Since China's economic reform in the late 1970s, Shanghai, the country's largest and most modern city, has experienced rapid expansion and urbanization. Here, we explore its landâuse and landâcover changes, focusing on the impacts of the urbanization process on air and water…
The development of land rental markets can enhance agricultural productivity and equity by facilitating transfers of land to more productive farmers and facilitating the participation in the non-farm economy of less productive farmers. In recent years there has been a rapid increase in the…
The North China Plain is the country's granary: most of wheat and maize is supplied by this region in the northeast of China. Intensity of agricultural production has risen sharply in the last decades and the negative environmental effects like water scarcity, salinization and nitrate…
Notwithstanding the ambiguous research and productivity promoting effects of plant variety protections (PVPs) even in developed countries, many developing countries have adopted PVPs in the past few years, in part to comply with their Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS…
In the second half of the last century, both India and China have undergone major transitions and have moved to more liberalized economies. This paper relates the observed patterns in regional inequality to major events during this period. Because of China’s institutional barriers to migration,…
Land cover changes affect ecological landscape spatial pattern, and evolving landscape patterns inevitably cause an evolution in ecosystem functionality. Various ecological landscape variables, such as biological productivity (plant biomass and stock capacity), soil nutrients (organic matter and…
Recurring water crises, global water initiatives, and demands for water reforms by development banks, have all pushed water up the agenda of most Mekong-region countries. Many changes have already been made. Now decision makers need to know what has worked, what hasn?t, and why. To find out,…
The present water report is the final product emanating from efforts by FAO, IWMI and others to document and understand the implications of the irrigation sector embarking on a wide reform process. It is intended to be a knowledge synthesis document that captures the global experiences…
This first edition of ROA Policy Brief is designed to clarify the roles of economic valuation of the external impacts from agriculture in policy-making, by resolving misunderstanding and confusion pertaining to existing valuation studies.
The study conducted by FAO and partners in South and Southeast Asia was based on an analysis of forest tenure according to two variables: the type of ownership, and the level of control of and access to resources. It aimed to take into account the complex combination of forest ownership −…