LibGuides: Agricultural Business: Agricultural Business Resources

Agricultural Industry Data & Statistics

The Data and Statistics guide is a great resource for all things data and statistics, including Canadian and International Data, Geospatial data and lots of exercises and tutorials.

The Business Research guide has information on company and industry data and statistics.

Agricultural Organizations (Nova Scotia New Farmer)
Visit the websites of relevant agricultural organizations to look for industry reports and information (not all organizations will have this info available). Nova Scotia New Farmers has an extensive list of regional and national organizations on their website.
Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada: Sector Data market information and economic analysis
Reports on markets, data, trends and trade analysis, economic reporting, research results, and sector intelligence.
Canadian Industry Statistics
Canadian Industry Statistics (CIS) analyses industry data on many economic indicators using the most recent data from Statistics Canada. CIS looks at industry trends and financial information, such as GDP, Labour Productivity, Manufacturing and Trade data.

Country Reports: EIU The Economist Intelligence Unit This link opens in a new window
Provides in-depth economic, political and business analysis and short-term market outlooks for almost 200 countries. Each report examines the political scene, economic policies and development plans, domestic economy, trends in production and demand, monetary and fiscal conditions, wages and prices, sectoral trends, foreign trade, capital flows, exchange rates and foreign debt, and also reports on national, regional and global events that affect business in the short to medium term. Detailed two-year forecasts complement the analysis and pinpoint political and economic developments and trends.

Data Commons
Data Commons is an initiative from Google to organize the world's publicly available data and make it more accessible and useful.

FAOSTAT This link opens in a new window
An on-line and multilingual database currently containing over 1 million time-series records covering international statistics in the following areas: Production, Trade, Food Balance Sheets, Food Aid Shipments, Fertilizer and Pesticides, Land Use and Irrigation, Forest Products, Fishery Products, Population, and Agricultural Machinery.
MarketLine Advantage This link opens in a new window
Resources cover company, country, industry and product intelligence as well as business strategies and news and opinion. . Changed name from Datamonitor360 to MarketLine Advantage approx. Apr. 2012.

Statistics Canada
Statistics Canada is the national statistical office. The agency ensures Canadians have the key information on Canada's economy, society and environment that they require to function effectively as citizens and decision makers.
Statistics Canada: Census of Agriculture
A comprehensive profile of the physical, economic, social and environmental characteristics of Canada's agriculture industry, conducted every five years. This provides a snapshot in time of agriculture in Canada and is useful for tracking trends over time.
Statistics Canada: Data Tables
When searching or browsing, think broadly - if you are looking for “apples”, the data may be in a table listed “fruit”.
“Add/Remove data” to see more options
Read the notes on the tables.
Citation information included.

Supplementary Agriculture and Food Statistics Sources
Dalhousie Data Librarian, Julie Marcoux, and Agriculture Librarian, Erin MacPherson, put together this very helpful list of sources for Canadian data/statistics about agriculture, food, and nutrition.

Agricultural Business Databases

Find Agricultural Business related-articles by searching some the following databases:

ABI/INFORM Collection This link opens in a new window
Subscription now includes ABI/Inform Global, ABI/Dateline and ABI/Trade & Industry. *Key database for Business Management* Indexes and abstracts 1000+ journals and provides full-text for 500+ management, marketing and business journals
Burleigh Dodds Agriculture Ebook Collection This link opens in a new window
This collection currently includes 1,900+ chapters on crops, livestock and forestry. Focusing on key steps in the value chain, from breeding to harvest/slaughter, as well sustainable management of boreal/temperate and tropical forests, grassland and pasture management. New chapters are added regularly.
Business Source Complete This link opens in a new window
"Business Source Complete ... [provides] full text for over 10,000 scholarly business journals and other sources, including full text for more than 1,150 peer-reviewed business publications. Coverage includes virtually all subject areas related to business. This database provides full text (PDF) for more than 350 of the top scholarly journals dating as far back as 1922.
CABI Compendium This link opens in a new window
CABI Compendium includes images, maps, and diagnostic and decision support tools such as The Horizon Scanning Tool, Pest Risk Analysis Tool, and a new addition - the Invasive Species Discovery Tool. Use it to search all CABI Compendia datasheets, including: Animal Health and Production, Aquaculture, Crop Protection, Forestry, Horticulture and Invasive Species.
CBCA complete This link opens in a new window
Canadian Business & Current Affairs™ (CBCA) Complete is the nation's largest and most comprehensive bibliographic full-text reference and current events database. Available through the ProQuest® Web interface, CBCA Complete combines full text and indexed content from all four CBCA database subsets (Business, Current Events, Education, and Reference). Subject coverage is comprehensive and information is available from the broadest range of Canadian sources anywhere. With over 4.5 million records and more than 1,600 titles, CBCA Complete is ideal for anyone interested in current events, business, science, the arts, and academic information as produced in Canada. CBCA Complete combines high-quality indexing with direct access to full-text articles. This includes over 540 periodicals and daily news sources (over 480 of which are Canadian), plus indexing to an additional 1,100 other titles (over 95% Canadian).
Econlit This link opens in a new window
The American Economic Association’s electronic bibliography, EconLit, indexes over 120 years of economics literature from around the world. Compiled and abstracted in an easily searchable format, EconLit is a comprehensive index of journal articles, books, book reviews, collective volume articles, working papers and dissertations. Now with full text access.

Federal Open Science Repository of Canada
he Federal Open Science Repository of Canada provides public, web-based access to federally authored scientific articles and publications from participating science-based departments and agencies.

MarketLine Advantage This link opens in a new window
Resources cover company, country, industry and product intelligence as well as business strategies and news and opinion. . Changed name from Datamonitor360 to MarketLine Advantage approx. Apr. 2012.
Mergent online This link opens in a new window
Global business and financial information. Included are: U.S. Company Data, U.S. Annual Reports, International Company Data, and International Annual Reports. Fully integrated into these are Real-time EDGAR filings and Real-time News. Requires Netscape 6.0+.
Our license specifies that only 4 users may use it at a time. If you are unable to gain access, the license user limit may have been exceeded, please wait a few minutes and try connecting again.
ScienceDirect This link opens in a new window
Collection of over 2200 full text journals covering Agriculture, Astronomy, Biology, Chemistry, Computer Science, Economics, Finance, Energy, Engineering, Environmental Science,Health Sciences, Immunology, Materials Science, Mathematics, Neuroscience, Pharmacology, Physics, Psychology and the Social Sciences. Search across all journals or subsets of journals, abstracts, databases, and reference works. Dalhousie users may register for free "alerts" services and other customizable options. Also included in ScienceDirect are over 500 full text books.
Sustainable Development Goals Online This link opens in a new window
Sustainable Development Goals Online (SDGO) is an interdisciplinary collection of digital content, including Taylor & Francis’ books and journals across all disciplines, themed around the SDGs. SDGO includes more than 12,000 selected articles and chapters in an online library covering the 17 SDGs, plus teaching and learning materials (presentations, videos, case studies, teaching guides, and lesson plans). It was created in partnership with United Nations agencies and guided by an international Advisory Board comprised of academics, policy-makers, government, NGOs and more. It has major updates twice yearly in April and September.

You can access the full selection of databases related to agricultural business through Dalhousie Libraries by visiting the A-Z list.

The following databases contain material from a variety of disciplines and may contain relevant information not found elsewhere:

Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
Comprehensive academic multi-disciplinary database, Academic Search Premier provides full text for nearly 4,650 serials, including full text for more than 3,600 peer-reviewed titles. PDF backfiles to 1975 or further are available for well over one hundred journals, and searchable cited references are provided for more than 1,000 titles. This database is updated on a daily basis
EBSCOhost Databases This link opens in a new window
Provides access to many databases purchased from EBSCO including: Academic Search Premier, America: History & Life, Business Source Complete, CINAHL, EconLit, Film & Television Literature Index, Gender Studies, GreenFILE, Historical Abstracts, International Bibliography of Theatre & Dance, Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts, PsycARTICLES, PsycINFO, RILM Abstracts of Music Literature, and SPORTDiscus.
Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Search for academic sources using the Google search engine.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Dalhousie subscribes to JSTOR's Arts and Sciences I-VII, Business, Ecology and Botany, Language and Literature, and Life Sciences collections. These databases cover hundreds of journal title backfiles from 41 academic disciplines. It is a unique digital archive of journals, starting with the very first issues. The collection covers material from the 1800s up to a 'moving wall' of between zero and 8 years before current publication.
ProQuest Central This link opens in a new window
ProQuest Central is the largest, multidisciplinary, full-text database available in the market today. This resource provides access to 47 of ProQuest's complete databases, with a variety of content types across over 175 subjects, making this the broadest single research resource in the world
Scopus This link opens in a new window
Scopus is one of the largest abstract and citation databases of peer-reviewed literature: scientific journals, books and conference proceedings. Delivering a comprehensive overview of the world's research output in the fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and arts and humanities, Scopus features smart tools to track, analyze and visualize research.

Agricultural Business Journals

This section contains a small selection of journals that may have agricultural business-related content of interest:

Books/eBooks

Most of the MacRae Library's print collection is located on the basement level of the Library. Materials are organized using the Library of Congress Classification System.

You'll find the agricultural business section in the following call number areas:

H: Social Sciences
HA: Statistics
HB: Economic theory. Demography
HC: Economic history and conditions
HD: Industries. Land use. Labor
HE: Transportation and communications
HF: Commerce (includes marketing, trade, business and so on).
HG: Finance
HJ: Public finance

And you may find additional materials in this section:

S560-571.5: Farm economics. Farm management. Agricultural mathematics Including production standards, record keeping, farmwork rates, marketing

You can also request books from other Novanet libraries, see the videos below for more information:

Here are some featured selections from our print book collection (find more by searching in Novanet):

Agribusiness Management by Freddie L. Barnard; John C. Foltz; Elizabeth A. Yeager; Brady Brewer
Call Number: DAL MacRae General Loan ; HD 9000.5 B323 2021
ISBN: 9780367341947
Publication Date: 2020
"This sixth edition of Agribusiness Management provides students and managers with a fundamental understanding of the key concepts needed to successfully manage agribusinesses in a rapidly changing, high-tech, consumer-oriented, and uncertain world. The text uses four specific approaches to help readers develop and enhance their capabilities as agribusiness managers. First, it offers a contemporary focus that reflects the issues that agribusiness managers face today and are likely to face tomorrow. Second, the book presents conceptual material in a pragmatic way with illustrations and examples that will help the reader understand how a specific concept works in practice. Third, the book has a decision-making emphasis, providing contemporary tools that readers will find useful when making decisions in the contemporary business environment. Finally, Agribusiness Management offers a pertinent set of discussion questions and case studies that will allow the reader to apply the material covered in real-world situations."--provided by publisher
The Multi-Level Perspectives of Agribusiness by Walter Amedzro St-Hilaire
Call Number: DAL MacRae General Loan ; HD 9000.5 A44 2018
ISBN: 9813271078
Publication Date: 2018
"
This book identifies the challenges of modern agribusiness in their globalities. The author anticipates stakeholder strategies and addresses socio-economic, political and management challenges: the changing environment of Agribusiness, the sectoral perspectives, challenges, and the requirements for successful execution of Agriproduction or changing strategies for existing the food distributors, as well as provides some recommendations. Globally, this book is a guide to sectoral perspectives knowledge for the future leaders of Agribusiness."--provided by publisher.
The Immaculate Conception of Data by Kelly Bronson
Call Number: DAL MacRae General Loan ; S 494.5 D3 B76 2022
ISBN: 9780228011217
Publication Date: 2022
"
"Every new tractor now contains built-in sensors that collect data and stream it to cloud-based infrastructure. Seed and chemical companies are using these data, and these agribusinesses are a form of big tech alongside firms like Google and Facebook. The Immaculate Conception of Data peeks behind the secretive legal agreements surrounding agricultural big data to trace how it is used and with what consequences. Agribusinesses are among the oldest oligopoly corporations in the world, and their concentration gives them an advantage over other food system actors. Kelly Bronson explores what happens when big data get caught up in pre-existing arrangements of power."--Provided by publisher.

Here is a small selection of featured eBooks from our collection (find more by searching in Novanet):

The Ethics of Agribusiness by Shane Epting
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9781003255505
Publication Date: 2022
"This book offers an original perspective on food supply chains. It argues that the ability to trade food on a global scale could be intrinsically good aside from any instrumental value that people gain from it. While the author's argument seems to counter wholesale anti-agribusiness views, it is consistent with the larger goals of food-justice movements. The author examines the structures of food supply chains, revealing the kinds of harm they help produce."--provided by publisher.
Opportunities and Strategic Use of Agribusiness Information Systems by Ferdinand Ndifor Che (Editor); Kenneth David Strang (Editor); Narasimha Rao Vajjhala (Editor)
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9781799848509
Publication Date: 2020
"
Due to such factors as poor economic conditions, climate change, and conflict, food security remains an issue around the world and especially in developing nations. Rapid changes in technology over the last decade has brought a renewed focus on how information and communication technologies (ICTs) and application systems are deployed to improve rural competitiveness. Unfortunately, agricultural stakeholders in developing countries, particularly in Africa, have not been able to reap comparable benefits from adopting agricultural information systems as compared to their counterparts in the developed economies. Understanding the challenges that hinder the effective adoption of agricultural information systems and identifying opportunities or innovations is imperative to improve the agricultural sectors and overcome the problems in these developing economies."--provided by publisher.
Technology and Agribusiness by Victor Grimblatt (Editor)
Call Number: eBook
ISBN: 9781000791952
Publication Date: 2022
"The seasonal school presents and discusses the major problems that agribusiness is facing and the different technologies that can be applied to solve and improve such issues. Specific case studies are presented along with the technological solutions that have been applied to solve or minimize the impact.Agribusiness covers different topics such as arable farming, dairy farming, fruits, vegetables, meat, etc. Each of these domains has different needs that can be addressed through smart agriculture technologies such as circuits and systems. Also, these domains affect the sustainability of the planet as they impact at least 4 out of the 9 planetary boundaries."--from publisher

Agricultural Business & Economics OER

"Open Educational Resources (OER) are teaching and learning materials that you may freely use and reuse at no cost, and without needing to ask permission. Unlike copyrighted resources, OER have been authored or created by an individual or organization that chooses to retain few, if any, ownership rights."

- OER Commons. (n.d.). About. Retrieved from https://www.oercommons.org/about

Below is a list of OER related to agricultural business and economics:

BC Campus -- Agricultural Business
A list of search results for Business textbooks in BC Campus' repository. Users may also browse Business resources by selecting the subject filters on the left-hand side.
MERLOT -- Agricultural Business/Economics
Search or browse through MERLOT's Agricultural Business/Economics materials collection. Use the the search bar at the top to find specific materials, or use the filters on the left to narrow materials by discipline, type, audience, and more.
National Science Digital Library (NSDL) -- Agricultural Business/Economics
A list of the NSDL's Agricultural Business/Economics resources for college-level students. Use the search bar to find specific resources, or use the filters on the left side to browse materials by subject, item type, or educational level. NOTE: Most materials in this repository adhere to the OER practice of being free to use, adapt, and share; however, some items have specific rules for use and indicate the stipulations under the item record.
OER Commons -- Agricultural Business
OER Commons search results for college-level Agricultural Business resources. Use the search bar at the top to look for specific items or use the filters on the left-hand side to narrow search results further. NOTE: Most materials in this repository adhere to the OER practice of being free to use, adapt, and share; however, some items have specific rules for use and indicate the stipulations under the item record.
OER Commons -- Agricultural Economics
OER Commons search results for college-level Agricultural Economics resources. Use the search bar at the top to look for specific items or use the filters on the left-hand side to narrow search results further. NOTE: Most materials in this repository adhere to the OER practice of being free to use, adapt, and share; however, some items have specific rules for use and indicate the stipulations under the item record.
Open Textbook Library -- Agricultural Business
A list of Open Textbook Library's Business textbooks that are free to use, adapt, download, and share.
Open Textbook Library -- Agricultural Economics
A list of Open Textbook Library's Economics textbooks that are free to use, adapt, download, and share.

Reference Material

NAL Agricultural Thesaurus & Glossary
Find preferred terminology to use in searches with this thesaurus.

Credo Reference This link opens in a new window
Credo Reference is an online reference library that provides you with access to a selection of more than 1000 reference books and over 200,000 related images. It includes encyclopedias, dictionaries, thesauri and books of quotations, not to mention a range of subject-specific titles covering everything from art to accountancy and literature to law.
Oxford English Dictionary This link opens in a new window
The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) is widely regarded as the accepted authority on the English language. It is an unsurpassed guide to the meaning, history, and pronunciation of 600,000 words— past and present—from across the English-speaking world.

As a historical dictionary, the OED is very different from Dictionaries of current English, in which the focus is on present-day meanings. You’ll still find present-day meanings in the OED, but you’ll also find the history of individual words, and of the language—traced through 3 million quotations, from classic literature and specialist periodicals to film scripts and cookery books.
Oxford Reference Online This link opens in a new window
Dalhousie users have access to parts of this collection of Oxford reference materials. After searching for your topic in Oxford Reference Online, tick the boxes beside "Unlocked" and "Free" on the left side of the page to see full text results.

Newspapers

The Newspapers guide contains information on Dalhousie Libraries newspaper collection. Most current newspapers are available online via online databases, some are in print and historical newspapers are available in microfilm collections or in individual newspaper databases.

Streaming Video

Visit the Dalhousie Libraries Streaming Video guide for a full list of our video databases. Films on Demand contains particularly useful educational material for agricultural business:

Films On Demand This link opens in a new window
Access includes Master Academic Package, Archival Films & Newsreels Collection, Nursing Video Collection, Veterinary Collection, and Entertainment.

Agricultural Business

Off-campus Access

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