Facilitating Sustainable Agriculture: Participatory Learning and Adaptive Management in Times of Environmental Uncertaintyстатья из журнала
Аннотация: Pp. iv + 318. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge. £55·00 (hardback, ISBN 0-521-58174-5. Prof. Röling has a mission in life. He wants us to set our minds to the task of defining the Next Big Thing in Agricultural Development. Agricultural Development (as distinct from agricultural development) is part of the last great nationalized industry: the Aid Industry. It takes its marching orders not from the voice of the market but from the Babel of civil servants, planners and academics. Every so often, one voice cries out louder than the others, and a Model is born, a Paradigm shifted, a Fashion begun. Who can forget the greatest hits of yesteryear – the co-operative movement? Integrated Rural Development Projects? the T & V System? Each had its champions, each had its moment of glory as the definitive model that would put global agriculture to rights, and each has been discredited by its application to the real world. The Big Things of the 1990s have tended to eschew prescription in favour of encouragement. They have been dominated not by carefully planned and specific structures but by general statements of belief, usually summed up by a buzzword: gender, participation, sustainability. So how does this robustly priced book, edited by Prof. Röling and Ir Wagemakers, both of Wageningen Agricultural University, portray the future for the Agricultural Development Industry, and what will the new model look like? The book is divided into five parts. The first of these, an introduction, includes an attempt by the editors not to define the concept of sustainability: ‘securing agreement on what people shall take sustainability to mean for a given environment, is half the job of getting there.’ Although later the introduction tells us that ‘the term “sustainable agriculture” implies regenerative practices which optimally use locally available resources and natural processes, such as nutrient recycling; build on bio-diversity; regenerate and develop natural resources; and limit the use of external inputs of agro-chemicals, minerals, and nonrenewable energy.’ Contributions from Jules Pretty and James Woodhill look at, respectively, the general policy requirements for an increase in agricultural sustainability, and the human dimension in sustainability. This chapter contains within it perhaps the single most important message of the book: sustainability does not come from a set of rules imposed upon humanity, but is rather the result of continuous dialogue between the various stakeholders (defined here as ‘natural resource users and managers’, which must include all of us). The dialogue required, though, is no mere talking: it is ‘social learning’. Inevitably, there is no definition of ‘social learning’; we are brought to an understanding through concepts such as: ‘participatory multilayered democratic process’, ‘critical self-reflection’, ‘address[ing] issues of social structure’ and ‘a framework for thinking about the knowledge processes that underlie societal adaptation and innovation’. The book goes on to present case studies from around the world that illustrate attempts to find sustainable solutions to agricultural problems. Part II looks in more detail at environmental policies and farmers’ reactions to these. Case studies from Switzerland, Greece and the Netherlands emphasize the traditional concentration of resources in support of ‘progressive farmers’ and discuss the need for support for farmers in less favoured areas. That all of the case studies emphasize the official mechanisms for farmer support, particularly the extension services, illustrates that there is still a great deal of faith in supply side remedies to farming problems. Indeed, the book lacks a ‘demand’ perspective: agriculture is about producing food; we all eat food; we all want the best possible food (not the cheapest possible, nor the most possible). The wishes of consumers are acknowledged implicitly rather than directly; perhaps a more detailed discussion of consumer demands upon the food production systems would be appropriate in a book of this scope. Part III, the longest section, concentrates on support for farm-level learning about sustainable agriculture. Nadet Somers contrasts four approaches, ranging from little more than being eco-aware to complete and strict organic production. She concludes by stressing the need for extension to move away from the transfer of technical expertise and towards the ‘facilitation of a learning process for both farmer and extensionist’. Gelia Castillo, in one of only two contributions that deal specifically with developing countries, looks at the role of agricultural research in encouraging sustainability. She highlights the complexity that is typical of most farming units, in contrast with the traditional approach to natural science research, where complexity is removed in order to assess the impact of one or two variables only. She calls for a new research paradigm (looking for models again!) which encourages or even depends upon researchers responding to the real needs of farmers, and incorporates fully the farmers’ knowledge of problems and potential. Natural resource use negotiation between managers, owners and users is covered in Part IV. Four chapters present examples of stakeholder fora, but all concentrate on the relationship between farmers and government, or some other formal policy influencing body. John Fisk reports on the successes of a series of ‘Integrated Farming System’ projects in the USA. The aim is to devise technologies and technology-transfer mechanisms that support resource-efficient integrated farming, as well as developing communication between all stakeholders. Andrew Campbell highlights the National Landcare Programme (NLP) in Australia: public funds contribute to well over 200 staff of the NLP, who support about 2700 Landcare groups. These are, essentially, self-help groups of (mostly) rural people who gather to solve problems that cannot be solved by individual action: increasing groundwater salinity, nature conservation, erosion, pest and weed management, and so on. Campbell’s emphasis is on the interaction between the group members, the people skills rather than the technical competence. Professors Röling and Jiggins make the final contribution in the form of a synthesis: the Ecological Knowledge System. This is contrasted with two older types of knowledge system: transfer of technology, which sees farmers as potential customers of research products who can be swayed to ‘buy’ a technology by good advertising (extension); and farm management development, which sees the farmer as entrepreneur and manager of a complex business. The Ecological Knowledge System is not yet as clearly defined (perhaps inevitably) as these others, and so cannot be presented as a model. Some of the contributors to this book specifically prohibit attempts to impose their solutions on other people’s problems. Prof. Röling, despite alluding to ‘a model which can guide decisions about investment, the design of organizations and institutional linkages, staff deployment and training, and so forth’ seems to be leading us gently and, almost certainly correctly, towards the unsettling notion that rural development is just too complex, too dynamic and too uncertain for models – universal or otherwise – to be of much use. In a world without models, the collection of thoughtful and wisely chosen case studies included in this book, and the erudite guide through them, will serve as a useful addition to policy-makers’ bookshelves. My great worry is that, as it does not claim to solve all problems with a single model, it will not be read by those in the Industry who most need to read it.
Год издания: 1999
Авторы: L. Gudgeon
Издательство: Wiley
Источник: Journal of Applied Ecology
Ключевые слова: Agricultural Innovations and Practices, Agriculture and Rural Development Research
Открытый доступ: bronze
Том: 36
Выпуск: 5
Страницы: 845–846