Risk and uncertainty are inescapable factors in agriculture which require careful management. Farmers face production risks from the weather, crop and livestock performance, and pests and diseases, as well as institutional, personal and business risks. This revised third edition of the popular textbook includes updated chapters on theory and methods and contains a new chapter discussing the state-contingent approach to the analysis of production and the use of copulas to better model stochastic dependency. Aiming to introduce agricultural decision making, probability and risk preference, this book is an indispensable guide for students and researchers of agriculture and agribusiness management.

Risk and uncertainty are inescapable factors in agriculture which require careful management. Farmers face production risks from the weather, crop and livestock performance, and pests and diseases, as well as institutional, personal and business risks. This revised third edition of the popular textbook includes updated chapters on theory and methods and contains a new chapter discussing the state-contingent approach to the analysis of production and the use of copulas to better model stochastic dependency. Aiming to introduce agricultural decision making, probability and risk preference, this.

The purpose of the first edition of the book, published in 1997, was to contribute to improved agricultural decision making by explaining what can be done in risk analysis and management. Since 1997 progress has been made in risk analysis in agriculture. The material covered in this second edition has been restructured and most of the 1997 text has been revised. Topics that are more thoroughly dealt with in this edition include: assessing and quantifying the degree of risk aversion of a decision maker; judging how important risk aversion is likely to be in particular circumstances; an improved approach for partially ordering risky stochastic distributions when the decision maker's attitude to risk is not fully known; stochastic simulation and its combination with optimization for the analysis of risky choice; and risk considerations in agricultural policy making. The book is written for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students of agricultural economics and farm management, as well as advisers to farmers and agricultural research workers. It has 13 chapters and a subject index.

The book addresses and documents farmers' risks in developing and emerging economies. It draws lessons from experimental economics on measuring risk preferences, attitudes, gender differences in managing risks, and risk management strategies in countries across Africa and Asia. It argues policy makers, especially in emerging economies, need a better understanding of farmers' attitudes toward risk and choices of risk management strategies when designing policies to support production agriculture. The book includes chapters on three themes: understanding risk attitudes and preferences; using experimental economics to measure risk, preferences, and risk management strategies; and understanding climate change, risk, and risk management. The book critically examines the currently held beliefs about risk preference, attitudes, and empirical estimation of risk management strategies, emphasizing developing and emerging economies (DEE). This book is ideal for students and researchers in universities and research organizations who conduct applied research on public policy, community development, and rural development, and will also be of interest to policy-makers in those fields.