Comparative Farming Systems
1st Edition
Published on 1. March 1987
Book
Hardback
428 pages
978-0-89862-780-0 (ISBN)
Description
Through a series of 12 original case studies, prepared by 19 international, multidisciplinary experts, Farming Systems offers a comprehensive comparative examination of world agriculture. The 12 farming systems explored here encompass the broad array of environmental, demographic, and socioeconomic conditions in which agriculture exists--from Amazonian swidden to Hungarian cooperative farms. B.L. Turner II and Stephen B. Brush have provided a three-part classification of the systems based on output intensity, technology employed, and production goals. The contributors bring to their case studies the perspectives of anthropology, economics, geography, and rural sociology.
Reviews / Votes
"Comparative Farming Systems is an excellent collection of original case studies, which takes a holistic approach to farming systems by int egrating environmental, technological, socioeconomic, and political characteristics. Turner and Brush provide a theoretical overview of farming systems and how they change, based on the case studies and the general literature. Their unifying framework makes possible comparisons between diverse systems ranging from traditional (paleotechnic) to modern (neotechnic) in various parts of the world. The result is a volume that will be valuable to both social scientists and agricultural scientists interested in the dynamics of farming systems." -William M. Denevan, University of Wisconsin, Madison, USAMore details
Content
Part 1. Introduction. Turner, Brush, Purpose, Classification, and Organization. Brush, Turner, Nature of Farming Systems and Views of Their Change. Part 2. Paleotechnic and Consumption-Oriented Systems. Beckerman, Amazonia Swidden. Ewell, Merrill-Sands, The Milpa and Its Alternatives in the Maya Peasant Economy of Yucatan. Kunstadter, Swiddeners in Transition: Lua Farmers in Northwestern Thailand. Richards, Upland and Swamp Rice Farming in Sierra Leone: An Evolutionary Transition. Part 3. Mixed Technic and Production Systems. Ashby, Pachico, Agricultural Ecology in the Mid-Hills of Nepal. Hopkins, Irrigation, Mechanized Agriculture, and the State: The Case of an Upper Egyptian Village. Leaf, Intensification in Peasant Farming, Punjab in the Green Revolution. Ali, Intensive Paddy and Garden Agriculture in Bangladesh: Change in Shyampur Village. Part 4. Neotechnic and Commodity-Oriented Systems. Spaeth, Dryland Wheat Farming in the Central Great Plains: Sedgewick County Northeast Colorado. Pudup, Watts, Growing against the Grain: Rice Farming in the Sacramento Valley. Karacsony, Szathmary, Szucs, Mechanized Cooperative System in Southeastern Hungary. Dorel, High Tech Farming Systems in Champagne, France: Change in Response to Agribusiness and International Controls.