Rainwater Harvesting

This technology is used in places where conventional water supply systems are not provided, are too expensive, or fail to meet people's needs.

The Market Panacea

Max Spoor

This book compares the experiences of structural adjustment in developing countries and the transition from centrally planned to market economies in the former socialist countries. It aims to query whether the market-led approach which has characterized both Structural Adjustment Programmes in devel...

New Seed and Old Laws

Robert Tripp

This book argues that the development and diversification of national seed systems, which is currently taking place, requires a thorough re-examination of public regulatory responsibilities. Featuring case studies from a wide range of countries, it presents both a summary of current experience and a...

Hungry for Hope

Carmen Hess

This book deals with indigenous people and the problems that plague agricultural production in the high mountains of Ecuador. The author argues that when indigenous knowledge systems and participatory rural appraisal approaches are placed in the context of communicative action theory, they will gain...

Intercropping and the Scientific Basis of Traditional Agriculture

Donald Innis

This book is a pioneering, comparative study of the practice of intercropping (growing two or more crops at once in the same field). Innis's meticulous analysis of the scientific base of different traditional forms of agriculture in Jamaica, Nepal and India, is at the forefront of the search for int...

Contested Lands in Southern and Eastern Africa

Robin Palmer

Questions of land tenure and land reform and their impact on poor and vulnerable communities are of vital importance throughout Southern and Eastern Africa. From the vast literature on the subject, Robin Palmer has selected and summarised more than 300 recent books, articles, academic theses and rep...

Traditional Foods

Peter Fellows

This is a comprehensive guide to the processing of traditional foods, from Asia, Africa and Latin America, which are made and sold at a small commercial scale of operation. It provides technical information needed by small food businesses to introduce or upgrade their processes and products, and als...

Water Pumping Devices

Peter Fraenkel

Efficient and effective irrigation of the land can have a dramatic effect on the agricultural output and economic well-being of a community. The smallholdings, defined in this book as up to 25 hectares (60 acres), can be the source of a significant proportion of a country's food production. At the h...

Slash/Mulch Systems

H. David Thurston

This informative overview and analysis of slash/mulch practices from around the world, particularly from the tropics, shows that they have generally shortened the necessary fallow periods and have restored degraded soils, thus increasing or stabilizing yields. These improvements, in turn, have allow...

Farmer-led Extension

Vanessa Scarborough

This is the first book to focus on farmer-led extension, drawing on the experiences of over 70 farmers, community workers, NGO staff, researchers and policy makers from throughout the world. A range of approaches to extension are discussed which include the campesino-a-campesino movement in South Ea...