2010-11-01,Scott Waldron,Modernising Agrifood Chains in China: Implications for Rural Development,Hardback,978-1-4438-2507-8,39.99,"China faces major challenges in generating viable and inclusive agricultural and rural development. However, rapid economic growth provides new opportunities to meet the challenges. In particular, the development of higher value agrifood chains provides opportunities for rural households to increase their levels of specialisation, scale and incomes, and for rural areas to broaden their employment and tax bases. 

While an agricultural and rural development strategy based on upgrading agrifood chains is widely described and prescribed, it has not proceeded without problems and has been the subject of little rigorous scrutiny. This book presents an industry case study that draws on a novel methodological framework and reliable micro-level data to provide a nuanced, grounded and diachronic analysis of China’s efforts to upgrade agrifood chains. While China seeks to fast-track the development of high value agrifood chains through interventionist policies, a more viable and inclusive modernisation strategy is to incrementally develop mid-value agrifood chains through facilitative policies.

This and other findings of the book will be of interest to policy makers, researchers and development agencies working on agricultural and rural development in China and other developing and transition countries.

","""This book enlightens debate over strategies for the modernisation  of China’s agriculture. Its case study of China’s beef industry from farm to plate highlights new opportunities and challenges. Arguments are developed for an appropriate modernisation strategy that aims at ‘mid-value’ markets, which is aligned to market forces and the interests of industry participants. The book’s new insights will be of great value to policymakers, development agencies and researchers.""

- Allan N. Rae,  Professor Emeritus, Massey University, New Zealand

",Cambridge Scholars Publishing
2011-06-01,Jane Dowling,"'Just' a Fisherman’s Wife: A Post Structural Feminist Exposé of Australian Commercial Fishing Women’s Contributions and Knowledge, ‘Sustainability’ and ‘Crisis’",Hardback,978-1-4438-2943-4,44.99,"This book provides a unique exposé of women in family businesses in the Australian commercial fishing industry and explores their visibility, contributions, barriers and opportunities for participation, and knowledge. Recognising the need to move beyond an exploration of women’s ‘roles,’ this book applies a detailed, well articulated and sophisticated feminist post structural approach which explores women’s identity, power/knowledge and positioning in relation to the current industry climate, in the context of discourses of ‘crisis’ and ‘sustainability.’ This is particularly pertinent with climate change looming as the next industry ‘crisis.’ As such, this book has significant interdisciplinary appeal, and will benefit feminist, gender, natural resource management and fisheries scholars and policy makers. Ultimately, it is hoped that this book will have a substantial impact on industry women in both Australia and elsewhere, and reduce their marginalisation; increase awareness about their contributions; and result in greater opportunities to voice their unique knowledge on social issues with a view to enhancing industry sustainability.
",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing
2011-09-01,Silva Larson,From Individual Wellbeing to Regional Priorities: Concepts and Measures to Assist Policy Makers,Hardback,978-1-4438-3175-8,34.99,"The understanding of subjective perceptions of wellbeing, that is, the perceived needs and current levels of satisfactions of people, could provide valuable information for policy and decision makers. It would allow for the mapping of the envisaged impacts of policy against things that people value and care about, thus providing information about the positive and negative potential of different policy options to impact upon human welfare.

In this book, Dr Silva Larson takes us on a journey of explorations into the things that are important to people. She argues that an approach which takes into account both what people value most and how satisfied they are with the current state of affairs would assist decision makers with identifying perceived regional priorities. Further, she proposes and describes one such approach, that of using a quantitative composite value that combines both types of information, and demonstrates, using two shires in the Great Barrier Reef region of Australia as examples, how this can be done. The resulting “action lists” identify and quantify the unsatisfied needs of most importance to most people in the region, that is, factors that have high potential to improve the quality of life of residents, if restored.
",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing
2012-03-01,"Georgeta Raţă, Ionel Samfira, Diana-Andreea Boc-Sînmărghiţan and Monica Butnariu","Compendium of Forage Technical Terms in English, French and Romanian",Hardback,978-1-4438-3623-4,44.99,"This compendium is an inventory of English, French and Romanian technical terms used in the field of forages (crop residue, grasses, herbaceous legumes, silage, and tree legumes). It contains terms related to plant biology (chemical properties, development, diseases, growth, metabolism, reproduction, and structure), plant physiology (circadian rhythm, dormancy, environmental stress, hormone functions, movement, nutrition, photomorphogenesis, photoperiodism, photosynthesis, respiration, seed germination, stomata function and transpiration, and tropism), and plant cultivation (biochemistry, breeding, engineering, production, and propagation). It will appeal to agriculturists, animal breeders, professors, researchers, students, and translators from English-, French-, and Romanian-speaking nations, active in their own countries or abroad.
",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing
2012-04-01,"Filippo Arfini, Maria Cecilia Mancini and Michele Donati","Local Agri-food Systems in a Global World: Market, Social and Environmental Challenges",Hardback,978-1-4438-3664-7,39.99,"Local Agri-food Systems in a Global World: Market, Social and Environmental Challenges is an important new collection of essays making a landmark contribution to the ongoing debate on local agri-food systems, local development in rural areas and new patterns of agri-food systems. There is a new awareness of the links between local and global strategies of food production and processing, and these have become an increasingly important topic of research worldwide.

Effective analysis of the spatial dynamics of agri-food systems requires an interdisciplinary approach involving economics, geography, sociology, demographics and agronomy. Chapters cover areas such as: current spatial dynamics in agri-food systems; the socio-environmental impact of agri-food systems on rural development; the role of local resources in agri-food systems; the governance and public policies of local agri-food systems; and, last but not least, new methodological approaches to spatial dynamics of agri-food systems. The book provides an essential tool for researchers and academics in rural economics, sociology, geography and social sciences as well as policy makers.
",,Cambridge Scholars Publishing