In print

Food for All: The need for a new agriculture

By John Madeley
Published by Zed Books
7 Cynthia St., London N1 9JF, UK
Website: zedbooks.co.uk
2002, 191pp, ISBN 1 84277 019 5 (Pb), £9.99/US$17.50

Modern, chemical-dependent monoculture has led to environmental degradation and failed to feed the hungry, says John Madeley. This has served the interests of giant, multi-national agro-chemical companies but the needs of the poor in developing countries, most of whom live on what they can grow with a minimum of external inputs on small plots of land, are ignored. Worse still, developing country farmers have been coerced into this 'western' style of agriculture by donors and development agencies in the firm belief that the west knows best. The overall theme of Food for All is that the west does not know best and could, indeed, learn much from the south.

Internationally funded agricultural research also attracts some criticism. While ostensibly intended to boost food production and reduce hunger, Madeley believes that the CG Centres have largely failed to target the needs of the poor and hungry, again tending to favour 'modern' methods, including GM technology, and higher value food crops that few subsistence farmers can afford. If, he argues, the world's hungry are to have sufficient food, they need to grow it themselves, and a new approach to agriculture is needed that will support them in doing so.

The basics of that approach: low external input, sustainable agriculture, soil and water conservation, organic methods and permaculture are described with enthusiasm and illustrated with examples of success. The application of knowledge, rather than chemicals, is the key to increasing food output on small farms in developing countries, writes Madeley. This may be so but whether the key to feeding the hungry millions lies solely in low input farming must surely be open to question. The arguments and examples in Food for All suggest that pretty well everything about high input western agriculture is bad, and everything about low input agriculture is good. Perhaps this book should be read in conjunction with The Skeptical Environmentalist, reviewed in New Agriculturist 02-1 In Print.

To give credit where it is due John Madeley offers suggestions for the new agriculture he claims is needed. One idea is that the international agricultural research institutes should focus their efforts on the needs of small farms, including crops, livestock and other economic components of small-scale farming. (Most CG Centres would argue that they already do.) Madeley also suggests that it might be appropriate to set up a new institute dedicated to organic and low external input methods of agriculture. Referring to the fundamental flaws in the world trading system which favours the rich at the expense of the poor, a radical suggestion is that 'it might be better to scrap the WTO and start afresh'. Other ideas include an export tax on primary products which could yield higher earnings for farmers and governments of exporting countries while not seriously diminishing demand from the importing consumers. There is also a suggestion that western countries need fundamentally to rethink their agriculture and regain some of the practices that have largely been lost, such as mixed cropping, traditional husbandry and the use of natural rather than artificial fertilizers. It seems that the golden age of agriculture was in the past. But were people not hungry in the past as well? And, in the past, there were many fewer people; could 'traditional' systems alone feed the current population?

Food for All is a good and very well-written introduction to agricultural development and John Madeley makes a strong case for small-scale, sustainable agriculture as the means to achieve food security for the two billion people who currently lack it. He covers a huge range of issues, including trade, gender, credit, land rights and the record of the World Bank and UN agencies. However, his coverage of each issue is so brief that readers may understandably suspect over-simplification and, as a result, Food for All may serve only to convince the converted.

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Water Harvesting: Indigenous knowledge for the future of the drier environments

By Theib Oweis, Dieter Prinz and Ahmed Hachum
Published by ICARDA
PO Box 5466, Aleppo, Syria
Email: icarda@cgiar.org
Website: www.icarda.cgiar.org
2001, 40pp, ISBN 92 9127 116 0 (Pb), free

The farming communities of North Africa and West Asia have a huge range of systems for capturing and using their scarce rainfall. Ironically many of these systems are now falling into decline, as land suffers from degradation or over-grazing, and people look for better opportunities in urban areas. But could a serious research effort by dryland specialists help to solve the problems faced by traditional systems, and even spread their water harvesting techniques to new areas? This colourful publication from the International Centre for Agricultural Research in the Dry Areas is clearly intended to persuade donors and development decision-makers that water harvesting is an option worthy of attention. Its 35 glossy pages, liberally sprinkled with photos and diagrams, describe 17 indigenous water harvesting methods from the region, exploring their uses, their drawbacks, and their potential for both farmers and the environment. For those actually involved in project planning the various methods are summarised in a single table, with their suitability for different crops, soils, gradients and farming communities indicated. There are also guidelines on planning, design and implementation of projects, and areas of research being undertaken by ICARDA. See 'Learning from the rain catchers' for more details.

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Integrated Vegetable Pest Management: Safe and sustainable protection of small-scale brassicas and tomatoes

By Hans Dobson et al.
Published by Natural Resources Institute, University of Greenwich
Chatham Maritime, Kent, ME4 4TB, UK
Email: f.kimmins@nrint.co.uk
2002, 177pp, ISBN 0 85954 536 9(Pb), free to overseas organisations working in crop protection

Written for extension staff and other agricultural trainers in Zimbabwe, this excellent handbook will also be a major asset for small scale brassica and tomato producers elsewhere. Easy to understand, with helpful diagrams and an abundance of photographs for identification of pests and diseases, the handbook explains the principles of integrated pest management, including cultural, biological and chemical controls. It has individual sections on each of the major pests and diseases affecting the vegetables, covering identification, damage, and control methods. Where pesticides are an appropriate option, the reader is referred to tables at the back of the book which specify which chemicals suit which pests. There is also plenty of practical advice on methods of application, how to calculate doses and safety. Further tables summarise the different varieties of tomato and brassica available in Zimbabwe, including their resistance to pests and diseases.

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Farmers' Friends: Recognition and conservation of natural enemies of vegetable pests

By Robert Verkerk
Published by Department of Biology, Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine
University of London, London, SW7 2AZ
Email: f.kimmins@nrint.co.uk
2001, 112pp, ISBN 0 9540132 0 4 (Pb), free to overseas organisations working in crop protection

Supplementary to the above handbook, this similarly reader-friendly field guide will help extension workers or farmers in identification and conservation of beneficial insects, thereby reducing pest and disease problems. The guide is also available in Shona and Ndebele language versions. Both books have been written primarily for Zimbabwean vegetable farming, but will be of relevance to other areas with similar conditions.

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Strengthening Livelihoods: Exploring the role of bee-keeping in development

Edited by Nicola Bradbear, Eleanor Fisher and Helen Jackson
Published by Bees for Development, Troy, Monmouth, NP25 4AB, UK
Email: info@beesfordevelopment.org
Website: www.beesfordevelopment.org
2002, 122pp, ISBN 1 898807 01 9 (Pb), £22

In nearly every country in the world, productive, honey-producing bees exist, and represent a largely untapped resource for the rural poor. But, suggest the editors of this fascinating book, bee-keeping has rarely been given the attention it deserves, either by governments or donors, perhaps partly because it falls into the cracks between forestry, agriculture and livestock departments, and is often an unrecognised skill in those who practise it. Where interventions have been made, too often they have focussed on supplying new hives or processing machinery, and not enough on the attitudes, skills and existing knowledge of the target communities, resulting in inappropriate technology choices and low levels of commitment.

Since understanding livelihood strategies and social context seem vital to bee-keeping development, could sustainable livelihoods approaches, now so popular with donors, offer a way forward? The opening chapters discuss this question in detail; the subsequent ones look at bee-keeping projects more generally, with case studies from around the world. Accompanied by many excellent photographs, the book as a whole offers an excellent appraisal of bee-keeping development efforts, and does much to strengthen the case for well-planned, people-centred interventions.

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Natural Resources Management in African Agriculture: Understanding and improving current practices

Edited by C.B.Barrett, F.Place, and A.A.Aboud
Published by CABI Publishing
Wallingford, Oxon, OX10 8DE, UK
Email: cabi@cabi.org
Website: www.cabi-publishing.org
2002, 350pp, ISBN 0 85199 584 5(Hb), £60

In a previous edition of New Agriculturist we reviewed Boru Douthwaite's Enabling Innovation, which looks at the processes that help or hinder the adoption and adaptation of new technologies. This collection of case studies continues that theme, drawing on the experience of a vast number of researchers working on natural resources management projects in Africa. Many of the case studies feature soil fertility and conservation projects, reflecting the fact that improved soil fertility is generally in the interests of the widest range of stakeholders, from farmers and traders to processors and policy-makers. Such broad commitment to new technologies is a key element of success. The move away from top-down technology transfer to participation and co-operation between researchers and farmers, is another common feature of successful projects, with the knowledge of both groups complementing each other. Included in one of the concluding chapters is a model for how different research activities can contribute to process of technology adoption and development.

Challenges facing natural resources management include the generally slower uptake of new technologies by women farmers and poorer communities; examples of success are limited to projects that have made deliberate, and relatively costly attempts to target these groups. Scaling up participatory approaches is another major challenge. The authors acknowledge that most participatory efforts have involved highly trained researchers working intensively with small numbers of farmers, and that uptake of technologies outside project areas has been minimal. Altogether the volume is an important collation of the recent changes in approach in natural resources management research and the challenges for the future.

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Where there is no data: Participatory approaches to veterinary epidemiology in pastoral areas of the Horn of Africa Drylands Issue paper no.110

By Andy Catley and Jeffrey Mariner
Published by International Institute for Environment and Development
3 Endsleigh Street, London, WC1H 0DD, UK
Email: drylands@iied.org
Website: Issues papers can be downloaded for free from www.iied.org/drylands
Hard copies can be bought for US$5 plus P&P from www.Earthprint.com
2002, 20pp, ISSN 13579312, US$5

In the Horn of Africa little data is available on livestock disease prevalence, making the development of disease control strategies extremely difficult. This has important knock-on effects for livestock trade, both internally and for export. Yet numerous veterinarians have experienced at first hand that local pastoralist communities have a wealth of knowledge about the health of their animals, including good diagnostic skills and understanding of disease transmission routes. Surely this knowledge could be used to develop disease surveillance systems in these pastoral areas? This short paper reviews efforts to gather disease prevalence information using participatory methods. It discusses the validity of the information gained, in comparison with conventional methods, and how the two systems could be integrated. While only being used by a minority of veterinarians in Africa, there has recently been support for the use of participatory epidemiology from the Pan African Programme for the Control of Epizootics.

Other papers in IIED's Drylands Programme issued this year include 'Parks beyond parks' which looks at wildlife ecotourism in Kenya and losses of land for Maasai pastoralists, and 'Land tenure and rural development in Burkina Faso: Issues and strategies'.

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Mapping Poverty and Livestock in the Developing World

Published by International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI)
Copies available from ILRI Information Services,
PO Box 5689, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Email: ILRI-Ethiopia@cgiar.org
Online version available at www.dfid.gov.uk and www.ilri.org
Also available on CD-ROM
2002, 124pp, ISBN 92 9146 109 1 (Pb)

Developing and maintaining databases on poverty levels, land use, education or health levels are seldom seen as a priority for donors. This mapping project is an exception, with ILRI funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) to gather data for a global mapping of livestock systems and poverty. The exercise is broad, but more detailed than many existing resources, with a higher degree of 'resolution', allowing variations within national borders to be seen. It is promoted as a vital complement to the localised information derived from case studies, allowing donors and policy-makers to identify key geographical areas where large numbers of poor people derive all or part of their income from livestock. The researchers have also made projections for population density and climate over the next fifty years, in order to identify likely hotspots of change. Naturally, the intention is to support the prioritisation and targeting of development efforts. However, while there are extensive notes on how the data and maps have been gathered and produced, and caveats for accuracy and interpretation, few startling conclusions are drawn. Rather the document's strongest recommendation is for the need for greater co-ordination and coherence in data collection. The mapping exercise has doubtless been a costly one, and it must be hoped that the return will come in the design of more effective poverty alleviation strategies.

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Africa's Inland Fisheries: The management challenge

Edited by Kim Geheb and Marie-Therese Sarch
Published by Fountain Publishers PO Box 488, Kampala, Uganda
Distributed by African Books Collective, The Jam Factory, 27 Park End Street, Oxford, OX1 1HU
Email: abc@africanbookscollective.com
Website: www.africanbookscollective.com
2002, 304pp, ISBN 9970022938 (Pb), £16.95/US$27.95

Africa's inland fisheries are threatened by increasing exploitation, and despite the efforts of state management systems, optimal fish yields are not being achieved. Co-management by local communities has become an attractive alternative, offering greater democracy, reduced management costs and more effective monitoring and enforcement. But attempts at co-management have not been without their problems, with management plans often influenced and undermined by competing interests and objectives - having little to do with conservation of fish stocks - among communities, politicians and donors. Many initiatives have also failed to take into account the complexity of livelihood systems, which have the greatest impact on fishing activity. The case studies presented in this volume present the experiences of a wide range of management initiatives from ten countries, clarifying the hazards facing co-management projects, and in some cases proposing new management systems, including plans for lakes Tanganyika and Victoria.

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Climate Change and Sustainable Development: Prospects for developing countries

Edited by Anil Markandya and Kirsten Halsnaes
Published by Earthscan
120 Pentonville Road, London, N1 9JN, UK
Email: earthinfo@earthscan.co.uk
Website: www.earthscan.co.uk
2002, 303pp, ISBN 1 85383 910 8 (Pb), £17.95

The climate change debate has been largely dominated by national targets for greenhouse gas emissions. The potential for local policies to have an impact on GHG levels has received less attention. Moreover, in many parts of the world, not least in developing countries, strategies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are commonly perceived as a hindrance to development, imposing an unfair economic disadvantage on those who can least afford to bear it. But can development policies and emission-reduction policies be linked? There is already evidence that they can: soil protection and sustainable forestry, for example, fitting well into both camps. If more examples like this can be found, there is clearly great potential for sustainable development programmes to gain additional support based on their environmental side-benefits, and similar advantage for climate change projects with sustainable development outcomes. However, those who wish to advocate such advantages will need rigorous economic methods to analyse what the precise development achievements of a proposed emissions policy might be. Developing that economic methodology is the task of this book, and it is done through a diverse collection of case studies from the developing world. The presentation is detailed and technical, written by and for professionals who span the fields of climate change and sustainable development.

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Farmers, Scientists and Plant Breeding: Integrating knowledge and practice

Edited by D.A. Cleveland and D. Soleri
Published by CABI Publishing
Wallingford, Oxon, OX10 8DE, UK
Email: cabi@cabi.org
Website: www.cabi-publishing.org
2002, 368pp, ISBN 0 85199 585 3 (Hb), £55

The advantages of involving farmers in plant breeding programmes are becoming increasingly clear. While breeders have traditionally concentrated on developing plants that offer high yields under favourable conditions, most farmers, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, need varieties that can flourish in a harsher environment. Growing conditions also vary widely within a country or region. On farm testing allows a large number of new cultivars to be assessed under a far greater range of conditions and farming practices. Collaboration between plant breeders, farmers and other partner organisations - such as NGOs, government extension services, farmer organisations or seed suppliers - can also lead to much quicker and more cost-effective distribution for those crop varieties that prove successful. The case studies collected in this volume represent collaborative programmes working across the globe on widely differing crops: potatoes in the Andes, sorghum in Ethiopia, pumpkins in Cuba, rice in the Philippines and Nepal, and maize in Zimbabwe. As well as describing the plant testing systems, the contributors have also been asked to discuss the theory behind their approach, such as the complementary inputs that farmers and scientists can give to a breeding programme.

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Knowing Poverty: Critical reflections on participatory research and policy

Edited by Karen Brock and Rosemary McGee
Published by Earthscan
120 Pentonville Road, London, N1 9JN, UK
Email: earthinfo@earthscan.co.uk
Website: www.earthscan.co.uk
2002, 223pp, ISBN 1 85383 894 2 (Pb), £15.95

Participatory poverty research has been criticised on the grounds that while it may generate knowledge about poor people's lives, it often brings about little change in the power structures that keep people in poverty. In this study, participatory research is seen as having three elements: knowledge generation, action (for example, changes in policy or practice at national or local level), and development of a critical consciousness, bringing a new understanding of poverty among poor people themselves, researchers and policy-makers. In much participative poverty research, it is suggested, knowledge generation has dominated, and the other two elements have been neglected.

Correcting the balance is the task being addressed here. Through case studies from, among others, Myanmar, Brazil and Somaliland, the contributing authors examine dilemmas facing participatory poverty research. In relation to knowledge generation, for example, there is discussion of representation (whose voices are heard, and whose excluded?), the extent to which issues can be generalised, and the importance of self-reflection in the researcher. Some research programmes are designed with action in mind; a case study from Uganda looks at the factors that helped or hindered 'action' at local, district and national level. Developing a critical consciousness is perhaps the most neglected element, and this is looked at from three perspectives: the poor communities, the researchers, and the policy-makers, who it is suggested, would benefit from experiential learning activities, to be included in research programmes.

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