EXPLORING AGRODIVERSITY - harold brookfield

. .

Résumé :
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 they 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. It questions whether the diverse agricultural practices employed by small farmers can survive modern pressures and the global ambitions of the biotechnology industry. Exploring Agrodiversity concludes that the resilience of the world's small farmers should not be underestimated.

Biographie:
Harold Brookfield is professor emeritus at the Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies of the Australian National University. Since 1992 he has been Principal Scientific Coordinator of an international United Nations University Project on People, Land Management, and Environmental Change (PLEC). He has written several books, including Land Degradation and Society and Interdependent Development.

Sommaire:
["PRESENTING AGRODIVERSITY","Presenting diversity by examples: Mintima and Baynian","Diversity, stress, and opportunity","Defining, describing, and writing about agrodiversity","Learning about the history of agrodiversity","Understanding soils and soil-plant dynamics","DIVERSITY WITHIN LAND ROTATIONAL SYSTEMS","Analyzing shifting cultivation","Alternative ways to farm parsimonious soils","Coping with problems: degraded land, slope dynamics and flood","PATHS OF TRANSFORMATION","Who has driven agricultural change?","Farmer-driven transformation in modern times","The green revolution","THE FUTURE OF AGRODIVERSITY","Recent trends in agriculture","Sciences, farmers, and politics."]