Agri Food Systems and Economics Development

Agriculture was the key development in the rise of sedentary human civilization, whereby farming of domesticated species created food surpluses that nurtured the development of civilization. The study of agriculture is known as agricultural science. Agriculture generally speaking refers to human activities, although it is also observed in certain species of ant and termite. The word agriculture is the English adaptation of Latin agricultûra, from ager, “a field”, and cultûra, “cultivation” in the strict sense of “tillage of the soil”. Thus, a literal reading of the word yields “tillage of fields”. The objective of this book is to assist students and managers understand the structure and working of agri-food marketing system, to examine how it affects agri-input companies, farmers, consumers, middlemen and other stakeholders in the food value chain.