Includes bibliographical references (pages 593-598)-and indexes.
Front Matter; What Is Tropical Agronomy?; A Tropical Agronomist's Education; Old and New: The 1960s and 1970s; Farmers Are Smarter Than You Think; Forests, Fallows and Fields; Farmer Skills, an Elusive Property; Mainly Technology; Follies and Sanity of Farming Systems Research; The Modelling Sorcerers and Their Apprentices; Donors, Experts and Consultants; Can African Farming Be Improved? (And Can Agronomists Help?); Back Matter.
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This book is a critical account of tropical agricultural science and agricultural development in the twentieth century, in particular in Africa. It describes successes as well as fads and failures, from the perspective of a practitioner of more than 40 years. The emphasis is on the second half of the century, but the story frequently reaches deep into the first half of the century as well. The book??'s premise is that the story of tropical agricultural science and agricultural development can be told in a single volume at a more than trivial level, understandable for people of normal intellige.