Download or read book Farmer First Revisited written by Ian Scoones and published by Practical Action Publishing. This book was released on 2009 with total page 388 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Agriculture is an urgent global priority and farmers find themselves in the front line of some of the world's most pressing issues- climate change, globalization and food security. Twenty years ago, the Farmer First workshop held at the Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, UK, launched a movement to encourage farmer participation in agricultural research and development (R & D), responding to farmers' needs in complex, diverse, risk-prone environments, and promoting sustainable livelihoods and agriculture. Since that time, methodological, institutional and policy experiments have unfolded around the world. Farmer First Revisited returns to the debates about farmer participation in agricultural R & D and looks to the future.The book presents a range of experiences that highlight the importance of going beyond a focus on the farm to a wider innovation system, including market interactions as well as the wider institutional and policy environment. If, however, farmers are really to be put first, a politics of demand is required in order to shape the direction of these innovative systems.
Download or read book Frances Farmer Shadowland written by William Arnold and published by Berkley. This book was released on 1982 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book A History of Ancient Egypt written by John Romer and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2013-08-20 with total page 514 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The ancient world comes to life in the first volume in a two book series on the history of Egypt, spanning the first farmers to the construction of the pyramids. Famed archaeologist John Romer draws on a lifetime of research to tell one history's greatest stories; how, over more than a thousand years, a society of farmers created a rich, vivid world where one of the most astounding of all human-made landmarks, the Great Pyramid, was built. Immersing the reader in the Egypt of the past, Romer examines and challenges the long-held theories about what archaeological finds mean and what stories they tell about how the Egyptians lived. More than just an account of one of the most fascinating periods of history, this engrossing book asks readers to take a step back and question what they've learned about Egypt in the past. Fans of Stacy Schiff's Cleopatra and history buffs will be captivated by this re-telling of Egyptian history, written by one of the top Egyptologists in the world.
Download or read book Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook written by World Bank and published by World Bank Publications. This book was released on 2008-10-07 with total page 792 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 'Gender in Agriculture Sourcebook' provides an up-to-date understanding of gender issues and a rich compilation of compelling evidence of good practices and lessons learned to guide practitioners in integrating gender dimensions into agricultural projects and programs. It is serves as a tool for: guidance; showcasing key principles in integrating gender into projects; stimulating the imagination of practitioners to apply lessons learned, experiences, and innovations to the design of future support and investment in the agriculture sector. The Sourcebook draws on a wide range of experience from World Bank, Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), and other donor agencies, governments, institutions, and groups active in agricultural development. The Sourcebook looks at: access to and control of assets; access to markets, information and organization; and capacity to manage risk and vulnerability through a gender lens. There are 16 modules covering themes of cross-cutting importance for agriculture with strong gender dimensions (Policy, Public Administration and Governance; Agricultural Innovation and Education; Food Security; Markets; Rural Finance; Rural Infrastructure; Water; Land; Labor; Natural Resource Management; and Disaster and Post-Conflict Management) and specific subsectors in agriculture (Crops, Livestock, Forestry, and Fisheries). A separate module on Monitoring and Evaluation is included, responding to the need to track implementation and development impact. Each module contains three different sub-units: (1) A Module Overview gives a broad introduction to the topic and provides a summary of major development issues in the sector and rationale of looking at gender dimension; (2) Thematic Notes provide a brief and technically sound guide in gender integration in selected themes with lessons learned, guidelines, checklists, organizing principles, key questions, and key performance indicators; and (3) Innovative Activity Profiles describe the design and innovative features of recent and exciting projects and activities that have been implemented or are ongoing.
Download or read book Innovation for development written by Devaux, A. and published by International Potato Center. This book was released on 2011-11-30 with total page 444 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Ground Truth written by John Farmer and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2009-09-08 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the senior counsel to the 9/11 Commission, a mesmerizing real-time portrayal of that day, why we weren?t told the truth, and why our nation is still at risk. As one of the primary authors of the 9/11 Commission Report, John Farmer is proud of his and his colleagues? work. Yet he came away from the experience convinced that there was a further story to be told, one he was uniquely qualified to write. Now that story can be told. Tape recordings, transcripts, and contemporaneous records that had been classified have since been declassified, and the inspector general?s investigations of government conduct have been completed. Drawing on his knowledge of those sources, as well as his years as an attorney in public and private practice, Farmer reconstructs the truth of what happened on that fateful day and the disastrous circumstances that allowed it: the institutionalized disconnect between what those on the ground knew and what those in power did. He details ?terrifyingly and illuminatingly?the key moments in the years, months, weeks, and days that preceded the attacks, then descends almost in real time through the attacks themselves, portraying them as they have never before been seen. Ultimately, Farmer builds the inescapably convincing case that the official version not only is almost entirely untrue but serves to create a false impression of order and security. The ground truth that Farmer captures suggests a very different scenario?one that is doomed to be repeated unless the systemic failures he reveals are confronted and remedied.
Download or read book Scholarship Reconsidered written by Ernest L. Boyer and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2015-10-06 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Shifting faculty roles in a changing landscape Ernest L. Boyer's landmark book Scholarship Reconsidered: Priorities of the Professoriate challenged the publish-or-perish status quo that dominated the academic landscape for generations. His powerful and enduring argument for a new approach to faculty roles and rewards continues to play a significant part of the national conversation on scholarship in the academy. Though steeped in tradition, the role of faculty in the academic world has shifted significantly in recent decades. The rise of the non-tenure-track class of professors is well documented. If the historic rule of promotion and tenure is waning, what role can scholarship play in a fragmented, unbundled academy? Boyer offers a still much-needed approach. He calls for a broadened view of scholarship, audaciously refocusing its gaze from the tenure file and to a wider community. This expanded edition offers, in addition to the original text, a critical introduction that explores the impact of Boyer's views, a call to action for applying Boyer's message to the changing nature of faculty work, and a discussion guide to help readers start a new conversation about how Scholarship Reconsidered applies today.
Download or read book Farms of Tomorrow Revisited written by Trauger Groh and published by SteinerBooks. This book was released on 1998-04 with total page 446 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This timely sequel to the popular inspirational blueprint for Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) is set to guide this rapidly growing movement to the next stage of its development. The authors provide very practical examples and information that will be of service to growers and shareholders alike without losing sight of the heart and excitement that makes CSA central to the renewal of agriculture. Added to the material from the original edition are two new essays by Trauger Groh dealing with the economic, legal and spiritual questions surrounding the CSA movement, and the role of domestic animals on CSA farms, while Steven McFadden contributes several new pieces on the context and scope of community farms. New profiles of five farms are included, and the farm "biographies" from the 1990 first edition are reprinted and updated with reports on their present situations and lessons learned during the intervening years. Expanded appendices provide suggestions for starting CSA farms, look at the issues surrounding the acquisition and holding of land, illustrate sample farm prospects and budgets, and offer lengthy lists of resources and suggestions for additional reading.
Download or read book The Ecolaboratory written by Robert Fletcher and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 2020-03-17 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Despite its tiny size and seeming marginality to world affairs, the Central American republic of Costa Rica has long been considered an important site for experimentation in cutting-edge environmental policy. From protected area management to ecotourism to payment for environmental services (PES) and beyond, for the past half-century the country has successfully positioned itself at the forefront of novel trends in environmental governance and sustainable development. Yet the increasingly urgent dilemma of how to achieve equitable economic development in a world of ecosystem decline and climate change presents new challenges, testing Costa Rica’s ability to remain a leader in innovative environmental governance. This book explores these challenges, how Costa Rica is responding to them, and the lessons this holds for current and future trends regarding environmental governance and sustainable development. It provides the first comprehensive assessment of successes and challenges as they play out in a variety of sectors, including agricultural development, biodiversity conservation, water management, resource extraction, and climate change policy. By framing Costa Rica as an “ecolaboratory,” the contributors in this volume examine the lessons learned and offer a path for the future of sustainable development research and policy in Central America and beyond.
Download or read book The Reproach of Hunger written by David Rieff and published by Verso Books. This book was released on 2015-10-06 with total page 468 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 2000 the world's leaders and experts agreed that the eradication of hunger was the essential task for the new millennium. Yet in the last decade the price of wheat, soya and rice have spiraled, seen by many as the cause of widening poverty gap and political unrest from the Arab Spring to Latin America. This food crisis has condemned the bottom billion of the world's population who live on less than $1 a day to a state of constant hunger. In The Reproach of Hunger leading expert on humanitarian aid and development, David Rieff, goes in search of the causes of this food security crisis, as well as the failures to respond to the disaster. In addition to the failures to address climate change, poor governance and misguided optimism, Rieff cautions against the increased privatization of aid, with such organization as the Gates Foundation spending more that the WHO on food relief. The invention of the celebrity campaigner - from Bono to Jeffrey Sachs - whose business-led solutions have robbed development of its political urgency. The hope that the crisis of food scarcity of food production can be solved by a technological innovation. In response Rieff demands that we rethink the fundamental causes of the world's grotesque inequalities and see the issue as a political challenge we are all failing to confront.
Download or read book Perspectives on partnership written by Horton, D. and published by International Potato Center. This book was released on 2009-11-30 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This paper reports on a wide-ranging review of the literature on partnerships and other closely related forms of collaboration. It aims to contribute to knowledge of the actual and potential roles of partnership in international agricultural research for development. The paper summarizes conclusions and insights from four distinct professional literatures: research studies; professional evaluation literature; practitioner-oriented reviews, guidelines and assessment tools; and CGIARrelated reviews, evaluations and policy documents. It identifies and analyzes key cross-cutting themes and success factors, highlights gaps in current knowledge, and identifies high-potential areas for further study. A wide range of research-based publications is reviewed, including studies in such fields as management and organizational development, public administration, economics and international development. Work in these fields covers such diverse topics as the role of inter-organizational collaboration in strategic management, public–private and cross-sector partnerships, North–South partnerships, roles of partnership in linking research with action, networking and transactions costs. The different literatures talk little to each other and are highly self-referential. Nevertheless, some common patterns, themes and concerns emerge related to definitions, partnership drivers and dynamics, trust and mutuality, power asymmetries and inequities, and success factors. It is noteworthy that empirical studies of partnerships are rare, particularly in-depth case studies. Theoretical pieces seldom present empirical tests of hypotheses, and practical guidelines are seldom grounded in theory. There is a clear need for more systematic and in-depth empirical research on partnership experiences. Although partnership is now considered an essential way of working in many fields, several authors caution that the costs of working in partnership may often exceed the benefits. Before establishing a partnership, one should identify a clear value-added proposition. Many reports on partnership prepared for the CGIAR are available only in grey literature, leading to difficulties in accessing them and risking a loss of knowledge. Gaps in knowledge are identified at the level of individual partnerships, the level of the organizations that participate in or manage portfolios of partnerships, and the level of research or innovation domains that are characterized by networks of partnerships
Download or read book An Introduction to Sustainable Development written by Jennifer Elliott and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2012-10-12 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This text examines the complex challenges presented by the goal of sustainable development at the local and global level. Areas covered include the challenges and opportunities for the developing world in the search for sustainable development.
Download or read book Plant Genetic Conservation written by Nigel Maxted and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2020-09-10 with total page 598 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Plant diversity sustains all animal life, and the genetic diversity within plants underpins global food security. This text provides a practical and theoretical introduction to the strategies and actions to adopt for conserving plant genetic variation, as well as explaining how humans can exploit this diversity for sustainable development. Notably readable, it initially offers current knowledge on the characterization and evaluation of plant genetic resources. The authors then discuss strategies from in situ and ex situ conservation to crop breeding, exploring how these can be used to improve food security in the face of increasing agrobiodiversity loss, human population growth and climate change. Each chapter draws on examples from the literature or the authors' research and includes further reading references. Containing other useful features such as a glossary, it is invaluable for professionals and undergraduate and graduate students in plant sciences, ecology, conservation, genetics and natural resource management.
Download or read book Dynamic Sustainabilities written by Melissa Leach and published by Earthscan. This book was released on 2010 with total page 212 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Linking environmental sustainability with poverty reduction and social justice, and making science and technology work for the poor, have become central practical, political and moral challenges of our times. These must be met in a world of rapid, interconnected change in environments, societies and economies, and globalised, fragmented governance arrangements. Yet despite growing international attention and investment, policy attempts often fail. Why is this, and what can be done about it? How might we understand and address emergent threats from epidemic disease, or the challenges of water scarcity in dryland India? In the context of climate change, how might seed systems help African farmers meet their needs, and how might appropriate energy strategies be developed? This book lays out a new 'pathways approach' to address sustainability challenges such as these in today's dynamic world. Through an appreciation of dynamics, complexity, uncertainty, differing narratives and the values-based aims of sustainability, the pathways approach allows us to see how some approaches are dominant, even though they do not produce the desired results, and how to create successful alternative 'pathways' of responding to the challenges we face. As well as offering new ways of thinking about sustainability, the book also suggests a series of practical ways forward - in tools and methods, forms of political engagement, and styles of knowledge-making and communication. Throughout the book, the practicalities of the pathways approach are illustrated using four case studies: water in dryland India, agricultural seeds in Africa, responses to epidemic disease and energy systems/climate change. Published in association with the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)
Download or read book Knowledge Partnering for Community Development written by Robyn Eversole and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-10-17 with total page 194 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Effective community development means that many different stakeholders have to work together: governments, development organizations and NGOs, and most importantly, the people they serve. Knowledge Partnering for Community Development teaches community development professionals how to mediate community needs and development agendas to make community-based solutions for development challenges. Based on the newest research in community and global development, Eversole shows readers a strong research and theoretically based framework for understanding local development processes, and gives them the skills to turn this into cutting-edge practice. Each chapter features global case studies of innovative community-state partnerships, and practical application exercises and strategies for professionals looking to bring new approaches to their research. Knowledge Partnering for Community Development is essential for community workers and students of community development looking to bridge the gap between research insight and best practice between community actors.
Download or read book Grassroots Innovation Movements written by Adrian Smith and published by Taylor & Francis. This book was released on 2016-08-25 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Innovation is increasingly invoked by policy elites and business leaders as vital for tackling global challenges like sustainable development. Often overlooked, however, is the fact that networks of community groups, activists, and researchers have been innovating grassroots solutions for social justice and environmental sustainability for decades. Unencumbered by disciplinary boundaries, policy silos, or institutional logics, these ‘grassroots innovation movements’ identify issues and questions neglected by formal science, technology and innovation organizations. Grassroots solutions arise in unconventional settings through unusual combinations of people, ideas and tools. This book examines six diverse grassroots innovation movements in India, South America and Europe, situating them in their particular dynamic historical contexts. Analysis explains why each movement frames innovation and development differently, resulting in a variety of strategies. The book explores the spaces where each of these movements have grown, or attempted to do so. It critically examines the pathways they have developed for grassroots innovation and the challenges and limitations confronting their approaches. With mounting pressure for social justice in an increasingly unequal world, policy makers are exploring how to foster more inclusive innovation. In this context grassroots experiences take on added significance. This book provides timely and relevant ideas, analysis and recommendations for activists, policy-makers, students and scholars interested in encounters between innovation, development and social movements.
