Authors:
- Presents a thorough review of more than 50 years of tropical agronomy
- Examines the African farmer, farming methods both present and future
- Information on agricultural research including farming systems
- Examines the rise of computer modelling of crops and crop production and the relevance of modelling for rank and file agriculturists
- The roles of donors, experts and consultants, and a critical assessment of development aid
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Table of contents (11 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
About this book
Reviews
From the reviews:
“Peasants, Farmers and Scientists is a narration of tropical agricultural case studies from the East Indies and West and Central Africa during the latter half of the 20th century. It is also a memoir and an introductory monograph for agronomy curricula … . The book balances the potential of the African farmer and the demise of agriculture with descriptions of development, donors, station research, scientists (both foreign and local), farmers’ responses, and applications of extension work. Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and up.” (W. K. Bauchspies, CHOICE, Vol. 45 (11), 2008)
“This book is a highly readable, engaging and thorough introduction to agriculture in the tropics and to the evolution of tropical agriculture as a science in the twentieth century. It reviews agriculture’s ‘‘successes as well as its fads and failures" and discusses how agricultural sciences contributed or not to the advancement of the small-holders producers, particularly in Africa. It focuses primarily on the second, post-colonial half of the century, and builds on the author’s first-hand observations as a researcher in a plantation in the Dutch West Indies, Wageningen University lecturer and long-time researcher at the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) in Ibadan, Nigeria. … The book is a welcome addition to the body of reading materials for introductory, comprehensive courses in international development or international agriculture. The author systematically introduces concepts like shifting cultivation (‘‘the mother of all farming"), semi-intensive farming, nutrient budgets and crop modeling, and provides field examples to explain how these concepts work in reality. … The book also serves as a strong introduction to the history of Farming Systems Research (FSR), the author being one of the founding proponents of the approach. … a book that clearly, and often humorously, takes stockof tropical agriculture in a balanced yet candid manner.” (Carlos Perez, Earth Institute, Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA)
About the author
The author, who graduated from Wageningen University in the Netherlands in June 1967 and obtained a PhD degree there in April 1982, has spent a lifetime working in a wide range of tropical agronomy-related fields. He started his career in a cotton development project in Indonesia, lectured and carried out research at the Universities of Wageningen, Yaoundé (Cameroun) and Ibadan (Nigeria) and played a key role in the introduction of the ‘Farming Systems Research’ approach in West and Central Africa when working at the International Institute of Tropical agriculture in Ibadan. Since 1994 he has been attached to the Nedworc Foundation in the Netherlands and travelled to many African, Asian and Latin American countries to formulate, assist and evaluate agricultural research and development programmes. Dr. Mutsaers is the author and co-author of numerous scientific papers on crop physiology, crop modelling, farming systems and on-farm research, as well as several books, including two on on-farm research methodology.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Peasants, Farmers and Scientists
Book Subtitle: A Chronicle of Tropical Agricultural Science in the Twentieth Century
Authors: H. J. W. Mutsaers
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4020-6166-0
Publisher: Springer Dordrecht
eBook Packages: Biomedical and Life Sciences, Biomedical and Life Sciences (R0)
Copyright Information: Springer Science+Business Media B.V. 2007
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4020-6165-3Published: 21 September 2007
Softcover ISBN: 978-90-481-7555-0Published: 19 October 2010
eBook ISBN: 978-1-4020-6166-0Published: 04 September 2007
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XXVIII, 608
Topics: Agriculture, Plant Sciences, Monitoring/Environmental Analysis, Soil Science & Conservation, Development Economics, History of Science