An Agricultural Testament (Hardback)

This book is one of the 20th century classics about sustainable agriculture. For all those who read, digest, consider and experiment, this book is a veritable treasure trove of information.The author spent 40 years as an agricultural researcher in various parts of the British Commonwealth, notably the West Indies and, principally, in India. Far from being a know-it-all, he saw the 'Indian peasant farmers' as 'his professors'. He learned from them how to maintain and enhance soil fertility where extreme heat, rainfall etc occur and considered their kind of agriculture one of the best examples of intergenerational sustainability around. His book is a summary of all that he discovered, achieved and shared during his research life.Sir Albert's central thesis concerning sustainable agriculture is that, for many crops, the interaction between plant roots and soil fungi is critical. He was healthily skeptical of the use of chemical fertilisers, finding through experiment that such fertilisers are alone insufficient to maintain soil fertility. Biological fertilisers, most notably humus, are the key requirement in his eyes and much of the book is devoted to descriptions of how to optimise the production of this compost. A process he termed the Indore process (named after the institute in India where he carried out research for many years) is his lasting legacy to global agriculture and his long-term experiments on several crops show how yields can be increased sustainably through judicious use of humus during the growing cycle.The book should be read by all the know-it-all politicians who wish to ban domestic gardeners from mixing their own organic waste with farmyard waste (which may have been imposed as a means to appease chemical fertiliser producers). Their eyes might be opened to just what they have been doing with their HSE mantras.....assuming their minds are sufficiently scientific and intellectually developed to benefit from reading such a Chateau Mouton de Rothschild of the organic agricultural literature.....One hopes that sufficient numbers of organic gardeners will also read it to either open their eyes, confirm their own experiences or simply allow them to appreciate the work of a perhaps under-lauded member of the 20th century research community.

A seminal work for anyone interested in organic growing. Sir Albert recognised that in order to grow healthy plants the soil itself must be nurtured and fed. He emphasises the value of composting and obeying Nature's laws of return where decaying animal and vegetable waste is part of the circle of growth. Very relevant in the world today when people are beginning to realise that using chemicals in agriculture is unsustainable. A brilliant and until now neglected book for "green" growers and those who need to understand real soil fertility and why and how it works.

Writen in 1940. This man was 70 years ahead of his time. Look at current thinking on "no till" farming, zero input and "mob grazing" etc.Fantastic forethought.

Very fit for research purposes

Thank you!!!!

Howard observed and came to support traditional Indian farming practices over conventional agricultural science. Though he journeyed to India to teach Western agricultural techniques he found that the Indians could in fact teach him more. One important aspect he took notice of was the connection between healthy soil and the villages' healthy populations, livestock and crop. He had the keen sense to recognise important principles in traditional Indian farming methods and the humility to document and acknowledge them. His pioneering work started off a movement in the West that is becoming increasingly relevant with each day.

Sir Albert Howard's book is a must read for anyone interested in agriculture. His main concern is the health of the land, the crops, animals, and humans. The knowledge he spent his lifetime acquiring is largely based on his observations of the natural world and of the millenial farming methods of the Eastern civilizations, particularly India and China, where crops were grown organically through centuries without loss of fertility, erosion, or desertification of land.These practices constitute, what today we call organic farming, and about which there is much confusion in the court of public opinion. In part, this confusion is maintained by corporate interests, keen on maintaining strong demand for artificial fertilizers, pesticides, antibiotics and other chemicals.Howard's book is a good reminder that organic farming is perfectly sustainable and highly productive - possibly more so than the conventional methods of mining minerals and nutrients out of the land and thus depleting its fertility. An Agricultural Testament shows that in nature, health is robust and pervasive (as we're likely to observe in the wilderness), and that healthy crops without chemicals are possible, given the right methods of maintaining the health of the land.On the negative side, Howard's writing could perhaps be improved. Nevertheless, I don't hesitate to rate this book 5 stars for the importance and authoritativeness of its contents.

Gets the brain looking into new processes

should be required reading in school ...the narrative of a young british biologist that went to India,after 20 yrs, returned to the UK in 1940 and wrote the narrative of theancient indian agriculture indian that '...the western world has nothing that canmatch the level of sophistication, quality and production levels that was developed by the Indians....'

Excellent condition

Um livro essencial para qualquer agricultor.

gutes Buch, günstig

Good book but costly