1. 3 NOT ONLY AGRICULTURE AGRICULTURE AND ECONOMY Agriculture plays a crucial role in the worldwide economy, and in particular in developing countries, where it provides the main source of food, income and employment to their rural populations. 1 MORE Agriculture and food-related industries and services provide over 44 million jobs in the EU, while in developing countries it represents 30-60 % of the total GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and employs about 70% of the total workers. 1 Agricultural trade The trade of agricultural products is a factor which contributes to the prosperity of farmers, industries, and consumers. However, the development of agricultural markets is very dynamic and requires permanent monitoring and analysis on the basis of some factors which have to be taken into account: economic and environmental policies; climatic conditions; international market developments. ONLINE RESOURCES The futures market Price volatility 2 Farmers are often confronted with substantial changes in the prices of their agricultural products, which causes financial uncertainty for their . This phenomenon, known as ‘price volatility’, is more evident in agriculture than in other economic sectors due to a variety of economic, natural, and political factors. Price fluctuations are both normal and necessary for a market to work in a healthy, competitive way, but the global agricultural market is becoming more vulnerable to episodes of extreme price volatility. This is happening because markets are increasingly integrated in the world economy and shocks in the international field can therefore propagate to domestic markets much quicker than before. To compensate farmers for some of the negative effects of price volatility, the EU agricultural policy, for example, provides a more stable form of income for farmers through direct payments market conditions. income regardless of MORE Price volatility indicates how much and how quickly a value changes over time, for example the price of a commodity. 2 The concept of agriculture Up to a couple of decades ago, agriculture was associated with the production of basic crops, but the last few years have seen an important evolution in the attitude of towards the concept of agriculture from an economic point of view. Modern agriculture now includes forestry, , fruit cultivation, poultry, and even dairy farming. There is much more attention to the production, consumption, processing, , recycling, and disposal of biological resources because of an increased demographical pressure and the non-sustainable current use of natural resources. policy-makers beekeeping storage Bioeconomy A new concept that is therefore emerging is that of . This science refers to the sustainable production, use and conservation of biological resources in order to provide information, products, processes, and services across all economic sectors. The aim of this new trend is to guarantee: bioeconomy an improved management of renewable resources; a reduced dependency on fossil fuel resources; the opening of new and diversified markets in food and bio-based products.