Suchergebnisse

This book consists of 15 papers by different authors, some of
whom contributing more than one chapter. The papers were presented in a
series of semi¬nars given on the University of Florida campus during the
period between January and November 1966. As such, the authors were not
brought together as is increasingly the case nowadays when one sees a
collection of papers related to the problems of economic development and
agriculture. Each author worked independently of the others. As the
editor admits, there are duplications of ideas as well as differences in
ideas among the authors. Editorial revisions of the papers were kept to
a minimum and the reconciliation of these duplications and differences
is left to the reader.

This book is a unique example of research on Indian
agriculture that begins at the village level and works upward and
outward to the development block, the district, and ultimately the
state. It is based on the author's own field work in four Indian
villages, in Utter Pradesh, Madras, and Maharashtra, where he and his
family lived during 1963/64. Utilizing his ability to talk to ordinary
people in Hindi, relying mainly on such first-hand sources of
information as village land records, block and district plans, and
minutes of local councils as well as interviews with farmers, the author
attempts meticulously to reach conclusions based on the knowledge of
what is practicable in the rural economy of India.

Jewish agricultural settlement since the 1880's can be
characterized by two unique features: the urban, educated people settled
and became farmers of their own free will; and the agricultural
settlement was carefully planned, first on the farm unit level, and
later on the regional and national levels. On both of these the Israeli
experience is unique in that each is the reverse of the usual process
observable elsewhere. During the twelve years following the attain¬ment
of statehood in 1948 Israel absorbed successfully over 1.25 million
immi¬grants into agriculture, over two-thirds of whom had none or
limited degree of familiarity with the "modern" agriculture, as they
came from North Africa, Asia, and the Middle East. Nonetheless, they
became part of a highly technical and organized farming system. Between
1950 and 1965, total agricultural pro¬duction in Israel increased by 500
per cent. The productivity of labour in agri-/. culture rose at a
remarkable annual rate of 10.8 per cent between 1955 and 1959 and at
11.2 per cent between 1958 and 1963.

It is now established that the encouraging performance of the
agriculture of West Pakistan during the second-plan period took place
largely as a result of water-resource development in which private
tubewells were particularly important1. According to the pioneering
study by the Late Ghulam Mohammad, additional water made available by
the tubewells enabled the farmers to: "/) increase the depth of
irrigation for existing crops; ii) increase the intensity of cropping by
eliminating fallowing and by double cropping; Hi) grow more valuable
crops like cotton, rice, fruits and vegetables; iv) increase the use of
fertilizer; v) increase the efficiency of bullock use; and vi) increase
the output per manual worker" [4, p. 44].