Economics of Resources Use and Farming Systems Development in the Middle East and East Africa

This book discusses themes of food security, resources use and living standard in the Middle East and East Africa. Fifteen articles are presented in this book, discussing agricultural policies, market accesses as related to domestic food supply and international trade, management and efficiency of resources use in agriculture and the impact of the resource management on the living standard of the farming population in rural areas. The analyses deal with the current status of resources availability and use and how these resources contribute to the living standard of the farming families. Furthermore, the socio-economic and environmental impacts of the resources use are assessed to se the potentialities for sustainable resource use, and farming community and rural development. Moreover, it calls for specialization of the agricultural production based on comparative advantages by the various zones in the dry-land agriculture.
The analyses consider the different hierarchical levels and stakeholders starting from the farmer to the consumers and ending in the managerial and institutional level where decisions and policies to control the use of resources should be made. Potential future strategies on sustainability of the resources use, improving the living standard and developing the rural communities are discussed in this book. These Strategies are build upon the knowledge, perspectives and innovative capacities of farmers for finding solutions to production and resource management problems in addition to identify the best practices as a result pay users to use resources more sustainable.