Preface

Agricultural economics is a subject area that contains many topics of interest to society. Originally focusing on farm- and rural-level issues, over a period of time it has grown to include many facets that touch human life. This book provides a glimpse of some of these issues facing society today. It is divided into four sections. The first section contains a chapter on the genesis of agricultural economics. The field of agricultural economics started as farm-level economics; however, over time, it has added many other related areas that are relevant to humanity. Its methodology has also become more complex, from the simple cost accounting framework used initially to complex modeling now. The second section is devoted to marketing issues. Here we have one paper (Chapter 2) dealing with value chain analysis for dates in the Gulf Cooperation Countries. The third section is devoted to resource economics through two papers. The first (Chapter 3) is on water scarcity in Tunisia and its impact on Tunisian agriculture. In addition, adaptations undertaken to reduce its negative impacts are also described. The second (Chapter 4) looks at crop conservation for onions and potatoes in Burkina Faso. The last section is devoted to environment-related issues facing agriculture. The first paper in this section (Chapter 5) is on the effect of value chain-induced constraints on conservation agriculture. This type of agriculture has many environmentally friendly attributes but faces a number of constraints in its adoption. Climate change is addressed in this section (Chapter 6) by examining the impact of climate change-induced salinity in Bangladesh. This is accompanied by an assessment of local techniques for crop conservation. A growing response to global food security could be achieved through rooftop gardens, which is addressed in the last chapter (Chapter 7) as a case study for its use for Hong Kong. The willingness to pay for such activities is also examined here. The editor hopes that these contributions provide valuable information to decision makers in their respective jurisdictions.

**II**

**Chapter 6 87**

**Chapter 7 101**

Coastal Community Adaptation to Climate Change-Induced Salinity

Social Value of Urban Rooftop Farming: A Hong Kong Case Study

*by Golam Rabbani, Sirazoom Munira and Samia Saif*

Intrusion in Bangladesh

*by Ting Wang and Mathew Pryor*

**Dr. Surendra N. Kulshreshtha**

University of Saskatchewan, College of Agriculture and Bioresources, Saskatoon, Canada

**1**

Section 1

Introduction

Section 1 Introduction

**3**

the countries.

**1. Brief genesis of agricultural economics**

**Chapter 1**

Economics

agricultural economists do?"

*Surendra N. Kulshreshtha*

Introductory Chapter: Agricultural

This book was planned to undertake an assessment of some recent developments in the area of agricultural economics. Although all aspects of this subject matter were welcome, only a selected few could be included in it. The book, therefore, describes only some of the areas in which agricultural economists are engaged. Nonetheless, it still begs the question "What is agricultural economics or what do

As we know, agriculture is an important industry in most countries, because of its ability to provide the most basic necessity for human existence—food. On account of sheer growing masses of people, especially in developing countries, demand for food would increase. Associated with this would be a change in composition of diet resulting from higher income levels in most countries. As a result, even at present, in many developing countries, agricultural employment dominates, in spite of the fact that many farm workers are migrating to the non-farm locations in search of a better life. However, as a country develops economically, the relative importance of agriculture declines [1]. The primary reason for that is the Engel's Law (suggested in the nineteenth century), which is based on the fact that as consumers' purchasing power (incomes) increases, the proportion of income spent on food declines. This has been witnessed in many developed nations over the last few decades. However, one should keep in mind that although direct employment in agriculture in these countries is low, agriculture is still an important industry. This is because many of them had attained their development goals through moving labor and capital from agriculture, making it a source of economic growth. Furthermore, its importance is also indicative of current food and nutrition issues facing many of

As clear from the title—agricultural economics, the discipline grew out of two major parent disciplines—agriculture (or agronomy) and economics (study of scarcity leading to decision making by humans through use of resources). It arose in the late nineteenth century, combining the theory of the firm with marketing and organization theory, and developed throughout the twentieth century largely as an empirical branch of general economics [2]. Its popularity in the U.S.A. may also be credited to the establishment of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), which arose as a result of importance of agriculture as well as by rich data collected by the USDA, beginning in the mid-nineteenth century (based on [2], p. 2). The first professional note of agricultural economics was in 1907 where the American Economic Association (AEA), in its annual meeting, devoted a session to "What is agricultural economics?," which became a regular topic at these meetings [2]. This perhaps resulted in the creation of the American Farm Economics
