Soils, Land and Food

An extensive review of the prospects for 21st century agriculture by the Emeritus Professor of Soil Science at Reading University. The key for Wild is managing the land, which involves maintaining soil fertility, controlling land degradation, raising yields and managing change of land use. The book is very strong on conventional analysis and forecasts, but has less to say about economic issues such as the terms of trade and balance between cash and food crops in developing countries. Nor does the author even refer the significance of new agro-ecological initiatives - Jules Pretty, Norman Uphoff and Miguel Altieri, for instance, do not feature in the bibliography. A thorough book in other respects, but it could have gone further.