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Farmers' extension practice and technology adaptation: Agricultural revolution in 17–19th century Britain

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Abstract

The challenge of producing sufficient food to feed a growing world population cannot now be met by industrialized and green revolution agriculture as production is currently at or above a sustainable level. Future growth has to occur on resource-poor and marginal lands, where farmers have little or no access to external resources or research and extension support. A precedent for such growth occurred during the agricultural revolution in Britain. Over a period of two centuries crop and livestock production increased 3–4 fold as innovative technologies and techniques developed by farmers were extended to other farmers through tours, farmer groups, open days, and publications, and then adapted to local conditions by rigorous experimentation. These technologies maximized the use of on-farm resources at a time when there was no government ministry of agriculture, no research stations, and no extension institutions. But at the same time as this revolution in on-farm resource use, agriculture also expanded into uncultivated lands, increasing aggregate production but destroying common property resources and so threatening the livelihoods of the poor.

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1. I am very grateful to E.J.T. Collins, Gavin Bowie, and Robert Rhoades, together with two anonymous referees, for their valuable comments and suggestions, and to Ken Smith for the illustrations.

Jules N. Pretty is Director of the Sustainable Agriculture Programme at the International Institute for Environment and Development, London. The Programme conducts collaborative policy-oriented research into a range of agricultural development issues, including agricultural pollution, wild resources and livelihoods, rural people's knowledge and extension practice, and local level adaptive planning. In addition to this research he has conducted field-based training courses in Africa and Asia and workshop-based courses in Europe and North America that focus on appropriate methods and techniques for people-centered rural investigation. He is an agricultural ecologist by training, and has written widely, including a recent article on the sustainability of English agriculture in the middle ages.

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Pretty, J.N. Farmers' extension practice and technology adaptation: Agricultural revolution in 17–19th century Britain. Agric Hum Values 8, 132–148 (1991). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01579666

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