Dynamics and Diversity

* Gets behind the picture of crisis and collapse in African agriculture * Shows how farmers successfully manage their most crucial resource * Exemplary demonstration of how a new approach is needed in development policy and practice Soils are critical to agriculture and, in turn, to food supply and to livelihoods. Sustainable management of soils is crucial for a large proportion of the population of Africa. Contrary to many claims, soil fertility is improved and managed successfully by small-scale farmers there. Careful studies from widely different areas reveal how closely bound up soil management is with a whole complex of social, cultural and ecological factors - requiring a far more subtly tuned approach in development policy and practice. The book is an exemplary study of how the context of livelihood systems has to inform development policy and practice.