Philippine Agriculture-- Its Position and Problems

The Philippines are essentially a nation of farmers. More than 70 percent of its people are directly engaged in agriculture

Plant protection act

18 pages.Regulations to minimize the spread of plant pests and weeds that could harm agricultural plants

ベトナムにおける農業開発と対外経済開放 : ドイモイ政策による農業生産性向上と海外直接投資受入の分析

Ⅰ． 課題　Ⅱ． ドイモイ政策と農業開発　Ⅲ． 農業分野の活動動向　Ⅳ． 農業生産と対外経済開放　Ⅴ． 結

The Governance of Corporate Responses to Climate Change: An International Comparison

In response to pressures from governments, investors, non-governmental organisations and other stakeholders, many large corporations have adopted a variety of carbon and energy management practices, taken action to reduce their emissions and set targets to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Using the case of international retailers, this article examines whether, and under what conditions, non-state actors might be capable of assuming the governance roles that have historically been played by national governments. This article concludes that external governance pressures can, if they are aligned, robust and of sufficient duration, have a significant influence on internal governance processes and on corporate strategies and actions. However, the specific actions that are taken by companies – in particular those that require significant capital investments – are constrained by the ‘business case’. That is, companies will generally only invest capital in situations when there is a clear financial case (i.e. where the benefits outweigh the costs, when the rate of return meets or exceeds company targets) for action. That is, the extent to which external governance pressures can force companies to take action, in particular challenging or transformative actions that go beyond the boundaries of the business case, is not at all clear. This is particularly the case if the business case weakens, or if the opportunities for incremental change are exhausted. In that context, the power of non-state actors to force them to consider radical changes in their business processes and their use of energy therefore seems to be very limited

Effects of water re-allocation in the Ebro river basin: A multiregional input-output and geographical analysis

The quality and availability of water are affected by numerous variables, through which the evaluation of water uses from different perspectives, and policy proposals to save water have now become essential. This paper aims to study water use and the water footprint from a river basin perspective, taking into account regions, sectors, and municipalities, while considering the physical frontier along with the administrative sectors. To this end, we have constructed a multi-regional input-output table for the Ebro river basin, disaggregating the primary sector into 18 different crops and 6 livestock groups. We pay special attention to crop production because it is the most water-consuming industry. The construction of the multi-regional input-output model represents an important contribution to the literature, in itself, since, to the best of our knowledge, it is the first to be built for this large basin. We extend this multi-regional input-output model to assess the water footprint by sectors and regions within the basin. We use these data to propose two scenarios: reallocating final demand to reduce the blue water footprint (scenario 1), and increasing value added (scenario 2). These scenarios outline the opportunity costs of saving water in socioeconomic terms in the basin. In another application, we downscale the multi-regional input-output model results at the municipal level and depict them using a geographical information system, identifying the hotspots and the areas that would pay for the socioeconomic opportunity costs of saving water. Our results suggest that saving 1 hm 3 of blue water could cost around €41, 500 of value added if we consider the entire basin. However, this water re-allocation implies losses and gains at the municipal level: some municipalities would reduce value added by more than €30, 000, while others would gain more than €85, 000 of value added. These tools and results can be useful for policy makers when considering re-allocating water. The contribution and the novelty of this paper is the construction of the multiregional input-output model for the Ebro river basin, and its link with geographical systems analysis at the municipal level

GMOs in animal agriculture: time to consider both costs and benefits in regulatory evaluations

In 2012, genetically engineered (GE) crops were grown by 17.3 million farmers on over 170 million hectares. Over 70% of harvested GE biomass is fed to food producing animals, making them the major consumers of GE crops for the past 15 plus years. Prior to commercialization, GE crops go through an extensive regulatory evaluation. Over one hundred regulatory submissions have shown compositional equivalence, and comparable levels of safety, between GE crops and their conventional counterparts. One component of regulatory compliance is whole GE food/feed animal feeding studies. Both regulatory studies and independent peer-reviewed studies have shown that GE crops can be safely used in animal feed, and rDNA fragments have never been detected in products (e.g. milk, meat, eggs) derived from animals that consumed GE feed. Despite the fact that the scientific weight of evidence from these hundreds of studies have not revealed unique risks associated with GE feed, some groups are calling for more animal feeding studies, including long-term rodent studies and studies in target livestock species for the approval of GE crops. It is an opportune time to review the results of such studies as have been done to date to evaluate the value of the additional information obtained. Requiring long-term and target animal feeding studies would sharply increase regulatory compliance costs and prolong the regulatory process associated with the commercialization of GE crops. Such costs may impede the development of feed crops with enhanced nutritional characteristics and durability, particularly in the local varieties in small and poor developing countries. More generally it is time for regulatory evaluations to more explicitly consider both the reasonable and unique risks and benefits associated with the use of both GE plants and animals in agricultural systems, and weigh them against those associated with existing systems, and those of regulatory inaction. This would represent a shift away from a GE evaluation process that currently focuses only on risk assessment and identifying ever diminishing marginal hazards, to a regulatory approach that more objectively evaluates and communicates the likely impact of approving a new GE plant or animal on agricultural production systems

Agricultural Policies of Foreign Governments, Including Trade Policies Affecting Agriculture

Excerpts from the report Preface: The national policies of individual countries regarding agriculture are an important determinant of the size and composition of world trade in agricultural products. The present study describes the status of agricultural policies as of the middle of 1957. It discusses briefly the dependence of each area on trade in farm products, either as an importer or as an exporter. It gives the goals of agricultural policy, as they have been explicitly stated, or as they are implicit in the actions of governments. The regulation of foreign trade in agricultural products and internal market and price policies, including price supports, direct subsidies, and production controls, are briefly described. Each country section also makes reference to indirect aids for agriculture, such as those given through agricultural credit, agricultural extension services, and land or development policies

The U.S. Agricultural Trade Book

Report Introduction: The United States ranks among the world's largest agricultural exporters and importers—making it a critically important trading partner for nations around the globe. Foreign buyers rely on the United States to supply over three-fifths of the soybeans and feed grains, one-third of the wheat and cotton, and nearly one-fifth of the rice moving in world trade. U.S. agricultural exports are just as important to the U.S. economy as they are to the rest of the world. Because the domestic market for food and fiber is characterized by slow population growth and stable consumption levels, the world market represents the most vibrant growth sector for the U.S. food and agricultural industry. U.S. inflation rates, levels of unemployment, and the ex- change value of the U.S. dollar relative to foreign currencies are all linked to the exchange of agricultural products between the United States and other nations. The chapters that follow highlight the importance of agricultural trade to the average American and to U.S. farmers

The Treaty of Shimonoseki Between China and Japan of April 17, 1895, and Our Possibilities of Trade with Those Countries

Excerpt: The following circular is compiled from British and French official sources, and also from the late reports of Mr. Jernigan, the United States consul at Shanghai, China, to the State Department, for the purpose of showing the possibilities of an increased trade between those countries and the United States, and the present keen and intense competition manifested for securing it by European nations. It is published as a matter of grave commercial importance at this time to our agricultural and industrial interests in the practicable future exploitation of our trade with the Eastern Asiatic countries. The commercial clauses are appended