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. Using case studies from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Pacific, this book provides in-depth analysis of agricultural diversity and explores its history.

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.

While most academic literature emphasizes the accelerated loss of biodiversity, this book describes how large numbers of smallholder farmers are conserving biodiversity in their farmland and surrounds.

Based on the 2010 conference 'Towards the establishment of genetic reserves for crop wild relatives and landraces in Europe', this book is the cutting-edge discussion of agrobiodiversity conservation. By considering the benefits of understanding and preserving crop wild relatives and landraces, it encompasses issues as wide-ranging and topical as habitat protection, ecosystem health and food security. "Agrobiodiversity Conservation" focuses on Europe, but is globally relevant. It is suitable for postgraduate students of conservation and environmental studies, conservation professiona.

Marx, Lenin and Kautsky all regarded family farming as doomed to be split into capitalist farms and proletarian labour. Most modern economists regard family farming as an archaic form of production organization, destined to give way to agribusiness. Family Farms refutes these notions and analyses the manner in which family farmers have been able to operate with success in both developed and developing countries, using examples wherever these are illuminating. This book begins by reviewing theoretical arguments about agricultural structures, and defines family farming. This is followed by five vignettes about farming in the first half of the twentieth century. The authors analyse the conditions of access to land and water, labour, livestock, tools and seed and review marketing arrangements and how they have changed since 1900. A three-chapter review of evolving policies in the North Atlantic countries, in the communist states, and in the developing countries, leads to a discussion of the impact of neo-liberalism. New issues of the farmer as steward of the environment are explored, as well as modern ideas about de-agrarianization and a discussion of land reform, tracing the experience of Mexico and Brazil. In two final chapters the more positive approach of pluriactivity is discussed and followed by a review of organic farming as a principal modern innovation. New political organizations representing family farming are described and their demands are discussed with empathy, but in a sceptical manner. Family farming is an adaptable and resilient form of production organization, and these qualities have allowed it to survive. The future will be no easier than the past, yet family farming continues to flourish in most contexts. This book will be useful for researchers, students and lecturers interested in Development Studies, Rural Studies and Geography and Anthropology, as well as general readers who have an interest in farming.

Since its publication in 2006 as Fifty Key Thinkers on Development, this invaluable reference has established itself as the leading biographical handbook in its field, providing a concise and accessible introduction to the lives and key contributions of development thinkers from across the ideological and disciplinary spectrum. This substantially expanded and fully updated second edition in the relaunched series without the numerical constraint includes an additional 24 essays, filling in many gaps in the original selection, greatly improving the gender balance and diversifying coverage to reflect the evolving landscape of development in theory, policy and practice. It presents a unique guide to the lives, ideas and practices of leading contributors to the contested terrain of development studies and development policy and practice. Its thoughtful essays reflect the diversity of development in theory, policy and practice across time, space, disciplines and communities of practice. Accordingly, it challenges Western-centrism, Orientalism and the like, while also demonstrating the enduring appeal of "development" in different guises. David Simon has assembled a highly authoritative team of contributors from different backgrounds, regional settings and disciplines to reflect on the lives and contributions of leading authorities on development from around the world. These include: Modernisers like Kindleberger, Perroux and Rostow Dependencistas such as Frank, Furtado, Cardoso and Amin Progressives and critical modernists like Hirschman, Prebisch, Helleiner Sen, Streeten and Wang Political leaders enunciating radical alternative visions of development, such as Mao, Nkrumah and Nyerere Progenitors of religiously or spiritually inspired development, such as Gandhi, Ariyaratne and Vivekananda Development–environment thinkers like Agarwal, Blaikie, Brookfield, Ostrom and Sachs International institution builders like Singer, Hammarsköld, Kaul and Ul Haq Anti- and post-development thinkers and activists like Escobar, Ghosh, Quijano and Roy Key Thinkers on Development is therefore the essential handbook on the world’s most influential development thinkers and an invaluable guide for students of development and sustainability, policy-makers and practitioners seeking an accessible overview of this diverse field and its leading voices.