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Perhaps I am breeching the etiquette of the forum but hopefully my inputs over
the duration will justify the breech. However, I thought you might like to
know where this voice echoing out of the mountains was coming from. I apologize
for any who are offended by this action.
Developing Smallholder
Agriculture
- A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE -
By Richard L. Tinsley
AgBé ; 2004, 450 pages, 24 Tables, 30 Figures, 30 Graphs, 70 Photos, 25 Boxes.
US $ 39.
This book presents a synthesis of nearly three decades of work with smallholder
producers and their communities. It takes the farming systems work of the
1980s and 1990s a step further, and pays particular attention to those factors
and issues that have proven to constrain agricultural development in developing
economies.
Developing Smallholder Agriculture is thus a very practical book. As a
synthesis of experience from countries in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, the
book is not specific to any country. However, most readers should be able to
quickly relate the subjects to their country. The photographs and other
illustrations, which give examples from many different countries, help this.
Much of the information contained in this book is derived from unpublished
project reports. In many ways the book presents lessons learned from farming
systems programs as they developed and evolved over the last three decades.
The book carefully reviews the hypotheses on which most assistance to
smallholders has been based; that is, that smallholders' failure to fully
exploit their physical environment was the result of limited motivation, and a
desire to minimize risks by delaying crop establishment until more assured
climatic conditions prevailed. It replaces this notion with an appreciation
for the limited resources smallholders have at their disposal to manage their
land which often results in a six to eight week extended crop establishment and
low yields.
For this reason the book concentrates less on the agronomy and soil science of
the author's professional background, but more on the various factors that
impinge on the farmers' ability to implement more productive crop husbandry.
In so doing, the book promotes looking beyond technology and development.
Dissemination concentrates on the supporting services that smallholders need to
enable them to enhance their crop management. It emphasizes the importance of
village-level, private micro-enterprises as a cost-effective means of assisting
smallholders, and questions the potential of governments and public sector
institutions in providing these support services.
The book's perspective is that of a technical assistance advisor working
through host country clients, for the ultimate benefit of the smallholder
producer. As such, it addresses many of the stereotype ideas that advisors
confront when working with host institutions.
Developing Smallholder Agriculture is one of the few books that directly
addresses practical problems in the overall context of the socio-economic,
political and technical environment of the smallholder. Forging links between
different subjects and disciplines creates a holistic approach. The book uses
both a scientific and a practical approach, and a specialized and a general
point of view.
The book is aimed at a wide readership: depending on the background and
interests of the reader, different chapters can be used as a textbook for
students, a handbook for extension workers and consultants, and a resource book
for development practitioners, researchers and policy makers. It is
sufficiently technical for the agricultural scientist as well as being
sufficiently general for decision-makers and specialists in related fields.
About the Author
Dr. Dick Tinsley is an emeritus professor of Colorado State University who
spent his entire career as a technical advisor to smallholder development
projects. He worked for long periods in Vietnam, Philippines, Sri Lanka,
Egypt, Malawi, Thailand, and Tanzania. He also participated in short-term
assignments to Pakistan, Zambia, Ivory Coast and Iraq. In addition, he
contributed to a farming systems research and development guidebook.
In all of these assignments he was deeply involved with smallholder farming
communities, extensive informal interviewing of farmers, and facilitating off
and on-farm research programs. He currently teaches a class in agricultural
development at Colorado State University and does short-term consulting.
The permanent address of the author is: Soil and Crop Science Department,
Colorado State University, Fort Collins, USA;
E-mail: <address removed>
CONTENTS
1. Characteristics of Smallholder Producers
This Chapter introduces smallholders as individual entrepreneurs, who despite
limited education, are skilled practitioners of agronomy. They are usually
constrained by circumstances outside their control and have limited resources
such as labor. This results in prolonged crop establishment that limits their
prospects for adopting time sensitive innovations. The Chapter develops the
concept of financially-suppressed economies, and how this impacts on farm
management.
2. Determinants of Smallholder Systems
This Chapter reviews the physical, economic, social and biological determinants
of farming systems; how they interact, in terms of what can be produced; what
is produced; how well it is produced; and who has control over the means of
production. It ends with a discussion of rainfall variability and the extent
it can be used as a planning tool. A case study of rain-fed rice in the
Philippines is given.
3. The Role of Land Tenure
This Chapter evaluates land tenure including ownership, cash rent, share rent,
customary, communal, landlessness, etc, and how this impacts on crop production
and prospects for long-term investments in protecting natural resources. The
Chapter also examines the relative well-being of estate workers and independent
smallholders.
4. Support for Smallholders
A major Chapter that looks at both private and public sector support services.
It contents that the private sector is more effective, while big parastatal
companies and corporative societies are usually detrimental to smallholder
production, because of high overheads. The Chapter divides the private sector
into small, family-based village enterprises that are in direct contact with
the farmers, and large corporate enterprises that eventually process and
distribute the produce. Case studies are from Malawi for the public sector and
from Nepal for the private sector.
5. Technology Transfer
This Chapter contents that extension efforts are now more an instrument of
government policy aimed at supporting a suppressed price policy than a program
to promote farmers' well-being. The Chapter looks at how much information is
actually flowing through informal channels and how this can be enhanced. A
discussion of integration, and how both innovations and the farming environment
can be adjusted to make the innovations more acceptable to farmers, is offered.
6. Sustainability of Smallholders Systems
This Chapter takes a developing world definition of sustainability as "the need
to balance food security with environmental protection". The chapter reviews
the trade-offs between the power required to protect the natural resources and
the fossil energy based inputs to assure a commercial yield. A next section
looks at the issues surrounding nutrient cycling, composting, etc. It
evaluates the ratio of the land from which nutrients must be collected to that
on which they need to be applied to obtain sustainable yields. The final
section looks at the use and abuse of insecticides. Examples are from India,
Vietnam, and Thailand.
7. The Role of Mechanization
This Chapter emphasizes the importance of mechanization in providing farmers
with the necessary resources to cultivate enough land in a timely manner. The
emphasis is on privately owned contract mechanization versus direct ownership.
Also discussed is how the smallholder environment reduces the equipment's
efficiency because of excessive turning in small fields. Private contract
mechanization is discussed for land preparation in Egypt, Pakistan, and Iraq.
8. Irrigation Development
This Chapter looks at how irrigation can be provided to smallholders through
large schemes: Egypt and Pakistan are the main example. It looks at pragmatic
issues such as the minimum amounts of water needed to push a wetting front
across a field; at water depletion; and the substantial period between crops in
which little irrigation water is used. The emphasis is on bottom-up planning as
an effective management tool.
9. Practicalities of Smallholder Farming
A Chapter discussing various concerns for those assisting smallholders. Items
discussed are: casual crop management, certified and hybrid seed versus
retained seed, soybeans, intercropping, soil testing, impact of HIV/AIDS, etc.
10. Assisting Smallholders
A summarizing Chapter that looks at the impact of various factors on developing
projects aimed at assisting smallholders. It focuses on smallholders as
individual entrepreneurs that are more restricted by labor and other shortages
than knowledge or motivation. The Chapter reviews how projects might
concentrate more on off-farm support services than on technology development
and promotion, and the mechanism to effectively do so.
New Book
on
Agricultural Development
Developing Smallholder
Agriculture
- A GLOBAL PERSPECTIVE -
Richard L. Tinsley
ORDER FROM
Europe
AgBé Publishing
P.O.Box 1
B-1050 Brussels, Belgium
Phone/Fax:++32-2-687.33.76
E-mail: <address removed>
The USA
Balogh Scientific Books
1911 N. Duncan Road
Champaign, IL 61822, USA
Phone:++1 (217)355-9331
Fax: ++1 (217)355-9413
Please visit dfid-agriculture-consultation.nri.org.