Bücher der Reihe Wye Studies in Agricultural and Rural Development

A revised and expanded edition of a popular textbook on the economics of farm households in developing countries. The second edition retains the same successful features of the first with the addition of a new chapter on the environment.

From the author of the invaluable African Farm Management, this expanded textbook covers the theory and practice of economic decision-making in agriculture throughout the tropics. Written in a clear style, with an emphasis on verbal rather than mathematical description, this should be essential reading for all students of tropical agriculture.

This textbook considers the methods used by governments to change the economic and social framework within which agricultural production takes place: by influencing the prices of farm inputs and outputs, by modifying agricultural institutions, and by promoting new technologies in agriculture. Policies are discussed in detail as well as the status of women in agricultural policy.

The money invested in canal irrigation has had disappointing results. This book aims to show that the policy and practice behind the vast sums spent during the 1980s especially were based on misleading research and misdiagnosis, analyzing possible improvements in performance.

This book examines the potentials and limitations of user fees for financing irrigation operation and maintenance.

This textbook addresses the main economic principles required by agricultural economists involved in rural development. The principles of 'micro-economics' or 'price-theory' are of relevance to economists everywhere, but this book reinforces the message of their relevance for rural development by explaining the theory in the specific context of the agricultural and food sectors of developing countries. Hypothetical and actual empirical illustrations drawn almost exclusively from such countries distinguish this book from other economic principles texts that draw their examples almost invariably from industrialised countries, and also from books more oriented to the issue of rural development. The first half of the book deals with the underlying principles of production, supply and demand. These are essential tools for the study and management of the agricultural sector and food markets. In the second half, supply and demand are bought together into a chapter of equilibrium and exchange. This is followed by chapters on trade and the theory of economic welfare. In the final chapter it is shown that much of the material in the earlier chapters can be combined by agricultural economists into a system for analysing and comparing the effects of alternative agricultural policies. The ability of agricultural economics to provide a consistent framework for the analysis of policy problems thus enables it to make a key contribution to rural development.