Agricultural revolution

J. A. Perkins. The Agricultural Revolution in Germany, 1850-1914. Journal of European Economic History. 10 (1981) 71-144. 

Overton M. Agricultural Revolution in England. London, UK Cambridge University Press 1996. 

Paul Richards, Indigenous Agricultural Revolution Ecology and Food Production in West Africa (London Unwin Hyman, 1985), p. 160 in this chapter I rely heavily on this brilliant book. Richards is committed to scientific agricultural research but insists that it examine, without prejudice, the existing practices of African farmers and that it reflect the actual problems and goals of local cultivators. 

Richards, Indigenous Agricultural Revolution, p. 50. Richards continues The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies, W. G. A. Ormsby-Gore, summed up the attitude of the day when noting that in Sierra Leone, for example, the natural forest has been ruthlessly destroyed to find virgin soil for the cultivation of hill or land rice (pp. 50-51). 

Richards, Indigenous Agricultural Revolution, p. 43. In this context Richards is accepting the premise that the only test is market efficiency, providing that it is sustainable. 

D. S. Ngambeki and G. F. Wilson, Moving Research to Farmers Fields, International Institute of Tropical Agriculture Research Briefs, 4 4, 1,7-8, quoted in Kichards, Indigenous Agricultural Revolution, p. 143. 

Figure 35. Photograph from Paul Richards, Indigenous Agricultural Revolutions Ecology and Food Production in West Africa (London Unwin Hyman, 1985), plate 3. Courtesy of Paul Richards.

Collins, K. Marx on the English agricultural revolution, HistoryamfTbeiory6(i967), 351-81. 

We first consider the effects of the agricultural revolution and ask whether the modification of the Earth s ecosystems may influence the atmosphere. In tropical regions, for example (Brazil, Central Africa, Southeast Asia), large regions of forest and savannah are burned for agricultural reasons. It has been estimated that 160000 km2 of wooded land are destroyed each year (e.g., Kandel, 1980). The combustion... 

The Mushm agricultural revolution flourished during the Islamic golden age in various parts of Asia and Africa, as well as in Europe. Islamic hydraulic engineers built water management technological complexes, consisting of dams, canals, screw pumps, and norias, which are wheels that lift water from a river into an aqueduct. 

There will be less opposition to reform when there are mechanisms to compensate losers or to assist the poor who often become poorer during a downturn less opposition to reform allows for better macroeconomic policy and growth. Rodrik (1998) provides supporting empirics for this premise, looking at the presence of mechanisms for societal conflict resolution (safety nets and social insurance among them), macroeconomic policies, and robust growth. See box 2.4 for how the U.S. Federal Reserve Board chairman recently explained the issue in a business context and box 2.5 for an account of how the British Poor Laws helped fuel the agricultural revolution which in turn fueled the industrial revolution. 

Why did these ancestors of ours change such a pleasant way of life What brought about the Agricultural Revolution ... 

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