 Many of the books reviewed here can now be purchased over the internet from amazon.co.uk. You can use the link following most of the reviews, or if you are unable to find the book you are after, you can use the search facility at the end of the page. |
In print
Global Environment Outlook 2000
Published by Earthscan Publications Ltd, 120 Pentoville Road, London N1 9JN, UK
Email: earthinfo@earthscan.co.uk
www: http://www.earthscan.co.uk
for and on behalf of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) PO Box 30552, Nairobi, Kenya
Email: geo@unep.org
1999, 416pp. ISBN 1 85383 588 9 (Pb) £20.00 or ISBN 1 85383 587 0 (Hb) £50.00
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The approach of the Millenium provides a convenient date for politicians and public to consider how society and civilization should develop in the coming decades. Policies and personal choices of lifestyle will continue to affect the environment, including agriculture, and the publication of GEO 2000 by UNEP makes clear that "business as usual" is not an option. Those who have long "feared the worst" may believe themselves justified by the data; indeed some of the data and trends reveal a rate of deterioration in food supply, soil fertility and other aspects of environment surprising and shocking even to the more pessimistic. Those with a more sanguine "science can fix it" or "it's best left to market forces and people's common sense" approach may be dismissive and even irritated: the data is suspect, they will say, and many trends are self-correcting.
Although published by UNEP and Earthscan, GEO 2000 is compiled from contributions made by some 850 individuals, over 30 environmental institutes and several UN Agencies. Readers of New Agriculturist will find ample devoted specifically to agriculture and food production and distribution. Chapters focus on Global Perspectives, State of the Environment, Policy Responses, Future Perspectives, and Outlook and Recommendations with sections in each chapter devoted to the main regions: Africa, Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, Latin America, North America and West Asia. There are excellent graphics and a highlighted table of Key Facts at the start of each chapter. A comprehensive index also makes sourcing data easy. Entries under agriculture include water usage, subsidies and soil degradation as well as production and economic trends. There are separate entries for agrochemical pollution, biodiversity, climate change, drought, fisheries, forestry, GMOs, land degradation, poverty and other topics related to agriculture.
As burgeoning populations demand more food the intensification of agriculture inevitably leads to greater use of fertilizer. Yet we read that: "Typically, less than half of the nitrogen applied is taken up by plants - the rest is lost to the air, dissolved in surface water or absorbed into ground waters" This waste has more than economic cost: "Elevated nitrogen levels in soils increase the leaching of minerals such as potassium and calcium, which promote plant growth and are essential as a buffer against acidity." And a more telling comment is: "There is a growing consensus among researchers that the scale of disruption to the nitrogen cycle may have global implications comparable to the disruption of the carbon cycle." The demands made on crop production are also having potentially disastrous consequences on plant biodiversity: "Modern agriculture has also reduced genetic diversity. In Indonesia, for example, some 1500 varieties of rice disappeared during 1975-90. By 2005, India is expected to produce 75 per cent of its rice from just 10 varieties compared with the 30,000 varieties traditionally cultivated."
Land distribution and degradation caused by poor crop production practices and livestock are also addressed: "In many countries, a combination of inequitable land distribution, poor farming methods and unfavourable land tenure and ownership systems have led to declining productivity on grazing lands, falling crop yields and diminishing returns from the water supplied. Overgrazing causes more than half the soil degradation in the sub region (Africa). In Namibia, livestock production subsidies actually encourage farmers to raise more livestock than if they had to meet the full cost themselves."
Africa is highlighted as the region with the fastest urbanization and the fastest growth in food deficit: parts of the continent spend one third of national income on food imports and food supplied as aid is also very high. This is unsustainable. Indeed most of the environmental trends covered are unsustainable. Yet the "business as usual" approach that continues to be the one by which most of us live is based not only on inequitable distribution of resources but the unthinking (or uncaring?) attitude towards resource management which is typified by a comment on West Asia, a region historically arid and subject to water shortage: "Overdrawing aquifers, saltwater intrusion and the indiscriminate discharge of wastewater causing contamination of shallow ground water and health hazards…..eventually, many groundwater sources will be lost by quality degradation."
Optimist or pessimist, everyone involved in rural development should source this book. Surely no one could then disagree with a summary comment that: "The present course is unsustainable and postponing action is no longer an option."
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Pigeonpea in Sri Lanka
by K B Saxena
published by International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics, Pantcheru 502 324, Andhra Pradesh, India
Email: ICRISAT@cgiar.org
1999, 98 pp. ISBN 92-9066-299-5 Pb (Order Code BOE 026)
US$ 133.50 HDC (Highly Developed Countries)
US$ 46.50 LDC (Less Developed Countries)
Domestic production of pulses in Sri Lanka is currently insufficient to meet demand. Researchers believe that a substantial amount of foreign exchange spent on importing pulses could be saved if pigeonpea, commonly known as red gram or tur, could be produced locally. Pigeonpea in Sri Lanka details the research and development of pigeonpea (Cajanus cajun) in Sri Lanka during the last decade and its potential in both rainfed uplands and rice-fallows. It also thrives under the marginal growing conditions of the island where most other pulses would fail. The author, principal pigeonpea breeder at ICRISAT, also discusses the identification of elite cultivars, production and processing technologies, marketing options, and the future prospects for pigeonpea in the country. The book is illustrated throughout with clear, attractive photographs and a final appendix provides a number of interesting and popular Asian recipes for pigeonpea.
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Can Livestock and Wildlife Co-exist? An interdisciplinary approach
Ed. David Bourn and Roger Blench
Published by the Overseas Development Institute (ODI), Portland House, Stag Place, London SW1E 5DP, UK
Email: Hlewis@odi.org.uk
1999, 251pp, ISBN 0 85003 408 6 (Pb) £7.50
Pastoral livestock and plains game can and do co-exist sustainably, but only under special circumstances where livestock owners and local communities obtain tangible net benefits. However, in many parts of the world, wildlife populations have declined and are concentrated in and around protected areas. Because of increasing demographic pressure, agricultural expansion and finite land resources, any future research and development initiatives to promote livestock and wildlife co-existence as a sustainable livelihood option should, therefore, focus on neighbouring communities and the management of resources on adjoining lands. The interdisciplinary approach in this book examines current trends and future prospects for this balance to be achieved in the semi-arid rangelands of eastern Africa.
