THIS is an unusual book,1 but unusual not because of the subjects dealt with. The author covers many fields and what he has to say on any one will probably not strike specialists in those fields as new or particularly controversial. Indeed, Phillips in his preface seems to make excuse for being brief and almost superficial. Yet, herein lies in large measure the value of the book. It is extremely readable and, because it is short, need not daunt even the busiest. The many facets are not labored, although anyone of a dozen or more could be, and some have been, the subject of a lengthy treatise. If there is one aspect which perhaps seems a little overemphasized, it is the treatment of site classification.
1PHILLIPS, John - 1961. The development of agriculture awe forestry in the tropics, 212 p. Faber and Faber, London.
What is unusual and rare is the way in which the subject is dealt with: as if it were, as indeed it is, a whole. When writing of animals or cultivation, Phillips continually draws attention to forestry, and when dealing with trees and forests, he is at pains to point out how intimately these must be woven into the pattern of land use. Phillips is probably not a professional forester but, judged from that angle, what he says on this subject is eminently sound; and it may be suspected that he is equally sound in his treatment of other subjects. On shifting cultivation he has some wise things to say which may counteract a view sometimes held, that all such practices are bad. He writes: "Enough has been said about the delicacy of balance between well-organized 'shifting cultivation' and the conservation of the soils of the forest and the wooded savanna, to indicate the dangers inherent in its enthusiastic attempted substitution by ' sedentary ' settlement. But very much more should be known about the farming and the conserving of land permanently settled before a general change could be advocated. What is now in temporary imbalance, but very soon could strike a new balance between man and soil, could become very rapidly a serious permanent imbalance: the deterioration of soil and the consequent impoverishment of crops and those endeavoring to produce them."
It is to be hoped that sometime Phillips may feel inspired to treat this large and complicated subject more fully.
Again, his approach to the huge problem of the management of watersheds is thoroughly practical: "Although manifestly an approach essential to true progress in the control of floods and consequent erosion if not devastation, the protection of watersheds large, medium and small, hitherto has not received the practical attention it demands. Unquestionably costly in really great catchments and not cheap even in medium ones, the protection of the small watersheds lies within the resources of most governments, provided they call in the moral and the practical co-operation of the local rural communities. Until funds are available for the conservation of the large and the medium watersheds, these small ones should be treated as required. This normally could be in the form of protection of the vegetation, on strategically important sites, from destruction by cultivators, fire and livestock; and the allocation of residential, arable and pastoral areas so that these do not threaten the sources of supply of water and the often readily erodible steeper slopes and drainage lines. Simple and restricted as these contributions to the protection of the small watersheds might appear to be, the resultant benefits cannot be gainsaid. Were protection to be extended to the vast number of petty watersheds in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, much water and soil would be prevented from slipping away with the floods and to the sea."
On one small point Phillips does not make the mistake, common to many papers and publications, of expecting his readers to guess when the word "agriculture" means "farming" and when it is to include "forestry." He is not scared of using the easily understood phrase "agriculture and forestry" where that is what he means.
Perhaps, however, the main importance of this book is its realism - the reiteration that men, women and children in their communities and tribes, with all their religions and mystic beliefs, their unthinking adherence to tradition and customs, are a basic factor along the way toward freedom from hunger and want. They are not something outside nature but are a country's most important natural resource. Phillips refers to his own experience thus: "From working with farmers and others living near the soil and from the experience of others, I find it abundantly clear that ultimately the success of attempted developments in soil and water conservation and reclamation, the raising of the agricultural productivity of a community, and the establishing and maintaining in sound heart of any form of large-scale project in crop, livestock, or timber production depend upon factors and circumstances beyond the purely scientific, technical, managerial, and economic. The understanding of the traditions, attitudes, foibles, idiosyncrasies - call them what the psychologist will - of the local peoples is the first step toward the winning of their hearts, their minds, their confidence, and thus the energy of their bodies and the power these can generate."
And again he writes: "However sound the technical approaches may be as to both the mechanical (or engineering) aspects and the biological (or crop production and livestock husbandry) ones, the full success feasible under the local circumstances not be attained unless the psychological victory be won. The spirit of the people must be evoked. With this all things are possible, within reason, but without this, the administration - even a national one - will expend time, energy, money and much patience in striving to do for the people what they should want to do for themselves."
European and North American scientists and technicians may know the way to double or treble agricultural output for some given set of soil and climatic conditions but, if the achievement of this must disrupt drastically the peoples' way of life, is the forceful introduction of these new techniques likely to achieve its real objective? Should the phrase "a higher living standard" mean the same thing in Europe as in Africa? Can it be measured in terms of calories?
There is much wisdom in this book for those who work in or for the underdeveloped parts of the world, based as it is, partly at any rate, on Phillips' own experience in missions on behalf of the World Bank. "Technical assistance certainly should not, like the proverbial gift horse, be 'looked in the mouth,' but in the nature of the task awaiting him the average technical assistance officer from abroad has much to learn before he himself can be of much practical significance locally." If it could be made compulsory reading for all experts working in bilateral or multilateral aid programs, whether of long experience or new to this work, the equipment of these men and women for their tasks would be more nearly complete.
Phillips emphasizes all through his book the importance of taking care of biotic balance. "What is perhaps even more disquieting is the knowledge that quite a fair proportion of the foreign advisors, supposedly leading the local people toward higher standards of agriculture, themselves show insufficient understanding of the vital nature of the biotic balance."
He never implies that this concept should inhibit development, but he gives a warning of the danger of introducing new and large-scale patterns of agricultural production and of the facile assumption that existing patterns must be wrong.
In the many and varied aid programs, many and varied "approaches" are adopted and discarded, but there can be few who would cast doubts on the rightness for work in agriculture and forestry in the tropics - or indeed in any region - of an ecological approach, which is the theme of this book and which Phillips defines as "the study of the reciprocal relations of living organisms - plants, animals and man - and their environment."
H. B. P.
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FINNISH FORESTER JOINS FAO DR. NILS ARTHUR OSARA, formerly Director-General of the Finnish State Forestry Board, has been appointed Deputy Director of the Forestry and Forest Products Division of the Food and Agriculture Organization. Dr. Osara replaces SIB HENRY BERESFORD-PEIRSE, who has returned to the United Kingdom as Director-General of the Forestry Commission of Great Britain. A wartime member of the Finnish Government, Dr. Osara was appointed Minister of Supplies and Forestry during 1943-44. From 1938 to 1948 he was Professor of Forestry Economics at the forest research [institute. He then became Director of the Central Forestry Association, Tapio, from 1948 to 1962, before going on to head the Finnish State Forestry Board. During this time, from 1937 to 1952, he was also associate lecturer on forest policy at the University of Helsinki. Dr. Osara has been official delegate of Finland on many occasions, the most recent being this year as member of a Nordic mission to Tanganyika. He has held the position of chairman on the board of many Finnish forestry and forest industry companies. He has been connected with the activities of FAO on behalf of the Finnish Government since 1948, and has taken part in various World Forestry Congresses since 1936. Dr. Osara has published a considerable number of works and technical articles on small woodlands, forest statistics, fuels and promotion of farm forestry, and has been the editor of various Finnish journals and newspapers on forestry. |
