Policy Issues And Options In Aquatic Food Systems

Although policies can be critical constraining or enabling factors for aquatic food systems (AqFS) development, scarce evaluation of the impacts of existing policies means that decision-makers have limited understanding of how to improve the design and implementation of effective policies. This paper reviews key policy issues in AqFS and how they have been analyzed and assessed to provide context-tailored policy options and guidance. Our review shows that countries face many policy issues but have little analysis on them. Despite the availability of a wide variety of frameworks, concepts, tools, methods, and approaches, their application in empirical analysis to solve policy issues in AqFS has been limited. More research is available on local- and community-level governance of fisheries, but less on national or subnational policies and regulations in AqFS. The few available policy studies focus on developed countries, with fewer applications in developing countries where growth of the aquaculture and fisheries sectors is much stronger. The studies provide useful policy options and guidance, and this review highlights the need for more such studies to address policy-related issues in the sector.

Despite technological advances in agriculture, nearly a billion people around the world still suffer from hunger and poor nutrition while a billion are overweight or obese. This imbalance highlights the need not only to focus on food production but also to implement successful food policies. In this new textbook intended to be used with the three volumes of Case Studies in Food Policy for Developing Countries (also from Cornell), the 2001 World Food Prize laureate Per Pinstrup-Andersen and his colleague Derrill D. Watson II analyze international food policies and discuss how such policies can and must address the many complex challenges that lie ahead in view of continued poverty, globalization, climate change, food price volatility, natural resource degradation, demographic and dietary transitions, and increasing interests in local and organic food production. Food Policy for Developing Countries offers a "social entrepreneurship" approach to food policy analysis. Calling on a wide variety of disciplines including economics, nutrition, sociology, anthropology, environmental science, medicine, and geography, the authors show how all elements in the food system function together.

The food problems now facing the world—scarcity and starvation, contamination and illness, overabundance and obesity—are both diverse and complex. What are their causes? How severe are they? Why do they persist? What are the solutions? In three volumes that serve as valuable teaching tools and have been designed to complement the textbook Food Policy for Developing Countries by Per Pinstrup-Andersen and Derrill D. Watson II, they call upon the wisdom of disciplines including economics, nutrition, sociology, anthropology, environmental science, medicine, and geography to create a holistic picture of the state of the world's food systems today. Volume I of the Case Studies addresses policies related to health, nutrition, food consumption, and poverty.

The water policy issues are well- documented in a large set of reports and studies, completed over time showing that the policy prescription and its implementation has been weak in the past as this book reveals. The key reforms initiated were lost due to a lack of government’s will and commitment and more so by pervasive political economy of water. Given this background, each chapter in the book follows a balanced approach in seeking and evaluating alternate solutions to water management issues, especially improvements in water governance and tackling new challenges emerging from the climate change in the short and long term. This approach underpins the importance of moving from the culture of piloting projects to actual implementation on an impact-oriented scale. The book would also highlight that most of the water solutions lie outside the water sector such as agriculture, population, economy, etc. Post COVID-19 policies are exploring new food-health nexus that calls for nature based solutions for our future agriculture growth. The book would show case pioneer work underway in Pakistan on how new policy discourse can reduce water use in agriculture without investing in expensive water technology and infrastructure, thus saving enough water for other competing purposes.

This book focuses on irrigation sources together with water management for agricultural development in Uttar Pradesh state of India. Being the most populous state of the country, it bears a burden of feeding about 199 million people of which major section relies on agriculture for their subsistence. This study makes comparison in the growth trends in the irrigated area, crop land use patterns and crop productivity at the district level in different periods of time. The book emphasizes on irrigation water management to optimize crop yields in order to increase Water Productivity of crops in low productivity regions of the state applying suitable technology. This book appeals to researchers and students in geography and planning working on the topics of agriculture as well as irrigation and water management aspects.

Managing water resources is one of the most pressing challenges of our times - fundamental to how we feed 2 billion more people in coming decades, eliminate poverty, and reverse ecosystem degradation. This Comprehensive Assessment of Water Management in Agriculture, involving more than 700 leading specialists, evaluates current thinking on water and its interplay with agriculture to help chart the way forward. It offers actions for water management and water policy - to ensure more equitable and effective use.This assessment describes key water-food-environment trends that influence our lives today and uses scenarios to explore the consequences of a range of potential investments. It aims to inform investors and policymakers about water and food choices in light of such crucial influences as poverty, ecosystems, governance, and productivity. It covers rainfed agriculture, irrigation, groundwater, marginal-quality water, fisheries, livestock, rice, land, and river basins. Ample tables, graphs, and references make this an invaluable work for practitioners, academics, researchers, and policymakers in water management, agriculture, conservation, and development.Published with IWMI.

This illustrated report sets out a global review of the state of the world's freshwater resources, based on the collective work of 24 United Nations agencies, following on from the conclusions of the first UN World Water Development Report 'Water for People, Water for Life' published in 2003 (ISBN 9231038818). This second edition discusses progress towards the water-related targets of the UN Millennium Development Goals and examines a range of key issues including population growth and increasing urbanisation, changing ecosystems, food production, health, industry and energy, as well as risk management, valuing and paying for water and increasing knowledge and capacity. It contains 16 case studies which consider key challenges in water resource management and makes a number of recommendations to guide future action and encourage sustainable use, productivity and management of our increasingly scarce freshwater resources.