Economic Development, Agriculture and Climate Change

Climate change (CC) is currently an unquestionable phenomenon. If not stopped, it will be catastrophic for life on earth. Scientific evidence shows that human activities are the primary driver of CC tendencies since the industrial times. In this book, we present the relationship between development and CC, with special reference to agriculture, the rural sector, and policies aimed to promote sustainable development. We also give special attention to the situation in low- and medium-income countries particularly rural households and small farmers in these countries.

The study of agriculture, CC, and sustainability requires consideration of natural resources and their uses (land, freshwater, forests, etc.), as well as the rural sector since land for agricultural production often expands at the expense of forests. In addition, the use of water for agricultural production affects the availability of this resource for other uses in the urban, industrial, and service sectors. Consequently, sustainable agricultural development under CC requires an interdisciplinary or at least a multidisciplinary approach. In this book, we do our best to deal with this challenge by focusing on issues and topics related to agriculture and its use of natural resources in the context of CC, but without ignoring the interrelations of these phenomena with further aspects of sustainability beyond agriculture.

Contents:

• Introduction
• The Framework
• Agriculture and Economic Development
• Land, Agriculture, Sustainable Development, and Climate Change
• Economic Development Models for Agriculture, Rural Areas, and Climate Change
• Trends and Perspectives: Global Warming, Land, Rural Areas, and Agriculture
• Challenges to Reduce Global Warming
• Summary, Policy Implications, Conclusion, and Final Questions

Readership: Graduate and undergraduate students in social sciences; Professionals interested in Climate Change, Agriculture, Rural Areas, and Sustainable Development; Policymakers; International institutions for development and NGOs whose mission is to promote poverty and inequality reduction and the sustainable use of natural resources: ECLA, FAO, IDB, World Bank, UNDP, Green Peace.
Key Features:

• Based on contemporary scientific literature and evidence, we relate climate change, agricultural and food production, the environment, and sustainable development
• In this book, we compare ecologists' and economists' positions on the environment and their contrasting policies aimed to reduce global warming and forests', soil's, and water's sustainable use
• Using time series data on global warming and institutional economists' contributions to democracy and power, we propose hypotheses to explain why international commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have only partially been put into practice
• This book critically reviews policy proposals to mitigate global warming that ignore the context under which rural households in low- and medium-income countries take their production decisions and natural resources use

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