Global projections for increasing food demand combined with increasing demand for energy from all sources – including crop-based biofuels – point towards greater stress on food systems and their supporting ecosystems. In many parts of the world, increasing household incomes has translated...

The Government of India had launched the National Biofuel Mission in the year 2003 as an initiative to limitthe country’s dependence on crude oil imports. An integral part of this mission is the Biodiesel Blendingprogram and Jatropha, a tree-borne biodiesel yielding crop, is the cornerstone of...

The Government of India had launched the National Biofuel Mission in the year 2003 as an initiative to limit the country’s dependence on crude oil imports. An integral part of this mission is the Biodiesel Blending program and Jatropha, a tree-borne biodiesel yielding crop, is the...

Global general and partial equilibrium models focused on the agricultural sector can help policy makers do ex-ante analysis by providing a variety of macro-level outcomes, such as changes in flows of international trade, and changes in the supply, demand, and prices of globally traded...

Policy planners face the challenge of formulating suitable agricultural policy by which the required growth in domestic production can be achieved. To attain effective food security policy, one needs reliable empirical knowledge about the degree of responsiveness of factor demand and output...

The primary purpose of this paper is to provide updated estimates of domestic own-price, cross-price and income elasticities of demand and estimated price elasticities of supply for various California commodities. Flexible functional forms including the Box-Cox specification and the nonlinear...

The Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) has continued to be fiercely debated between North and South, particularly with respect to its provisions for the agricultural sector. Article 27.3(b) of the TRIPS Agreement requires WTO member countries to offer some...

This paper assesses the implications of large-scale investments in biofuels for growth and income distribution. We find that biofuels investment enhances growth and poverty reduction despite some displacement of food crops by biofuels. Overall, the biofuel investment trajectory analyzed...

Vitamin A deficiency is a major health problem in Africa and in many other developing countries. Biofortified staple crops that are high in pro vitamins A and adapted to local growing environment have the potential to reduce the prevalence of vitamin A deficiency. One such example is the...