Economics and Policy

This module is an introductory course that introduces students to a wide range of economic concepts. The module focuses on how economic systems operate to allocate resources, distribute income, and organize production through the decisions of individual economic agents such as households, firms and consumers. The module focuses on the operation of a market economy where markets determine society's production and consumption decisions by transmitting information about the plans of buyers and sellers.

In addition to expanding agricultural land area and intensifying crop yields, increasing the global trade of agricultural products is one mechanism that humanity has adopted to meet the nutritional demands of a growing population. However, climate change will affect the distribution of agricultural production and, therefore, food supply and global markets.

South Africa will require the establishment of a formal inclusive policy on sustainable agricultural practices. This will not only assist the country in avoiding further exploitation of the natural environment, but will also position agricultural extension in promoting the five pillars of sustainable agriculture. A comprehensive review using conceptual reflection presented in this paper confirms that most of the sustainable aspects are covered in both the white paper in sustainable agriculture and policy on agriculture in sustainable development.

This paper examines the political economic and governance challenges faced by African governments in operationalizing Climate-Smart Agriculture (CSA) as part of their pursuit of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). There is a need to enrich our understanding of the diverse contexts and ways in which governments will have to navigate and address the inevitable choices and conflicts, synergies and trade-offs that will characterize efforts to simultaneously implement these global goals.

Globally, there are social, economic and environmental challenges related to sustainable development; these challenges include climate change, the need to feed a rapidly increasing population, high rates of poverty and environmental degradation. These challenges have forced us to rethink the way in which development takes place, resulting in the emergence of the concept of a ‘green economy’. A green economy results in improved human well-being and social equity, while significantly reducing risks to the environment.

The study seeks to establish the relationship between foreign direct investment to Ghana’s agriculture sector and economic growth with secondary data mainly sourced from the World Development Indicator. The techniques employed to analyse the data include descriptive statistic, unit root test, Granger causality test and error correction model (ECM). The study accepted a neutrality hypothesis between foreign direct investment to the Ghanaian agricultural sector and its covariates; trade openness, capital and government expenditure. The study also revealed positive and

This lesson provides guidance of how to transform a farm into a firm. Hindering and enabling factors are expected to be explored in the lesson and strategies for overcoming challenges and seizing opportunities.

This lesson continues on from lesson 3 and should be seen as a continuation. You will need to review lesson 3 and the discussion on Economic versus Accounting Costs & Relevant Cost Analysis. In lesson 4, however, we will focus on Revenues & Measurement of

This lesson focuses on building skills and economic rationales for decision making under given farming scenarios that may have multiple options. We will spend some time looking specifically at Economic versus Accounting Costs & Relevant Cost Analysis.

This lesson covers the basic governing principles of economic thinking including the key economic questions, factors of production, efficiency and the market structure.