Food Security in Africa and Asia: Strategies for Small-scale Agricultural Development

Authored by an experienced agriculturalist with substantial field experience in developing countries, this book adds to the literature on food security by proposing practical measures for improving plant-based food security in Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa. Covering issues affecting food security, the book discusses ways of measuring farmers' resources, strategies for action, and an analysis of the challenges and problems faced, concluding with a discussion of ways in which stakeholders could work better together.

Table of Contents:
I: Introduction 1: Defining the Food Security Problem 2: Evaluating the Resources of Small-scale and Subsistence Farmers 3: Alternative Approaches Examined 4: The Need for a Participatory Approach 5: Researching the Situation to Define Strategies 6: Challenges Presented by Natural and Man-made Factors 7: The Competition for Resources for Food Production 8: Monitoring Intervention Strategies in Different Farming Systems 9: Small-scale and Subsistence Farmers' Households and Selected Farming Systems 10: Liaison of International, National and Local Agencies II: Conclusion I: Introduction 1: Defining the Food Security Problem 2: Evaluating the Resources of Small-scale and Subsistence Farmers 3: Alternative Approaches Examined 4: The Need for a Participatory Approach 5: Researching the Situation to Define Strategies 6: Challenges Presented by Natural and Man-made Factors 7: The Competition for Resources for Food Production 8: Monitoring Intervention Strategies in Different Farming Systems 9: Small-scale and Subsistence Farmers' Households and Selected Farming Systems 10: Liaison of International, National and Local Agencies 11: Conclusion

About the Author :
Henk Bakker was born on the 18th November 1926 in the Netherlands. After qualifying in tropical agriculture, he left the Netherlands in 1949 to work on agricultural projects in Indonesia (1949-1958) and Mozambique (1958-1974). He earned the title "ING" (Netherlands Professional Engineer) in 1967, based on work done in drainage of agricultural land in Mozambique. Mr Bakker has since worked for Booker Tate, including a time in Guyana, before becoming self-employed and working worldwide. He earned an MScDevMgmt in Development Management in 2002, and has written a number of books.

Review :
"The greatest treasure of this book consists in its short, concise chapters with a narrow focus dealing with the problems of food security--no long or elaborate introduction or super-extensive review of available literature. As each chapter has been linked to each other, it is easy to understand in a step by step fashion. This book also has a simple style, and is short, yet comprehensive, with the necessary information, avoiding monotony, repetition and excessive examples. This book is a good guideline source for scientists, researchers, policy makers, consultants, farmers, and agriculturists in the AFR and SA regions. It is a good source of information for students in the fields of agriculture, communication and social sciences. To the best of our knowledge this book is the first of its kind to raise the issue of food security for SA and AFR regions and suggest solutions based on small scale agricultural development."--Aakash Goyal and M. Asif, University of Alberta (10/1/2012 12:00:00 AM)