WORLD SCIENTIFIC SERIES IN GRAND PUBLIC POLICY CHALLENGES OF THE 21ST CENTURY – serie

One of the key issues the world grappled with during COVID-19 was the distributional implications of lockdowns globally. The shadow of lockdown policies continues when nations still try to emerge out of the pandemic. Heterogeneity herein over time, country and even within nations in policy making resulted in unintended consequences and debates between citizens, scientists, policy makers and civil society. Responses to COVID-19 meanwhile tried to balance a long run approach which involved the health sector, built on an innovation-oriented mindset and kept in mind the broader economic implications of policy decisions for the future.Flattening the Curve is an effort to summarize these learnings from COVID-19, especially for future pandemics in this age of zoonotic diseases and the Anthropocene. Assembling scholars, scientists, innovators and entrepreneurs from across a variety of fields, this edited volume brings an interdisciplinary understanding to how the world can better respond socially to pandemics. It should be of immense value for students, scholars, policy makers and researchers in public policy, global health, economics, science and innovation policy, as well as regulation and business.

This book examines the current and future challenges facing the food and agricultural system and their implications for policymaking at the national and international level.The growth in global population and income is expected to result in increasing demand for food and agricultural raw materials, intensifying concerns over food security and increasing pressure on the planet's natural resources. Moreover, climate change — a challenge on its own — is likely to increase the urgency for reforms in the food and agricultural sector. As a substantial contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, the sector will need to participate in efforts to slow global warming and to adjust to the effects of climate change, while ensuring global food security and resource sustainability. These pressures define a new set of priorities for policymaking at the national and international level. They also necessitate changes in the framework of global institutions for effective governance of the food system.Global Challenges for Future Food and Agricultural Policies presents a comprehensive analysis of the inter-related policy challenges of food security, management of natural resources, climate change, and international governance. The book also offers valuable insights into options for effective policymaking with the goal of inducing positive policy changes to the food and agricultural sector.

The UN's Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) for 'Zero Hunger' has refocused attention on hunger and malnutrition as major challenges for the 21st century and as essential desired goals for human development. This volume provides key insights on how these challenges for food security can be addressed globally and in a number of countries that face these challenges most acutely.According to the World Food Summit, food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. The implication is that lack of food security would overlap with hunger — both overt and hidden — and undernutrition and would have spillover effects onto the health of and labor market performance of those affected by such insecurity. This range of issues have guided the choice of contributions to this volume. Several manifestations of these topics are covered for a number of countries in Asia and Africa.

This book features a comprehensive foresight assessment, exploring the pressures — threats as well as opportunities — on the global agriculture&food systems between now and 2050. The overarching aim is to help readers understand the context, by analyzing global trends and anticipating change for better planning and constructing pathways from the present to the future by focusing on the right questions and problems. The book contextualizes the role of international agricultural research in addressing the complex challenges posed by UN 2030 Agenda and beyond, and identifies the decisions that scientific leaders, donors and policy makers need to take today, and in the years ahead, to ensure that a global population rising to nine billion or more combined with rising incomes and changing diets can be fed sustainably and equitably, in the face of the growing climate threats.

This volume delves into the intricate challenges of food production and food security through the lens of innovation in agricultural technologies, seed systems, institutional frameworks, and human capital development. Anchored in the Agricultural Innovation System framework and the seminal contributions of Carl E Pray to food systems discourse, the volume is structured into three thematic parts comprising 15 chapters authored by leading scholars and experts. Part I explores global agricultural productivity and structural transformation for sustainable growth. It revisits the legacy of the Green Revolution, examines the complexities of diversifying beyond staple crops, and evaluates the promise and pitfalls of genetically modified and gene-edited crops. Part II focuses on the emergence and evolution of dynamic seed industries in Argentina, Brazil, India, and China — nations whose agricultural sectors are pivotal to the food security of over 3.2 billion people. The chapters investigate the drivers of innovation, institutional change, and market development in these key regions. Part III analyzes how breeding value chains are coevolving alongside modern product value chains. It highlights the role of agritech startups in emerging economies, innovative pedagogies for teaching private-sector innovation, and offers insights from China on educating the rural population and strategies to bridge the rural-urban divide. Together, these contributions provide a comprehensive and forward-looking analysis of how agricultural innovations can address pressing global challenges — food and nutritional insecurity, hunger, poverty reduction, and climate change mitigation — that are central to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.