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Financial literacy can affect well-being. This chapter aims to assess financial literacy of farmers in Khon Kaen, Thailand. The chapter investigates the relationship between it and the well-being of farmers. Data were collected from 354 farmers in the northeast of Thailand. The analysis adopts descriptive statistics and inferential statistics to test the Least Significant Difference as well as using multiple regression analysis. The results show that financial attitudes had a positive influence on the well-being of farmers, while financial behavior had a negative influence. Financial literacy influences the well-being of farmers differently, depending on personal characteristics such as education level, gender and monthly income.

This study uses the social relations framework to explore gender norms and relations surrounding banana production and banana bunchy top disease (BBTD) containment in six pilot communities in Cameroon and Nigeria. The objective of the study is to understand how gender norms and relations shape and influence access to information and benefit-sharing of productive resources among men and women banana farmers and implications for banana production recovery in the BBTD-affected regions and disease management.

Twelve, sex-disaggregated focus group discussions with 120 farmers (78 women and 42 men banana farmers) and 24 key informants were conducted. Data on banana production, access to and decision-making rights over productive resources and social and gender norms influencing adoption were collected. Data were analyzed using a systematic content analysis approach. Results show inequalities stemming from inherent gender and social norms related to access to and decision making over productive resources limiting especially women farmers’ ability to effectively engage in training programs that could lead to adoption of recommendations and technologies. Opportunities to effectively participate in training activities were influenced by gender norms related to household decision making, gender-based labor division and multiple household tasks.

Interventions and strategies to contain the spread of BBTD should consider gender-based constraints and opportunities embedded in the communities for optimal results. Social and gender differentiations that impede women should be addressed for inclusive participation. Failure to address harmful norms and gender differentiation in the underlying social structures will benefit one group of people in the community over another.

Building on the content of papers of this volume, this final section asks the key question of whether, after prolonged discussions undertaken for almost half of the century by major world-scale institutions and numerous governments, gender equality is found in todays’ countries, communities, and families across the world. It attempts to delineate whether some researchers are correct stating that great gender equality across the world was achieved since the 1970s at job opportunities, family relations, education, and social position of women in comparison to men. Or whether others are correct showing that women contribute significantly more time to working hours and perform more societal duties while spending less time on rest than men. Finally, whether governments and policy makers created gender-sensitive policies and programs that aim at enhancement and protection of women’s rights, economic empowerment and improvement of women’s well-being, and hence citizens of the global world embrace gender equality in everyday practices. In conclusion, we propose potential policies that could build a better, more equal world for future generations.

It is generally believed that the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Act (SHTA) of 1930 was an electoral response on the part of the Republican Party to Midwestern farmers’ concerns in the 1928 general election which via the legislative process (pork-barreling and log-rolling) was transformed into a generalized upwards tariff revision. There are, however, problems with this view, not the least of which is the fact that the farmers themselves were well aware of the fact that higher tariffs would not improve their lot, and hence favored the price support/equalization measures found in the Haugen–McNary Farm Relief Bill. This paper presents an alternative explanation. Specifically, it is argued that the SHTA had its origins in manufacturing states where the demand for a comprehensive upward revision of tariffs was transformed via the electoral process – and not the legislative process – into an omnibus upward tariff revision that included agriculture. The omnibus nature of the bill, it is argued, was intended as both (i) an electoral strategy and (ii) a hedge against near-certain revolt in rural America over anticipated higher prices for manufactures. We show that while successful electorally (i.e., in the 1928 presidential election), the Smoot–Hawley Tariff Bill fell apart in the legislature in the summer of 1929 when 13 Insurgent Republicans broke with the party to vote with the Democrats to lower tariffs on manufactures.

Purpose – The globally controversial genetically modified (GM) cotton has been adopted widely by Indian farmers. Claiming the adoption to be a success of the GM technology, the GM proponents call for a large-scale introduction of GM crops in Indian agriculture. Opposition to GM crops is largely constructed in terms of the environmental risks that GM technologies pose to crop and forest biodiversity. This chapter examines the economic and political context in which these seeds were adopted to see if adequate support mechanisms were available to farmers to facilitate adoption of the new technology.

Design/methodology/approach – A field study was conducted in Vidharbha, Eastern Maharashtra. In addition, government reports and newspaper articles were reviewed and interviews were conducted in Maharashtra and Delhi.

Findings – This chapetr finds that the problems faced by farmers are much deeper than what technology can solve or which have been addressed in the GM debate. Cotton farmers face persistent problems in the agricultural production process that increase their production costs. A spate of farmer's suicides in Vidharbha and other rain-fed regions of India epitomizes the dire conditions farmers are in. This chapter asserts that state-supported policies transformed India from a food importing to a food surplus country in the 1960s during the green revolution. However, GM cotton has been introduced without a supportive infrastructure for technology transfer in Maharashtra and most cotton-growing states. The lack of support makes the gain of cotton farmers in Vidharbha from the new technology highly uncertain.

Originality/value – This analysis shows the need to examine the role of government programs in helping farmers implement technological advances in agriculture.

Based on the data from “Thousand village surveys” project of Shanghai University of Finance and Economics, we employ the ordered logistic method to do the empirical analysis on consumption, life and satisfaction (subjective well-being) of Chinese rural elderly. First, the result shows that the consumption (exclude medical expenses) has positive effect on the satisfaction of Chinese rural elderly, while the rural elderly are not preferred to compare with others. Good participation in social life and medical care condition could enhance the satisfaction of rural elderly. Second, the authors divided the sample into two groups as high-consumption group and low-consumption group. The result shows that the low-consumption group more tend to rely on their family members than high-consumption group. The authors suggest that in order to improve the rural elderly life satisfaction, the government needs to improve medical care system.

The secondary analysis of the European Union Statistics on Income and Living Conditions (EU-SILC) is used to examine inequality in the United Kingdom compared with other European Union (EU) countries and to analyse how inequality has changed over the period from the start of the great financial crisis in 2008–2015. The analysis compares inequality in market income, gross income and disposable incomes, and measured inequality using the Gini coefficient, 80/20 and 90/10 ratios. It includes an analysis of the impact of cash benefits and direct taxes on market income and how the composition of households in different parts of the income distribution has changed over time. In addition, inequality within the EU is explored. The chapter concludes with a discussion of what contribution the EU itself through its own institutions and policies plays in mitigating market inequalities. We find that the distribution of market income in the United Kingdom is comparatively unequal, but the UK’s relative position on disposable income is greatly improved, due to an effective system of direct taxes and transfers. The conclusions remain broadly similar for all the inequality indices that are considered. There is evidence that households with children have moved down the distribution between 2008 and 2014 and aged households have moved up the distribution in most EU countries including the United Kingdom. The chapter concludes that EU policies have relatively little impact on inequality and that inequalities can really only be tackled using national redistributive policies.

Achieving Sustainable Developments Goals (SDGs) is main agenda of any democratic government. The demand for needs of the society is increasing day by day due to increasing globalization and rapid transformation in all spheres of the society, and as a result, agriculture has shifted from a situation where food is primarily considered as a national concern with high self-sufficiency goals to a situation, where food can be traded subject to high degree of vertical integration of value chain. This study attempts to examine first, how far the state Tripura has developed toward to achieving its SDGs; so that Central dependency of the state would be reduced; second, the impact of globalization on its sustainable development; and, third, the possibility of development in different sectors of the economy toward fulfilling the SDGs through globalization. It observes that the state is in the take-off stage; it needs to go long way to make it developed. The state has lot of potentialities for its sustainable development.

Since Greece became a member of the EU and after the implementation of plethora of structural funds programs regarding the agricultural sector, the situation has remained more or less the same as far as the structural characteristics of the agricultural sector is concerned.

The agricultural sector in Greece accounts for €6.67 billion and contributes 4.3% to the total GVA which is double compared with the average European one (1.6%). The Agricultural Factor income per annual work unit (AWU) has reached 94% of the EU average. During the economic crisis (2009–2013) the value of this index decreased 22% while in the next years an upward trend followed and in 2019 reached the same level as before the economic crisis. During the period 2005–2018, productivity in Greece showed moderate and negative TFP growth numbers while in the same period, the TFP growth was stronger in the EU presenting an increase of 10%. The trade balance of agri-food products in Greece is negative, although recently this trade deficit has been reduced following an improvement in the agri-food sector's export performance. The value of agri-food products exports amount to €6.04 billion, which are the third largest category of exported goods. Also, the value of exports of manufactured products rose 70% during the period 2009–2019 against the exports of commodities, which also rose with a lower rate (25%), something that it is positive for the Greek economy, given the higher added value of manufactured products. Under the current Common Agricultural Policy Action Plan (2014–2020), Greece has a guaranteed flow of around €20 billion for direct support of agricultural income through direct payments (Pillar I) and has earmarked €15 billion and the remaining €5 billion under the Rural Development Program, (Pillar II). However, the direct payments are not allocated fairly.

The COVID-19 pandemic crisis hit the entire Greek economy and the agri-food sector which has just recovered from the recent economic crisis. However, during this crisis, the Greek agro-food chain has demonstrated great resilience to guarantee the supply of food to consumers. In the era of COVID-19, the key factors that can be employed by agri-food industry as a strategy for penetrating in global markets, are (1) Focus on developed markets, (2) Marketing in branded form (not bulk), and ideally emphasis on the uniqueness of the raw material, and (3) Sufficient volume of products to gain a leading share in the premium segment of the market. In addition, knowledge and innovation have a key role to play in helping farmers and rural communities meet future challenges. Finally, the only way in order to achieve economies of scale in the agri-food sector is to increase the level of cooperation at all levels by any available means.

Food movements and organizations are increasingly complementing their longstanding emphasis on environment with a focus on social justice. This conceptual chapter discusses dimensions in which engagements in this arena diverge and converge along a continuum from neoliberalization to opposition/structural change. Categories and visions of social justice vary widely, highlighting certain social categories and locations while eliding others. Gender, in particular, is a social category that is a key factor in the allocation of power and privilege, but that has not been significantly addressed in efforts toward social justice in most food movements.

The topics and categories movements consider most important determine their assignments of energies. These assignments in turn create common understandings of priorities and mechanisms for changing the food system, although they may omit consideration of key axes of oppression. For example, strategic preferences for family farms and food-system localization may not consider legacies and contemporary practices of enslavement, exploitation, and patriarchy.

As movements increase their focus on social justice, they can engage in critical reflection and dialogue to interrogate the nature of conditions of injustice and the causes behind these conditions. This would include examining how practices and discourses of racism, classism, and sexism – along with the ways they intersect – have shaped, reflect, and reproduce the food system. This process must privilege the participation, perspectives, and priorities of those who suffer from injustice. It can then best illuminate strategic definitions and pathways that can move toward transformation of a food system grounded in conditions of social justice.