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African farm management
Book reviews
161
This useful and well produced book is likely to be of interest to a wide audience. By bringing together in one place so much recent material on the subject, it provides a sourcedocument that should be of value to all working with programmes dealing with management of land-use systems in which trees,crops and pasture coexist. J. E. M. Arnold
By Martin Upton. Cambridge University Press,Cambridge, 1987. 190 pp. ISBN 0 521 32842X (cloth). Price: E27.50. 521 33805 0 (paper). Price: E9.95.
African
Farm
Management.
Over the past twenty years there has beenconsiderableimprovement in our understanding of the economic and managerial issuesfacing farmers in the developing world. The latest version of Martin Upton’s book takes much of this new knowledge and puts it into textbook form. The generaltenor of the book is that of an explanation as to why African farmers make the decisions they do and a discussion of methods of improving this explanation. As such, the book is appropriate for students of agriculture who wish to understand farm-level decision making, for policy makers who wish to predict the likely effectsof changesin policy, and for technical researcherswho wish to design products in such a way as to be likely to be adopted on farms. It is perhaps less appropriate for the training of managers of enterprisesin Africa who would wish to improve their own performance. The book retains its earlier division into four sectionsdealing respectively with farm production economics, resourceuse,field investigation and farm planning. For this reviewer, the first section dealing with farm production economics was probably the most satisfying. The treatment is deceptively simple and incorporates much recent thinking on the importance of mixedstand cropping, subsistence objectives, risk and the like. Upton relies strongly on graphical analysis with simple but convincing examples.There are one or two nice touches for the aficionado. On page 80, for example, we seethe conventional Fisher diagram for intertemporal choice,but with goats on the axes-a case perhaps of a goat in the boma being worth two in the bundu! Whilst the first two sectionsof the book deal with theory and explanation, the secondtwo sections are concernedwith methods of investigation and of farm planning. The orientation here is towards the construction of the theories which provide the first part. As such, the treatment is more standard, covering the concepts of farming systems research, surveys,
162
Book reviews
production functions, budgeting, investment appraisal and linear programming. Nevertheless,the material is always related to relevant issuesand the reader’s attention is held. What comes acrossfrom the book is a sympathy with, and understanding of, the problems facing farmers in Africa. Whilst plenty of examples are given, the book is not laden with unobtainable references.Recommended. J. P. G. Webster Other publications receivedbut not reviewed The Women’s Question and the Modes of Human Reproduction. An Analysis oj’a Tanzanian Village. By Ulla Vuorela. Monograph of the Finnish Society for Development Studies No. 1, 1987,Helsinki. Price: SEK 120.00. Refugeesand Development in Africa. Edited by Peter Nobel. Seminar Proceedings No. 19. Scandinavian Institute of African Studies. Price: SEK 110.00. Bureaucrats and People. Grass Roots Participation in Third World Development. By John D. Montgomery. Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, May 1988.Price: $1550. Agriculture’s Futures.America’s Food System.By L. T. Wallace. SpringerVerlag, Berlin, 1987. DM 39.80. Agricultural Policy Formation in the European Community: The Birth of Milk Quotasand CAP Reform. Edited by Michel Petit, Michele de Benedicitis, Denis Britton, Martijn de Groot, Wilhelm Henrichsmeyer and Francesco Lechi. Elsevier SciencePublishers, Amsterdam, 1987.Price: $5850. TechnologicalChange,Developmentand the Environment: Socio Economic Perspectives.Edited by Clem Tisdell and Priyatosh Maitra. Routledge, London, 1988. Price i30.00.
161
This useful and well produced book is likely to be of interest to a wide audience. By bringing together in one place so much recent material on the subject, it provides a sourcedocument that should be of value to all working with programmes dealing with management of land-use systems in which trees,crops and pasture coexist. J. E. M. Arnold
By Martin Upton. Cambridge University Press,Cambridge, 1987. 190 pp. ISBN 0 521 32842X (cloth). Price: E27.50. 521 33805 0 (paper). Price: E9.95.
African
Farm
Management.
Over the past twenty years there has beenconsiderableimprovement in our understanding of the economic and managerial issuesfacing farmers in the developing world. The latest version of Martin Upton’s book takes much of this new knowledge and puts it into textbook form. The generaltenor of the book is that of an explanation as to why African farmers make the decisions they do and a discussion of methods of improving this explanation. As such, the book is appropriate for students of agriculture who wish to understand farm-level decision making, for policy makers who wish to predict the likely effectsof changesin policy, and for technical researcherswho wish to design products in such a way as to be likely to be adopted on farms. It is perhaps less appropriate for the training of managers of enterprisesin Africa who would wish to improve their own performance. The book retains its earlier division into four sectionsdealing respectively with farm production economics, resourceuse,field investigation and farm planning. For this reviewer, the first section dealing with farm production economics was probably the most satisfying. The treatment is deceptively simple and incorporates much recent thinking on the importance of mixedstand cropping, subsistence objectives, risk and the like. Upton relies strongly on graphical analysis with simple but convincing examples.There are one or two nice touches for the aficionado. On page 80, for example, we seethe conventional Fisher diagram for intertemporal choice,but with goats on the axes-a case perhaps of a goat in the boma being worth two in the bundu! Whilst the first two sectionsof the book deal with theory and explanation, the secondtwo sections are concernedwith methods of investigation and of farm planning. The orientation here is towards the construction of the theories which provide the first part. As such, the treatment is more standard, covering the concepts of farming systems research, surveys,
162
Book reviews
production functions, budgeting, investment appraisal and linear programming. Nevertheless,the material is always related to relevant issuesand the reader’s attention is held. What comes acrossfrom the book is a sympathy with, and understanding of, the problems facing farmers in Africa. Whilst plenty of examples are given, the book is not laden with unobtainable references.Recommended. J. P. G. Webster Other publications receivedbut not reviewed The Women’s Question and the Modes of Human Reproduction. An Analysis oj’a Tanzanian Village. By Ulla Vuorela. Monograph of the Finnish Society for Development Studies No. 1, 1987,Helsinki. Price: SEK 120.00. Refugeesand Development in Africa. Edited by Peter Nobel. Seminar Proceedings No. 19. Scandinavian Institute of African Studies. Price: SEK 110.00. Bureaucrats and People. Grass Roots Participation in Third World Development. By John D. Montgomery. Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore, May 1988.Price: $1550. Agriculture’s Futures.America’s Food System.By L. T. Wallace. SpringerVerlag, Berlin, 1987. DM 39.80. Agricultural Policy Formation in the European Community: The Birth of Milk Quotasand CAP Reform. Edited by Michel Petit, Michele de Benedicitis, Denis Britton, Martijn de Groot, Wilhelm Henrichsmeyer and Francesco Lechi. Elsevier SciencePublishers, Amsterdam, 1987.Price: $5850. TechnologicalChange,Developmentand the Environment: Socio Economic Perspectives.Edited by Clem Tisdell and Priyatosh Maitra. Routledge, London, 1988. Price i30.00.