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Communist agriculture
746
WORLD DEVELOPMENT
of the need for systems or holistic approaches; no single technology and no single disciplinary framework can resolve farming systems problems. The papers, most country-related, report on experiences with soil conservation, equipment selection, animal health, evaluation, socioeconomic issues, and training. There is much of value here and much related shorter material available from the same publishers, also sponsored by the German Appropriate Technology Exchange of GTZ. Future workshops need to expand the socioeconomic discussion. Animal traction is expensive in the West African context, thus not a solution for very poor farmers; it also needs a sustainable, well-run credit system.
Strange, Marty (1988) Family Farming: A New Economic Vision. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press and San Francisco, CA: Institute for Food and Development Policy (311 pp., cloth, $18.95). The codirector of the Center for Rural Affairs in Nebraska and a longtime local community activist has produced one of the most important studies on the US agricultural system in many years. It is not simply an analytical critique of modern agroindustrial practices and a prescriptive plea for a small-scale vision that is economically and ecologically sustainable. Strange has also explored the values, myths, and world models that underlie household, corporate, and public policies. Strange notes in particular the cognitive dissidence of small farmers at the corporate trough, glorifying competition and commercial freedom while destroying the social, economic and ecological bases of the community they seek to preserve. The answer is not simply higher prices, but rather stewardship and a market environment that will reward hard work and craftsmanship with a good living. Land ownership should be limited by this notion of sufficiency. It is a message that the world, not just North American farmers, would find healthy.
Wadekin, Karl-Eugen ed. (1990) Communist Agriculture, 2 vols. London: Routledge and New York: Routledge, Chapman & Hall (331 pp., and 131 pp., £50 and £23).
Comnumist Agriculture is the result of a 1988 conference of social and applied scientists at the University of California at Berkeley. These papers provide recent research on a region now undergoing varied, sometimes substantial change. The two volumes contain 26 papers, 14 on the Soviet Union. There is much new here, reflecting the opening of information channels, and one hopes that both national policy makers and advisers will invest in this education. The topical approaches to Soviet agriculture arc useful, but policy analysts also need to see analytic efforts on specific regional and local experiences which have varied enormously. In particular, Bideleux's (1985) classic Communism and Development would vastly improve the prevailing level of development discourse and prescriptions for "socialist" agriculture. Walker, Peter (1989) Famine Early Warning Victims attd Destitution. London: Earthscan (196 pp., paperback, £6.95). A longtime famine relief specialist here offers an appealing survey of the international reliet system along with cogent suggestions to improve practice. His argument for a more participatory approach is compelling. "'Famine warning should not be about predicting mass starvation. It must be geared to warning of the erosion of the subsistence base of the victim's society." To be effective, warning systems and assistance should be based on participatory research, as it is famines' potential victims, more than any others, who can take steps to prevent or mitigate famine. Walker links local preventive practice with improvements in prevailing systems in national, UN, and NGO systems. Ultimately he wants a two-phase effort, one phase for growing destitution and one for mass starvation. Readers will also find a good list of resource centers for current statistical data.
System:
WORLD DEVELOPMENT
of the need for systems or holistic approaches; no single technology and no single disciplinary framework can resolve farming systems problems. The papers, most country-related, report on experiences with soil conservation, equipment selection, animal health, evaluation, socioeconomic issues, and training. There is much of value here and much related shorter material available from the same publishers, also sponsored by the German Appropriate Technology Exchange of GTZ. Future workshops need to expand the socioeconomic discussion. Animal traction is expensive in the West African context, thus not a solution for very poor farmers; it also needs a sustainable, well-run credit system.
Strange, Marty (1988) Family Farming: A New Economic Vision. Lincoln, NE: University of Nebraska Press and San Francisco, CA: Institute for Food and Development Policy (311 pp., cloth, $18.95). The codirector of the Center for Rural Affairs in Nebraska and a longtime local community activist has produced one of the most important studies on the US agricultural system in many years. It is not simply an analytical critique of modern agroindustrial practices and a prescriptive plea for a small-scale vision that is economically and ecologically sustainable. Strange has also explored the values, myths, and world models that underlie household, corporate, and public policies. Strange notes in particular the cognitive dissidence of small farmers at the corporate trough, glorifying competition and commercial freedom while destroying the social, economic and ecological bases of the community they seek to preserve. The answer is not simply higher prices, but rather stewardship and a market environment that will reward hard work and craftsmanship with a good living. Land ownership should be limited by this notion of sufficiency. It is a message that the world, not just North American farmers, would find healthy.
Wadekin, Karl-Eugen ed. (1990) Communist Agriculture, 2 vols. London: Routledge and New York: Routledge, Chapman & Hall (331 pp., and 131 pp., £50 and £23).
Comnumist Agriculture is the result of a 1988 conference of social and applied scientists at the University of California at Berkeley. These papers provide recent research on a region now undergoing varied, sometimes substantial change. The two volumes contain 26 papers, 14 on the Soviet Union. There is much new here, reflecting the opening of information channels, and one hopes that both national policy makers and advisers will invest in this education. The topical approaches to Soviet agriculture arc useful, but policy analysts also need to see analytic efforts on specific regional and local experiences which have varied enormously. In particular, Bideleux's (1985) classic Communism and Development would vastly improve the prevailing level of development discourse and prescriptions for "socialist" agriculture. Walker, Peter (1989) Famine Early Warning Victims attd Destitution. London: Earthscan (196 pp., paperback, £6.95). A longtime famine relief specialist here offers an appealing survey of the international reliet system along with cogent suggestions to improve practice. His argument for a more participatory approach is compelling. "'Famine warning should not be about predicting mass starvation. It must be geared to warning of the erosion of the subsistence base of the victim's society." To be effective, warning systems and assistance should be based on participatory research, as it is famines' potential victims, more than any others, who can take steps to prevent or mitigate famine. Walker links local preventive practice with improvements in prevailing systems in national, UN, and NGO systems. Ultimately he wants a two-phase effort, one phase for growing destitution and one for mass starvation. Readers will also find a good list of resource centers for current statistical data.
System: