Exploring Agrodiversity FROM THE PUBLISHER
Small farmers are often viewed as engaging in wasteful practices that wreak ecological havoc. Exploring Agrodiversity sets the record straight: Small farmers are in fact ingenious and inventive and engage in a diverse range of land-management strategies, many of them resourcefully geared toward conserving resources, especially soil. They have shown considerable resilience in the face of major onslaughts against their way of life by outsiders and government.Using case studies from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Pacific, this book provides in-depth analysis of agricultural diversity and explores its history. The book also considers the effect of the "gene revolution" on small farmers and reviews the effects of the "green revolution" in Asian countries. In conclusion, it questions whether the diverse agricultural practices employed by small farmers can survive modern pressures and the global ambitions of the biotechnology industry.
FROM THE CRITICS
Nature
Brookfield brings together a rich collection of evidence. . . and elegantly outlines the importance of agrodiversity.
Land Degradation and Development
Harold Brookfield has again broken the mould with this extrememly valuable and detailed introduction to, and exposition of, his latest interest and speciality -the agrodiversity of small farmers. . . . This book deserves serious attention. It is an excellent treatment of small farmer management strategies, and there are lessons to be learned from its findings.
Booknews
In what he calls an exploration rather than an exposition, Brookfield (United Nations U.) discusses diversity in the manner in which farmers use all their resources, a mouthful that he reduced to agrodiversity, which has become a central concept for the People, Land Management, and Environmental Change project he has been working on for nearly a decade. He draws on a selection from a large literature based on field research in small areas, on a purposive sampling of the historical literature covering specific areas and periods of time, and to some extent on his own fieldwork. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Home
