L. Joe Moffitt – författare

Economic assessment of sustainable agricultural practices has continued to mature and to add to our understanding of how we might design policies to ensure an adequate and diverse food supply. This volume presents some of the recent developments and applications in this field and is much more nearly self-contained than typical edited volumes. It provides a comprehensive treatment of topics, including a historical perspective leading to current developments in methods and policy. The introductory chapter presents an early history of research by entomologists and economists, tracing the concept of integrated pest management, the nascent organic food industry, and reviewing pesticide policy options debated over the last several decades. The remainder of the volume is divided into four sections focusing on the economic aspects of production, and related policy issues. These four sections encompass the range of advances in theoretical and applied economic analyses concerned with pesticides and sustainable food markets. Chapters present different methodological, ideological, and geographical perspectives from some of the environmental and agricultural economics concerned with pesticides and sustainable production. This volume includes unique contributions that incorporate international experiences and viewpoints concerning both methods and policy. This volume includes material valuable for students in agricultural economics and environmental science, and is essential reading for economists who conduct research in sustainable agriculture. It is also excellent reference for policy analysts.

This Blue Book of the International Network of Water and sanitation Utilities (IBNET) is designed to raise awareness of how benchmarking and specifically IBNET tools can help enhance utility performance and thereby help to improve urban water and wastewater services. As the largest public water sector performance database IBNET provides comparative information on utilities’ cost and performance indicators. IBNET set and implemented the first global benchmarking standard for the water and wastewater sector. Since its establishment in 1996, the IBNET program has grown into the largest publicly available water sector performance mechanism that collects, analyses and provides access to the information of more than 2,500 water and wastewater services providers from 110 countries around the world.IBNET serves the interests of many. Utilities can use IBNET tools to identify areas of improvement and set realistic targets; governments can use it to monitor and adjust sector policies and programs, while regulators can use it to ensure that adequate incentives are provided to improve utility performance while consumers get value for money; consumers and civil society can use it to exercise, where necessary, valid concerns about service provision; international agencies and advisers can evaluate the performance of utilities for lending and client advice; and private investors can identify opportunities and viable markets for investments.

Investments on the order of US$6 billion are estimated to be needed in the water sector in Nigeria in the next 10 years if the country is to achieve universal water supply coverage. This is the main finding of State Water Agencies in Nigeria: A Performance Assessment, in which the objective is to provide the government of Nigeria with a structured and coherent quantitative snapshot of the state of its urban water sector. The report focuses on water provision services from the States' Water Authorities or Water Boards (SWAs) as they are the major and only regulated agencies that provide water to the urban population. Sanitation provision is not addressed because the majority of SWAs do not provide this service to their customers. This report highlights the issues related to the performance of SWAs, tariffs levels and structures, financing mechanisms, and concerns with governance within the SWA and state governments. For example, due to accelerated urbanization and migration of the population to the large cities, the average coverage by SWAs is about 40 percent, and the average domestic water consumption was 26 liters per capita per day in 2013, well below the recommended average. The remaining majority of the population relies on alternative service providers. To the extent possible, the report also shows the impact of these institutional weaknesses on customers' costs, fiscal subsidies to the sector, and financing requirements that are needed to scale up the investment and showcase that the related operational and maintenance expenditure of the SWAs can actually be covered from the various financing sources. In fact, the coping costs of the population getting water from alternative water providers is assessed at US$700 million a year, and this number is growing. In addition, utilities get about US$100 million in operational subsidies that cover labour, electricity, and other operational costs. State Water Agencies in Nigeria: A Performance Assessment provides the government of Nigeria with a structured and coherent quantitative snapshot of the state of its urban water sector. Ultimately, this report is a first step toward performance benchmarking in Nigeria's water and sanitation sector. The findings summarized in this publication should eventually serve as a tool for utilities and their authorities and stakeholders, as well as for bilateral and multilateral donors in their efforts to monitor the performance and progress of each water provider and the sector as a whole.