This book assesses recent developments in the analysis of agricultural policy and water resource management, and highlights the utility and theoretical rigor of quantitative methods for modeling agricultural production, market dynamics, and natural resource management. In diverse case studies of the intersection between agriculture, environmental quality and natural resource sustainability, the authors analyze economic behavior - both at aggregate as well as at individual agent-level - in order to highlight the practical implications for decision-markers dealing with environmental and agricultural policy. The volume also addresses the challenges of doing robust analysis with limited data, and discusses the appropriate empirical approaches that can be employed.
The studies in this book were inspired by the work of Richard E. Howitt, Emeritus Professor of Agricultural Economics at the University of California at Davis, USA, whose career has focused on the applicationof robust empirical methods to address concrete policy problems.
Siwa Msangi is a private consultant in Silver Spring, MD, USA. Previously, he was a Senior Research Fellow in the Environment and Production Technology Division of the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) under IFPRI's Natural Resource Management research theme until 2018. Siwa’s research at IFPRI focused on the major socio-economic and bio-physical drivers affecting agricultural production systems, and their impacts on trade, nutrition, poverty and the environment. He led project-specific work on the sustainable intensification of agriculture and the complex interactions between agriculture and energy. While his broader research background in natural resource management focuses on surface and groundwater management policies, his most recent research centers on livestock and aquatic production systems, and their interaction with the environment.
Duncan MacEwan specializes in water resources, agriculture, mathematical modeling, andstatistical analysis. He enjoys collaborating with interdisciplinary project teams and has extensive experience working with clients to estimate local and regional economic impacts, in addition to applying federal planning principles and water project evaluation guidelines. He is an expert on regional economic modeling and a primary collaborator on the development of the Statewide Agricultural Production Model (SWAP). He has assisted both federal and state agencies in implementing the SWAP model for large-scale project planning and impact analysis, in addition to assisting with benefit-cost analyses, EIR/EIS preparation, and project evaluation. His current project interests include integrated groundwater and economic modeling to evaluate the economic costs and benefits of implementing California's Sustainable Groundwater Management Act.
