Feature Article

The appreciation for natural resources as a driver of economic development has undergone a dramatic change in the past decades. Although an abundance of resources was generally perceived as advantageous until the 1980s, an influential literature emerged in the 1990s that reached seemingly opposite conclusions. The phrase "natural resource curse" was coined and, perhaps because of its paradoxical connotation, caught on in both academic and policy circles.

In a recent perspective, "Food security under climate change" (1 February, P. 580), M.E. Brown and C.C. Funk conclude that improved seed, fertilizer, land use and governance lead to food security. I find these claims highly questionable. The green revolution model (monocultures of improved crops supported through high levels of agrochemical and other inputs) has done much to increase agricultural productivity. It does little, if anything, to increase food security. (Letters)

A new paper shows that regional and even global temperatures are being temporarily held down by a natural jostling of the climate system, driven in large part by vacillating ocean currents.

The inter and intra-year fluctuations in agriculture production will continue as long as agriculture depends on weather. The effect of weather on agriculture is related to location specific which directly link with the variability in local climates rather than in global climate patterns. Many scientists hold the position that agricultural shifts are likely due to climate change.

The Directorate of Economics and Statistics, MOA, GOI asked the Agro-Economic Research Centre, Vallabh Vidyanagar to undertake a study to assess the economics and other impact of Bt cotton vs. non Bt cotton using field data. Two districts namely, Rajkot and Vadodara having different agro climatic location and having notable acreage under Bt. cotton were selected purposively.

The National Sample Survey Organization notes that in 2003, marginal and small farmers constituted 90.4 per cent of all farmers in India, but held only 43.4 per cent of land. The study was undertaken in Anand district of central Gujarat during September 2007.

Human

Payments for environmental services (PES) are an innovative approach to conservation that has been applied increasingly often in both developed and developing countries. To date, however, few efforts have been made to systematically compare PES experiences.

The fuel ethanol industry has evolved from its experimental beginnings in Brazil in the 1970s and the passionate advocacy of U.S. corn growers in to the mainstream to become a key part of the global energy menu.

China's Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP) is the largest land retirement/reforestation program in the developing world, having the goal of converting 14.67 million hectares of cropland to forests by 2010 (4.4 million of which is on land with slopes greater than 25