This book draws upon selected, revised and edited papers from a conference of rural geographers from the UK, USA and Canada, held at the Universities of Plymouth and Exeter. It focuses on rural regions, which are facing conflicting demands, pressures and challenges, which themselves have far-reaching implications for rural space and society. Themes that occur throughout the book include agricultural change, environmental issues, rural communities, governance and globalization, and rural responses to these.

This book explores the gender effects of the current transformation of agriculture and rural life. Five themes are addressed: developments in rural gender theory and research methodology, changes in farm households, migration patterns of men and women in rural areas, the impact of national and international policies, and the construction of identities and definitions of femininity and masculinity as a result of rural change. Contributors include scholars from Europe, North America, South Africa, Australia and New Zealand.

This book discusses the means, instruments and institutions needed to create incentives to promote the conservation and sustainable use of traditional knowledge and plant genetic resources for food and agriculture, within the framework of the world trade order. It analyzes in depth the option to create specific sui generis intellectual property rights of the TRIPS Agreement. It then discusses the ways to support the maintenance of information which cannot be allocated to specific authors, and examines alternative concepts within the trade of traditionally generated information and related...

Throughout Latin America, indigenous peoples are demanding that development must address local priorities, including ethnic identity. Simultaneously, sustainability scientists need to conduct place-based research on the interaction between environment and society that will have global relevance. This book reports on a 6-year interdisciplinary research project on natural resource management in Cotacachi, Ecuador, where scientists and indigenous groups learnt to seek common ground. The book discusses how local people and the environment have engaged each other over time to create contemporary...

This book analyzes the functions, content, methods, findings, and impacts of social and cultural research carried out by the worldwide network of 16 International Agricultural Research Centers of the CGIAR(Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research). Its two main parts - -insiders- and -outsiders- - bring together the perspectives of over 50 eminent scholars and social researchers from 30 countries, working within the Centers or within outside academic and development institutions.

The authors examine critically the priorities, strengths, and weaknesses of research...

This book provides a comprehensive analysis of the economic value of Mediterranean forests, including not only the more obvious benefits (e.g. timber), but also the less commonly-measured public goods (e.g. tourism and conservation) that these forests provide. It brings together forest valuations at the national level from 18 Mediterranean countries, based on extensive local data collection, and thus allows comprehensive analyses within countries as well as comparative analyses across countries. Forest benefits were classified within the Total Economic Value (TEV) framework.

The...

This multi-authored book provides a comprehensive review of citrus breeding, including relevant genetics, molecular biology and biotechnology. Topics discussed include origin and taxonomy, hybridization and see procedures, triploid breeding, mutation breeding, selection for fruit traits, tree characters and disease resistant, rootstock breeding, soil adaptation, nucellar embryony, cytogenetics, mapping, gene cloning, chromosome transfer technology, haploidy, flow cytometry and somaclonal variation.

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges we face - both in terms of its potential impact on our societies and the earth, and the scale of international co-operation that is needed to confront it. Emerging as a component of the international dialogue on the environment and climate, the role of forests in influencing earth systems will need to be assessed. Drawing together perspectives from researchers and policy makers, this book explores how forests will interact with the physical and natural world, and with human society as the climate changes. Also considered is how the world's...

Many international forums have identified the need for comprehensive, scientific methods for the pre-release testing and post-release monitoring of transgenic plants to ensure their environmental safety and sustainable use. In response to this requirement, a GMO Guidelines Project was established under the aegis of the International Organization for Biological Control, to develop biosafety testing guidelines for transgenic plants. This second volume focuses on transgenic cotton in Brazil and addresses both environmental and agricultural impacts. It draws out some general risk assessment...

Effective irrigation and drainage systems are essential if growing demands for water resources are to be met. For the use of water for irrigation to be improved we must understand current levels of performance. This book draws together the growing body of knowledge on irrigation and drainage performance assessment that has been gained over the last twenty years. It provides guidelines for practitioners to enable them to design and carry out performance assessment and implement performance-based management. Developed by a working group of the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage...