This book showcases the power of economic principles to explain and predict issues and current events in the food, agricultural, agribusiness, international trade, natural resources and other sectors. The result is an agricultural economics textbook that provides students and instructors with a clear, up-to-date, and straightforward approach to learning how a market-based economy functions, and how to use simple economic principles for improved decision making. While the primary focus of the book is on microeconomic aspects, agricultural economics has expanded over recent decades to include issues of macroeconomics, international trade, agribusiness, environmental economics, natural resources, and international development. Hence, these topics are also provided with significant coverage.

This textbook integrates financial economics and management in the area of agricultural finance. The presentation of financial economics discusses how the credit needs of farmer/borrowers are met by depositors through commercial banks. The financial management content presents methods used to make farm financial decisions including farm accounting, capital budgeting, and the analysis of risk. The textbook begins by developing the farm financial market focusing primarily on the market for debt. Next, the textbook presents an overview of accounting concepts important for the credit market. The accounting section provides a detailed discussion of the Farm Financial Standards Council’s suggestions for agricultural financial statements. Following the financial accounting, the book presents the use of ratio analysis applied to the farm firm. Next, the text describes capital budgeting followed by an introduction to risk analysis. Finally, the book presents the effect of debt decisions on the farm firm. In addition to the primary topics, the textbook includes a discussion of agricultural banking and monetary policy and an analysis of the choice of historical cost and market valued accounting methodologies on the farm debt decision.

`This is a "must read" for anyone interested in value chain finance.---Kenneth Shwedel, Agricultural Economist --Book Jacket.

Principles of Agricultural Economics, now in its second edition, showcases the power of economic principles to explain and predict issues and current events in the food, agricultural, agribusiness, international trade, natural resource and other sectors. The field of agricultural economics has expanded to include a wide range of important and interesting topics, including macroeconomics, international trade, agribusiness, environmental economics, natural resources, and international development. For this new edition, the text has been updated throughout with a new chapter on policy, separate chapters for supply and demand, and increased coverage of key topics and approaches including finance, trade and behavioural economics. Readers will also benefit from an expanded range of case studies which demonstrate real world examples of the principles under discussion. These include obesity, alternative fuels, trade disputes, and animal welfare. The companion website provides students and instructors with extra material in order to enhance their learning and further their understanding of agricultural economics. This book introduces economic principles in a succinct and reader-friendly format, providing students and instructors with a clear, up-to-date, and straightforward approach to learning how a market-based economy functions, and how to use simple economic principles for improved decision making. The principles are applied to timely, interesting, and important real-world issues through words, graphs, and simple algebra. This book is for students who study agricultural economics, microeconomics, rural development and environmental policy.