Rising concerns about agricultural productivity and food security in rapidly changing economic and environmental contexts have led to renewed interest in agricultural development. But the extent to which new policies and programs will enable socially just and environmentally sustainable futures for rural communities remains a matter of intense debate. This book contributes to such debates by critically examining the intersection of agricultural histories, heterogeneous social contexts and new technological developments in rural communities across the Global South. It shows how experiences of the previous Green Revolution can inform new agricultural programs and enable equitable and participatory development in rural places. Through close engagement with rural communities, this book ensures that rural voices become part of the debate on agricultural development and suggests pathways for building on the gains of the Green Revolution without necessarily repeating its problematic social, technological and environmental aspects. This book was published as a special issue of the International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability.

Genetically modified crops have become a key element of development strategies across the Global South, despite remaining deeply controversial. Proponents hail them as an example of 'pro-poor' innovation, while critics regard them as a threat to food sovereignty and the environment. The promotion of biotechnology is an integral part of 'new Green Revolution for Africa' interventions and is also intimately linked to the rise of 'philanthrocapitalism,' which advances business solutions to address the problem of poverty. Through interviews with farmers, policymakers and agricultural scientists, Jacqueline Ignatova shows how efforts to transform the seed sector in northern Ghana – one of the key laboratories of this 'new Green Revolution' – may serve to exacerbate the inequality it was notionally intended to address. But she also argues that its effects in Ghana have been far more complex than either side of the debate has acknowledged, with local farmers proving adept at blending traditional and modern agricultural methods that subvert the interests of global agribusiness.

This collection explores why engineering communication constitutes sociotechnical communication. Sociotechnical communication acknowledges that engineering communication occurs not in a vacuum but shapes and is shaped by multiple social forces. Through diverse research cases, the authors show how sociotechnical communication disrupts common myths in engineering communication: the myth that communication can be purely technical and neutral, and that data speak for themselves. The book highlights these myths, considering first how styles, types, and means of sociotechnical communication played pivotal—and differing—roles in the evolution of wind power technology in Denmark and Germany. The role of myth in engineering blogs in also examined, wherein the effect of engineers maintaining "objective" or "neutral" personae, accentuating technical facts over their social relevance, and eschewing controversy, is to decrease public interest in engineering issues. We see the myths emerge again via product development engineers, whose narrow technical roles constrain their identities and may contribute to constraining their design innovation capacities, in contrast to more holistic, flexible spaces that foster innovation. The myths are also apparent in constructing bridges across Millennial-Baby Boomer generational divides, to facilitate engineering collaboration and knowledge transfer among engineers. Finally, the myths are situated in light of related myths and broader research trends in engineering communication. This book was originally published as a special issue of Engineering Studies.

Awarded honourable mention for the 2024 GFASG Book Award. How do we achieve food security for a global population now over 7 billion people and trending towards 10 billion by 2050? This study of the global dairy industry examines how to balance our needs with those of animals and the environment. It scrutinises ruminant bovines' worrying exhaling of methane, a greenhouse gas which, fortunately, evidence shows can be reduced by adding seaweed to cattle feed. Are the multi-thousand-cow mega-dairies of the USA appropriate models for Africa and Asia's high-growth dairy regions, where so many women are smallholders? Is it ethical to keep cows in confined animal feeding operations (CAFOs), eating unnatural high-energy/low fibre diets when they prefer grazing pasture? Other issues include hormones for oestrus stimulation, and GMOs for milk yield, stressing cows' immune systems and drastically shortening longevity. This book offers multifaceted discussion of the central and ancillary issues relevant to dairying, and consumption of plant- and laboratory-based foods in the 21st century. No book to date offers such a comprehensive overview, linking ethics, environment, health and policy-making with in-depth coverage of the major dairy farming regions of the world.

The Handbook Philosophy of Technology and Engineering Sciences addresses numerous issues in the emerging field of the philosophy of those sciences that are involved in the technological process of designing, developing and making of new technical artifacts and systems. These issues include the nature of design, of technological knowledge, and of technical artifacts, as well as the toolbox of engineers. Most of these have thus far not been analyzed in general philosophy of science, which has traditionally but inadequately regarded technology as mere applied science and focused on physics, biology, mathematics and the social sciences. - First comprehensive philosophical handbook on technology and the engineering sciences - Unparalleled in scope including explorative articles - In depth discussion of technical artifacts and their ontology - Provides extensive analysis of the nature of engineering design - Focuses in detail on the role of models in technology

Rising concerns about agricultural productivity and food security in rapidly changing economic and environmental contexts have led to renewed interest in agricultural development. But the extent to which new policies and programs will enable socially just and environmentally sustainable futures for rural communities remains a matter of intense debate. This book contributes to such debates by critically examining the intersection of agricultural histories, heterogeneous social contexts and new technological developments in rural communities across the Global South. It shows how experiences of the previous Green Revolution can inform new agricultural programs and enable equitable and participatory development in rural places. Through close engagement with rural communities, this book ensures that rural voices become part of the debate on agricultural development and suggests pathways for building on the gains of the Green Revolution without necessarily repeating its problematic social, technological and environmental aspects. This book was published as a special issue of the International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability.

The Green Revolution – the apparently miraculous increase in cereal crop yields achieved in the 1960s – came under severe criticism in the 1970s because of its demands for optimal irrigation, intensive use of fertilisers and pesticides; its damaging impact on social structures; and its monoculture approach. The early 1980s saw a concerted approach to many of these criticisms under the auspices of Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR). This book, first published in 1987, analyses the recent achievements of the CGIAR and examines the Green Revolution concept in South America, Asia and Africa, from an ‘ecodevelopment’ standpoint, with particular regard to the plight of the rural poor. The work is characterised by a concern for the ecological and social dimensions of agricultural development,which puts the emphasis on culturally compatible, labour absorbing and environmentally sustainable food production which will serve the long term needs of developing countries.

Food security is one of the twenty-first century’s key global challenges, and lessons learned from India have particular significance worldwide. Not only does India account for approximately one quarter of the world’s under-nourished persons, it also provides a worrying case of how rapid economic growth may not provide an assumed panacea to food security. This book takes on this challenge. It explains how India’s chronic food security problem is a function of a distinctive interaction of economic, political and environmental processes. It contends that under-nutrition and hunger are lagging components of human development in India precisely because the interfaces between these aspects of the food security problem have not been adequately understood in policy-making communities. Only through an integrative approach spanning the social and environmental sciences, are the fuller dimensions of this problem revealed. A well-rounded appreciation of the problem is required, informed by the FAO’s conception of food security as encompassing availability (production), access (distribution) and utilisation (nutritional content), as well as by Amartya Sen’s notions of entitlements and capabilities.

This Handbook provides insights to the ways in which globalisation is affecting the whole agri-food system from farms to the consumer. It covers themes including the physical basis of agriculture, the influence of trade policies, the nature of globalis

Based on a case study in Ethiopia, this paper shows that while farmers understand the social nature of community-managed irrigation, they share a narrow understanding of pump irrigation with policymakers as being primarily ‘technical’. They perceive pumps as liberating them from the ‘social’ limitations of traditional communal irrigation. However, the rapid expansion of pump irrigation is leading to increasing competition and conflict over limited water resources. We analyze the wider implications for Africa of this lack of visibility of the social dimension of pump irrigation, and offer suggestions for future policy and applied research to address the problem before it becomes a widespread crisis.