Comparative Farming Systems

by Turner II, B. L.; Brush, Stephen B.

• ISBN13: 9780898627800
• ISBN10: 089862780X
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 1987-09-11
• Publisher: The Guilford Press

Summary

Through a series of 12 original case studies, prepared by 19 international, multidisciplinary experts, this volume 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. Farming Systems will be a valuable reference work on individual farming systems, a rich source of comparative data for researchers, and a text for advanced courses in farming systems and world agriculture.

Table of Contents

Introduction

Purpose, Classification, and Organization

Nature of Farming Systems and Views of Their Change

Paleotechnic and Consumption-Oriented Systems

Amazonia Swidden

The Milpa and Its Alternatives in the Maya Peasant Economy of Yucatan

Swiddeners in Transition: Lua Farmers in Northwestern Thailand

Upland and Swamp Rice Farming in Sierra Leone: An Evolutionary Transition

Mixed Technic and Production Systems

Agricultural Ecology in the Mid-Hills of Nepal

Irrigation, Mechanized Agriculture, and the State: The Case of an Upper Egyptian Village

Intensification in Peasant Farming, Punjab in the Green Revolution

Intensive Paddy and Garden Agriculture in Bangladesh: Change in Shyampur Village

Neotechnic and Commodity-Oriented Systems

Dryland Wheat Farming in the Central Great Plains: Sedgewick County Northeast Colorado

Growing against the Grain: Rice Farming in the Sacramento Valley

Mechanized Cooperative System in Southeastern Hungary

High Tech Farming Systems in Champagne, France: Change in Response to Agribusiness and International Controls

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