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Globally, there is growing awareness of the adverse impact of chemical inputs on the soil, environment and human health. This has prompted both developed and developing countries to shift towards organic farming and organic food products. In India, traditional methods of farming were by default 'organic', with hardly any use of chemical inputs. However, concerns about ensuring food security for a large population led to the Green Revolution in the 1960s, which resulted in an increase in the use of chemical inputs to improve crop yields, leading to the same deleterious effects on soil and consumer health that developed countries had already experienced. Consequently, there has been a spurt in demand for organic food products both in developed countries as well as within India, resulting in a premium on the prices for these products. This has impelled organic food exports from India.

For those living in Singapore or Peninsular Malaysia, accustomed to having fresh chicken eggs every other morning, chances are that your breakfast comes from one of 17 million broody hens raised in the Malaysian state of Johor. If this comes as a surprise, you are probably not alone. Most recent commentaries concerning Johor's economic growth give the impression that agriculture is now a historical relic. The Iskandar Malaysia development project — accompanied by glittery real estate, oil and gas refining, complex manufacturing, mass tourism, and sophisticated healthcare offerings — now hogs the limelight. Indeed, even for field-leading scholarship on greater Malaysia's economic development, agriculture has been conspicuous by its relative absence, sidelined by an overwhelming focus on manufacturing and services. This essay represents an initial attempt to redress this imbalance. I ask two basic questions: what is left of agriculture in Johor? And why? My argument is similarly direct: although agriculture's share of Malaysian gross domestic product (GDP) and employment has fallen significantly, much remains, particularly in Johor. Amidst rapid urbanization and industrialization, agriculture's economic contribution in Johor has actually held steady and witnessed resurgence over the past decade. Johor's present-day agricultural strengths lie in oil palms, livestock farming, and certain forms of ornamental products. These agricultural activities are underlined both by high output and productivity relative to the rest of Malaysia. The clusters of trade networks and expertise underpinning these developments were already being developed in Johor prior to independence, and were given additional support from the 1960s onwards through policies linking industry with agriculture.

The report highlights both the notable progress made by the country's agricultural sector over the past two decades and the important challenges now confronting the sector: declining but still persistent food insecurity and nutrition deficiencies, large numbers of small and resource poor farms, increasing water scarcity, low productivity growth, and the uncertain impacts of climate change. In this context, the report highlights the opportunity for policymakers to rebalance their efforts moving away from complex, volatile and often competing market interventions in favour of measures that target the nutrition needs of the poor and the productive possibilities of farmers and rural residents more generally.

Given the attention to high value local food production, as well as the release of the fixed-price tenders, we conducted an economic analysis of scaling urban agri-tech farms in Singapore for leafy vegetables. The objective of this study is to determine to what extent PFAL-based commercial farming of leafy vegetables can be scaled up, by investigating both the demand and supply of locally grown leafy vegetables. The study is limited to the tendered land by AVA (first tranche, announced in May 2017, for leafy vegetable production), but can be expanded to assess the financial viability of commercial urban agriculture in other settings. Findings will be relevant to cities around the world which face the same land constraints as Singapore; ASEAN countries which share a similar culture and climate; and the local Singaporean government which has embarked on a number of initiatives to further leafy vegetable production in the country.

Needless to say, agriculture is the mainstay of most countries in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). The agricultural sector in SSA employs about 60-70% of the workforce. However, poverty is wide-spread in the sector. That is, approximately 90% of the population in absolute poverty is found in agricultural rural areas. Hence, it can be said that agriculture is directly associated with poverty and the national economy in Africa. It then follows that the amelioration of poverty needs to be preceded by the development of the agricultural sector. Indeed, it seems that a low national income occurs, ceteris paribus, in those SSA countries in which agriculture accounts for a relatively high share in the national economy. Productivity in the agricultural sector is still low in SSA and the agricultural value chain is underdeveloped. Agricultural land with access to an irrigation system is estimated to be only about 4%. In this context, it is not so surprising that a large proportion of the rural population in SSA hardly meets even the daily needs for food, let alone food security at the national level.

This Policy Insight is based on the comprehensive chapter on "TRIPs Agreement and Food Security: A Sri Lankan Perspective" in the 'Sri Lanka: State of the Economy 2017 Report' - the flagship publication of the Institute of Policy Studies of Sri Lanka.

Achieving food security is of utter importance in any nation. However, food insecurity still exists in many developing countries, with Asia home to almost 65% of the world's undernourished. This calls for urgent action. Studies that examine differences in food security performance among Asian countries are sparse. This book fills this gap by providing cross-country comparative perspectives on food security improvements. Such a study can be valuable for Asian countries to learn from each other. Country studies included in this book are Bangladesh, the People's Republic of China, Indonesia, Israel, Japan, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, the Republic of Korea, Pakistan, and Singapore. These countries share similarities but also differ in terms of their institutional settings, natural resource endowments, population size, and level of economic development. This study concludes that institutional differences are the most fundamental determinants of divergent food security status. This book will be useful reading for anyone who is interested in food security of individual Asian nations and Asia as a whole, including officials of national governments and international bodies, researchers, and university students.

While overall food security has improved remarkably in Asia in the past decades, food insecurity still prevails in many developing countries in the region. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, over 500 million Asians still suffer from hunger. Sound strategies need to be developed and actions undertaken to fight food insecurity in Asia. This report suggests that institutional differences between countries are the most fundamental determinants of their divergent food security status. The report takes a comparative approach in selected countries in Asia, focusing on the roles and effects of governmental and economic institutions on food security. These countries share similarities, but also differ in terms of their institutional settings, natural resource endowments, population size, and the level of economic development. This report will be useful reading for anyone who is interested in food security, including officials of national governments and international bodies, researchers, and university students. A more comprehensive study on the same topic is available in a book, Food Insecurity in Asia: Why Institutions Matter.

Georgia's rich agricultural tradition dates back many centuries. Agriculture has played a crucial role in the preservation of its unique history, mentality, and cultural heritage and has contributed significantly to its economic development. Georgia has favorable climatic and natural conditions for agricultural development because it boasts a variety of ecological and climatic zones favorable for the growth of numerous different crops. According to data for 2015, about 43 percent of the country is made up of agricultural land and agriculture contributed to 9.2 percent of Georgia's gross domestic product (GDP). Meanwhile, 48 percent of the added value in primary production comes from cattle breeding, and 21 percent comes from the production of fruits, nuts, and agricultural crops used to make drinks and spices. About 39 percent of the added value created in food processing comes from household-based food processing. A large proportion of agricultural production is concentrated within small-scale farming households (0.6 ha agriculture land per household). In total, employment includes both hired and self-employed people, of which 47 percent comes to agriculture industry. Agriculture is the main source of employment for the rural population because there are few alternative employment opportunities in rural areas in Georgia. However, 90 percent of those working in agriculture are self-employed. The labor force participation rate is also higher in rural areas than urban areas (75 percent versus 60 percent). The labor force participation rate is significantly different for men and women (78 percent versus 59 percent). This disparity may be explained by the high number of women operating as housewives or unpaid family workers.

One of global society's foremost structural changes underway is its rapid aggregate shift from farmbased to city-based economies. More than half of humanity now lives in urban areas, and more than two-thirds of the world's economies have a majority of their population living in urban settings.1 Much of the gradual movement from rural to urban areas is driven by long-term forces of economic progress. But one corresponding downside is that city-based societies become increasingly disconnected—certainly physically, and likely psychologically—from the practicalities of rural livelihoods, especially agriculture, the crucial economic sector that provides food to fuel humanity. The nature of agriculture is especially important when considering the tantalizingly imminent prospect of eliminating extreme poverty within a generation. The majority of the world's extremely poor people still live in rural areas, where farming is likely to play a central role in boosting average incomes. Agriculture is similarly important when considering environmental challenges like protecting biodiversity and tackling climate change. For example, agriculture and shifts in land use are responsible for roughly a quarter of greenhouse gas emissions.

The fertilizer policy in the country has evolved from pervasive interventionism in the 1970s to today's market-oriented regime. Government has abandoned price policies and subsidies, focusing rather on standard setting, quality regulation, and training. Over the same period, domestic demand for fertilizer has continually increased, though recently, resurgent fertilizer prices have reduced total utilization. Evidence suggests that farmers (at least in the case of rice) are underapplying fertilizer, forfeiting efficiency gains at the margin. On the supply side, imports have in the past few decades emerged as the main source of fertilizer, as domestic production has dwindled. With deregulation, numerous private sector players have taken over its distribution; analysis of the supply chain points to low marketing margins. Integration analysis fails to find systematic arbitrage opportunities between the domestic and world markets. Within the domestic market, however, there remain large disparities in prices across regions. Priorities for research and policy are therefore understanding the behavior of farmers in terms of fertilizer application, and addressing internal price disparities, perhaps by improved transport infrastructure and logistics.

This publication reviews the practices and policies of Internet Plus agriculture business models in the People's Republic of China (PRC). It analyzes the agriculture value chain model, rural e-commerce platform, and Internet Plus agriculture service model. The Internet Plus rural economy is an emerging driver of comprehensive development in the PRC as a new production management and marketing tool for farmers and farmers' cooperatives. Its potential is seen as a foundation for vitalizing the countryside and key to achieving agricultural modernization.

The main policy instruments of supporting Indian farms remain that of subsidising key farm inputs (such as fertilisers, power for irrigation, canal waters, agri-credit and crop insurance) on one hand, and minimum support prices (MSP) for major (23) crops, on the other. But the way MSP regime has worked, and the way trade policy has intervened through myriad controls ranging from minimum export prices to outright bans on exports, the combined effect of input subsidies and output pricing regime, captured through PSEs (producer support estimates) has been negative, a sort of implicit tax on farmers. PSE was to the tune of (-)14.4 percent of the value of gross farm receipts for the period 2000-01 to 2016-17, and minus (-) 6.4 percent for more recent triennium average of 2014-15 to 2016-17 (OECDICRIER 2018).

Despite the fact that Sri Lanka has done commendably well on most human development indicators and health indicators, the food security situation in the country has not indicted much progress over the years as depicted by the two most widely used food security indices; Global Hunger Index and Global Food Security Index. The GHI ranks Sri Lanka at 84th position among 118 countries. The GFSI shows a marginal progress in the index score from 2012 to 2016 to remain at 65th position among 113 countries and to be categorized as a moderate performer in 2016.

The report is a component of ADB's Regional Policy and Advisory Technical Assistance 8029 that was implemented as a contribution to the Global Strategy to Improve Agricultural and Rural Statistics for enhanced food security in Asia and the Pacific. The report summarizes the outcomes of the collaboration of the ADB and the implementing agencies of Bhutan, Lao People's Democratic Republic, the Philippines, and Viet Nam to address current gaps in the production of agricultural and rural statistics.