Jan van Schilfgaarde, USDA Agricultural Research Service and National Research Council Committee on Irrigation-Induced Water Quality Problems In 1982, a startling discovery was made. Many waterbirds in Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge were dying or suffering reproductive failure. Located in the San Joaquin Valley (Valley) of California, the Kesterson Reservoir (Kesterson) was used to store agricultural drainage water and it was soon determined that the probable cause of the damage to wildlife was high concen trations of selenium, derived from the water and water organisms in the reservoir....

This book is open access under a CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO license.The book uses an economic lens to identify the main features of climate-smart agriculture (CSA), its likely impact, and the challenges associated with its implementation.

Colleagues and friends of Dan Yaron submitted the following tributes. While each submission comes from an individual who knew Dan in a very different way, they all remark on his immeasurable contributions to the field of agricultural eco- nomics, his unique approach, which combines his training and experience with his scientific background, and the admirable professionalism and civility that was apparent in every project he undertook. His work, initially inspired by the chal- lenge of farmers in the arid Negev, eventually took him to the United States to work with universities and to serve on...

This book provides an overview of the state of animal agriculture and present methodologies and proposals to develop policies that result in sustainable and profitable animal production that will protect human and environmental health, enhance livelihood of smallholders and meet consumer needs. The book combines lessons of the past, factual foundation to understand the present, analytical tools to design and improve policies, case studies that provide both empirical grounding and applications of some of the strategies suggested in this book, and finally, a proposal for the way forward.

Colleagues and friends of Dan Yaron submitted the following tributes. While each submission comes from an individual who knew Dan in a very different way, they all remark on his immeasurable contributions to the field of agricultural eco- nomics, his unique approach, which combines his training and experience with his scientific background, and the admirable professionalism and civility that was apparent in every project he undertook. His work, initially inspired by the chal- lenge of farmers in the arid Negev, eventually took him to the United States to work with universities and to serve on...

Knowledge generation and transfer mechanisms are being transformed in important and controversial ways. Investment in research and development has increased in response to recognition that scientific productivity is tightly connected to economic dynamism. Patent protection has been expanded in order to stimulate higher levels of private investment. Intellectual property rights held by public organizations and researchers are now increasingly transferred to private organizations to accelerate the diffusion and enhance the value of knowledge produced by public agencies and universities....

The success of Brazil in the large-scale production and use of fuel ethanol has been widely discussed and analyzed by other countries interested in adopting policies designed to encourage the use of biofuels. Within this context, certain questions arise: Could the Brazilian experience be replicated in other countries? What were the conditions that enabled the creation of the Brazilian Proalcool (National Ethanol Program and what lessons can be learned? To examine these issues, it is important to understand the functioning of the key, interconnected markets (those for sugarcane, sugar and...

This book brings together leading authorities on biofuel from the World Bank to examine all of the impacts of biofuel (economic, social, environmental) within a unified framework and in a global perspective, making it of interest to academics in agricultural and environmental economics as well as industry and policy-makers.