Exploring Agrodiversity / / Harold Brookfield.

• Superior document: Title is part of eBook package: De Gruyter Columbia University Press eBook-Package Backlist 2000-2013
• VerfasserIn: Brookfield, Harold,
• Place / Publishing House: New York, NY : : Columbia University Press, , [2001]; ©2001
• Year of Publication: 2001
• Language: English
• Series: Issues, Cases, and Methods in Biodiversity Conservation
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (608 p.)

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.

Table of Contents

Frontmatter -- Contents -- Introduction -- The Plan of the Book -- Acknowledgments -- Part I. Presenting Agrodiversity -- Chapter 1. Presenting Diversity by Example: Mintima and Bayninan -- Chapter 2. Diversity, Stress, and Opportunity -- Chapter 3. Defining, Describing, and Writing About Agrodiversity -- Chapter 4. Learning About the History of Agrodiversity -- Chapter 5. Understanding Soils and Soil-Plant Dynamics -- Part II. Diversity Within Land Rotational Systems -- Chapter 6. Analyzing Shifting Cultivation -- Chapter 7. Alternative Ways to Farm Parsimonious Soils -- Chapter 8. Managing Plants in the Fallow and the Forest -- Chapter 9. Coping with Problems: Degraded Land, Slope Dynamics, and Flood -- Part III. Paths of Transformation -- Chapter 10. Who Has Driven Agricultural Change? -- Chapter 11. Farmer-Driven Transformation in Modern Times -- Chapter 12. The Green Revolution -- Part IV. The Future of Agrodiversity -- Chapter 13. Recent Trends in Agriculture -- Chapter 14. Science, Farmers, and Politics -- Epilogue: Looking at the Future -- References -- Index