Tales from an Itinerant Agronomist

Learning from people, places and writings for a more equitable, systemic and sustainable world

by David Gibbon

An autobiographical, historical account of the author’s agricultural and rural development experiences.

Includes analyses of historical and socio-political contexts of different countries and institutions.

The text is in a relaxed, not strictly academic, style which facilitates easy reading.

Tales from an Itinerant Agronomist covers a lifelong dedication to systems thinking and learning in agriculture and rural development. It follows the author’s own experiences, based at Universities and within International Aid programmes, developing farm and rural livelihood systems for small scale farming families.

Covering extended time spent at educational and research institutions over the last 60 years; including Trinidad, Tanzania, Botswana, Sudan, Syria, Nepal and Namibia, and short periods in many other countries.

The book looks at cross cutting themes including; the role of animal power in small farm systems, the performance of some agricultural and rural development educational institutions: Leeds University, UWI (Trinidad), University of East Anglia (Norwich,UK), WAU (Netherlands), SLU (Sweden) and a selected analysis of some trends and themes in agricultural research.

Enriched by the inputs and experiences from many different farmers, colleagues and partnerships, Tales From an Itinerant Agronomist is suitable for readers with an interest in agriculture, farming, rural development, the environment and sustainability.

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About the Author

David Gibbon

I am a freelance researcher, trainer and consultant in Agricultural and Rural Livelihood Systems. I have headed many agricultural research projects and programs in Africa, Asia and Latin America and also participated in several European projects.

I have 40 years of teaching, supervising and examining students, both UK undergraduate and international graduate students, in a variety of countries. I have been heavily involved in monitoring and evaluation of agricultural systems research, education and development as well as participatory engagement in local food projects, farmers markets, agri environmental schemes, farming & tourism and community agroforestry/forest gardening.