1st Edition

Challenging Post-conflict Environments Sustainable Agriculture

By Alpaslan Özerdem, Rebecca Roberts Copyright 2012
    294 Pages
    by Routledge

    294 Pages
    by Routledge

    Crossing disciplinary boundaries, this volume by Özerdem and Roberts conceptualizes the challenges of developing sustainable agriculture in post-conflict environments as well as identifying the policies and practical solutions to achieve sustainable agricultural production which is central to the survival of humanity. Without sustainable agriculture, populations remain vulnerable increasing the likelihood of a return to conflict. Therefore, sustainable agriculture is central to effective post-conflict recovery that provides human security as well as stability and rule of law. Unique in combining a comprehensive and comparative understanding of sustainable agriculture challenges in post-conflict environments, there is originality in the interdisciplinary nature of the book. Interdisciplinary often means bringing together a political scientist and a sociologist, but in this case it means bringing together natural and social scientists, as well as those with practical experience in development and agricultural contexts. By adopting a holistic multi-disciplinary approach which identifies key themes and case studies, this book sets the scene for the debate surrounding sustainable agriculture in post-conflict environments. Seeing 'fixing' agriculture as more than merely a technical matter, the volume focuses on this critical post-conflict challenge with social, political and cultural characteristics and consequences as well as the obvious economic ones.

    Introduction; I: Concepts, Issues and Challenges; 1: Global Agriculture and the Challenge of Sustainability; 2: The Impact of Conflict on Agriculture and Post-conflict Reconstruction Challenges; 3: Projections on Future Challenges; II: Impact of Conflict on Agriculture; 4: The Effects of Civil War on Agricultural Development and Rural Livelihood in Sierra Leone; 5: How Conflict Affected Agriculture in Nepal; 6: The Legacy of War; 7: Women in Aceh; III: The Recovery of the Agriculture Sector; 8: Taking an Agroecological Approach to Recovery; 9: Post-apartheid Struggles; 10: Cambodia; 11: Avoiding Dairy Aid Traps; 12: Explicitly Licit; 13: Olive Trees; 14: Practical Action in North Darfur; 15: Agricultural Information amid Conflict; 16: Youth, Associations and Urban Food Security in Post-war Sierra Leone; 17: The Only Way to Produce Food is to Cooperate and Reconcile? Failures of Cooperative Agriculture in Post-war Sierra Leone; IV: Conclusion; 18: Concluding Remarks

    Biography

    Alpaslan Özerdem, Rebecca Roberts

    ’The rehabilitation of agricultural livelihoods has long been problematic for societies recovering from conflict and for donor agencies involved in post-conflict development. This ground-breaking book features interdisciplinary cooperation in international relations and development studies and impressive fieldwork in a range of post-conflict settings. It provides an indispensable antidote to the urban-centric preoccupations of academics in the peacebuilding industry.’ Michael Pugh, University of Bradford, UK 'In many rural societies, the issues of land tenure and agricultural development and sustainability are central to any prospect of success in postconflict reconstruction. Yet this is one of the most understudied aspects of rebuilding wartorn societies. Drs. Ozerdem and Roberts have provided a valuable service in addressing these issues in their timely new volume. Practitioners and scholars alike will find this pathbreaking study filled with keen practical and conceptual insights into the challenges of agricultural sustainability.' Fen Osler Hampson, Carleton University, Canada