015) into two halves to analyze precipitation patterns and their shiftWe emphasize changes in the precipitation indices across the country between the two periodsWe find a clearly increasing trend of extreme precipitation indices in the recent period when compared to the earlier one [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing impact of the global production of agricultural commodities has created new regulations that aim at a more sustainable trade. Sustainability standards (SS) are essential tools for transnational trade governance because they increase the possibility of recognizing products from sustainable sources. However, there is currently a proliferation of SS in almost every industry. This paper proposes a conceptual framework to establish how standard interactions such as competition, cooperation, and overlap shape the impact of multiplicity on trade costs. We apply the framework to the palm oil industry by using the information on three aspects of SS schemes: the requirements, the institutional design, and the cooperation strategies. Our results indicate that the North–South multiplicity in the palm oil market is characterized by high overlap, but there exists a balanced co‐opetition in the standard market. As the cooperation strategies between the SS schemes are very shallow, there might be potential trade costs associated with the SS multiplicity in the palm oil industry. [EconLit Citations: Q01 Sustainable Development, Q17 Agriculture in International Trade, Q18 Agricultural PolicyFood Policy]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public works programs have long been a popular policy tool to reduce poverty and build productive infrastructure. Although an extensive literature has documented the effect of these programs on poverty, there is virtually no evidence on the productive effect of the infrastructure. This paper attempts to start filling this gap in the context of the Productive Safety Net Program—a large‐scale public works program implemented in Ethiopia since 2005. Under the program, millions of beneficiaries received social transfers conditional on their participation in activities such as land improvements and soil and water conservation measures. We examine the value of these activities using a satellite‐based indicator of agricultural productivity and (reweighted) difference‐in‐differences estimates. Results show that the program is associated with limited changes in agricultural productivity. The upper bound of the main estimate is equivalent to a 2.2% increase in agricultural yield. This contrasts with existing narratives and calls for more research on the productive effects of public works. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Critical consumerism is the conscious choice of purchasing or avoiding products for ethical or environmental reasons. As an increasing share of consumer attempts to purchase sustainably produced food, credence attributes, which are product qualities that are not easily observable or verifiable during purchase or consumption, gain importance. Variety ownership has so far not played any role in food consumption choices but is a new type of credence attribute that may gain relevance through the recent introduction of open‐source seed licenses. Such licenses aim to safeguard agrobiodiversity, ensure long‐term access to plant genetic resources and counter current privatization trends in the seed industry. The labeling of open‐source produce could help to upscale the concept and enable consumers to support the safeguarding of biodiversity through their consumption choices. However, as the first open‐source varieties become available for purchase, consumers' perspectives on open‐source seed licenses remain unclear. In this paper, we, hence, examine German consumers' perceptions of open‐source seed licenses. The analysis of 228 thinking‐aloud protocols, based on qualitative data collected in a conventional and an organic supermarket in Berlin, Germany, serves as an empirical basis. We find that most consumers have a highly positive evaluation of open‐source seed licenses, regardless of whether they fully understand the concept or not. The license is widely perceived to provide a counter‐model to current industrial seed‐ and agricultural production. Specifically, it is believed to (1) prevent the privatization of plant genetic resources, (2) contribute to the conservation and enhancement of agrobiodiversity, (3) support (small‐scale) farmers and (4) prevent market concentration. To what extent these perceptions coincide with personal preferences for taste, health, safety and quality remains to be explored. The concept may specifically cater to certain consumer segments, including highly educated, young to middle‐aged, organically minded consumers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Accurately estimating regional‐scale crop yields is substantial in determining current agricultural production performance and effective agricultural land management. The Yuncheng Basin is an important grain‐producing area in the Shanxi Province. This paper used Sentinel 2A with a spatial resolution of 10 m and MODIS with a temporal resolution of 1 d in 2020. The spatial and temporal nonlocal filter‐based fusion model (STNLFFM) was used to obtain fused data with a spatial resolution of 10 m and a temporal resolution of 1 d, combined with the Carnegie–Ames–Stanford Approach (CASA) and light‐use efficiency model to achieve summer maize (Zea mays L.) yield estimation. The results showed that the fused normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) could inherit the spatial Sentinel‐2A NDVI details and express the spatial differences between smaller features more effectively. The STNLFFM NDVI curve was consistent with the actual summer maize growth condition, which accurately reflects the NDVI trend and local abrupt change information during the summer maize growth period. Moreover, the fused NDVI was influenced by topographic differences and artificial irrigation factors, whereas the summer maize yield in mountainous and plateau areas of the Yuncheng Basin was <5,000 kg ha−1 and those in the alluvial plain of the Sushui River reached 8,000 kg ha−1. The accuracy of the yield estimation model constructed based on STNLFFM NDVI (mean absolute percentage error [MAPE] = 5.47%, −13.74% ≤ relative error [RE] ≤0.12%) was significantly higher than that of the model based on MODIS NDVI (MAPE = 15.65%, −19.67% ≤ RE ≤ 20.88%), indicating that the use of spatio‐temporal fusion technology can effectively improve the summer maize yield estimation accuracy. Core Ideas: STNLFFM was used to obtain high spatial and temporal resolution images.NPP in summer maize planting area was simulated using CASA in combination with STNLFFM.The yield estimation accuracy of STNLFFM was higher than that of MODIS. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Canadian Journal of Agricultural Economics is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In this paper we analyze the link between human‐capital investment and agricultural modernization in a dualistic agricultural economy. We assume that human‐capital investment in the context of agricultural dualism is distinct from that of simple traditional agriculture in that it gives top priority to developing the skills needed for production in the modern agricultural sector. Our aim is to investigate the likely consequences of investments and subsidies that provide polytechnic training to employees in the modern agricultural sector. To this end, we develop a three‐sector general equilibrium model with which one can evaluate the effect of rural polytechnic training. Our research indicates that sector investments and government subsidies raise the output of the traditional agricultural sector but conditionally raise the output of the modern agricultural sector. Moreover, sector investments and government subsidies each have greater effects on the development of the traditional sector than they would on that of the modern sector. These, nevertheless, are not conducive to the agricultural modernization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the key role of agricultural development in the fight against hunger and the achievement of food security, little is known on the cross‐country effect of terrorism on agriculture. At the same time, there is some tentative evidence suggesting that conflicts reduce agricultural inputs and outputs such as land, production and income. This paper contributes to this emerging literature by investigating how terrorism affects agriculture on a panel of 48 African countries over the period 1998–2016. Six terrorism indicators are used, namely: domestic terrorism, transnational terrorism, unclear terrorism, total terrorism, number of attacks and number of deaths due to terrorism. Three agricultural indicators are used, namely: inputs (consisting of agricultural land and labour) and output (consisting of agricultural productivity growth). Using the generalized method of moments, the following findings are established. First, while transnational terrorism, unclear terrorism, the number of attacks and the number of deaths due to terrorism are positively associated with agricultural land, domestic and total terrorism reduce agricultural land. Second, all the terrorism indicators are negatively associated with agricultural productivity growth and agricultural labour in African countries. Globally, terrorism and terrorist threats are causing a decline in agricultural activity in Africa. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Rwanda's economic recovery since the genocide is largely associated with the government's effective leadership. This paper questions that narrative, highlighting that failure—rather than consistent effectiveness—is a common feature of productive sector policies in late developing countries and that the Rwandan case is no different. Using three examples where Rwanda's party‐owned investment group (Crystal Ventures Ltd) has been used as a key agent in productive sector policies, the paper finds that outcomes of learning from failure have varied significantly, highlighting some way to go before the government's developmental ambitions are met. Copyright © 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]