With this first edition of 2001, we wish all our readers a happy, healthy and successful new year. And, for those directly involved in farming, we hope that 2001 brings favourable weather, fairer reward and a policy environment that supports, rather than hinders, agricultural development. Information will, as ever, be an essential spur to progress. New Agriculturist will continue to play its part and looks forward to receiving information from readers that could be of value to others.

In this edition we contine our Focus on livestock health, a subject with wide implications not least for human health and wellbeing (see Waking up to reality). Outbreaks of anthrax and News that Foot and Mouth Disease is spreading in southern Africa confirm that livestock diseases, whether zoonoses or not, bring great hardship and economic loss. We also touch indirectly upon human health in Developments with a first hand account of farmers in The Philippines earning a good income from growing a medicinal crop used to treat respiratory diseases (see Filipino remedy). And for readers whose principal interests lie with crops rather than livestock, Martin Wolfe's Perspective on mixtures and monocultures, and our Points of View on organic agriculture, show that 2001 will be a year of lively debate about best practice in agriculture and the policy issues (see Consensus building in the Caribbean) which surround it.

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Points of view Organic farming Focus on Livestock Health (part 2) No vet in sight? Pave-ing the way forward? Africa's genetic solution to intestinal worms Waking up to reality? Anxieties over anthrax Handheld solution to a hidden problem Quality Assurance is key to economic prosperity In Print Dams and Development: A New Framework for Decision-Making The Baobab and the Mango Tree Breaking ground: Development aid for land reform Community Forest Management A Casebook from India Why Poison Ourselves? A precautionary approach to synthetic chemicals Highland Rice Production in the Philippine Cordillera Seed policy and programmes in the Near East and North Africa Seed policy and programmes for Asia and the Pacific Learning from change: Issues and experiences in participatory monitoring and evaluation The Conservation Handbook: Research, Management and Policy Future Positive: International Co-operation in the 21st Century Home Gardens in Lesotho The Economic Role of Women in Agricultural and Rural Development: promoting income-generating activities Coming Clean: Corporate Disclosure of Financially Significant Environmental Risks Communicating Sustainability Communicating the Environment

Perspective Diversity within crops restricts disease by Martin Wolfe News Public goods for private profit? Making globalization work for the poor A guinea pig called cress Trade barriers up or down? Foot and Mouth Disease Sensory perceptions Stormy times for India's GM cotton Coconuts crash in Kerala Domestic animals in danger Taking care of the small fry Sitting target Oil plans hit sticky patch Zambia's farmers get excited by herbs and spices QPM spreads further Seeds for East Timor, cows for Kosovo Developments Unearthing a solution to cassava root rot Phoning for fingerlings? Consensus building in the Caribbean Filipino remedy Lake Victoria islanders - out of the frying pan Country Profile Malawi

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