Agriculture in Peril

The book "Agriculture in Peril: Disaster for World Food Problems" was based on experience of the author in Nigeria and in Diaspora, United Kingdom. Before he left Nigeria in 2001 for the Golden Fleece in UK; he had a large documentary on "Sustainable Agriculture and Rural Development" for UNDP-Ebonyi State Supported Programme, where he embarked on thriller trips of all nooks and crannies of Ebonyi State, Nigeria in search of possible and solutions to sustainable agriculture and rural development. What he saw was baffling.When he arrived UK, the scenario changed based on trips to countryside, an organized landscape, agriculture and food system. The shocker was the fact that all food are produced and sold on factory lines and supermarkets. The first trip to Tescos Stores Ltd revealed it all. All roads lead to super giants like Tescos, Asda, Sainsbury and others for 7 days x 4 weeks x 12 months x 24 hours a year for all food requirements. It is a criminal offence to buy live chicken and take home to slaughter for menu as done in Nigeria. To many foreign kids most agricultural produce including chickens may have been synthesised biochemically as many have never seen a live chicken all their life. To add insult to authors injury, many British Universities do not have agricultural programmes as major disciplines; except sometimes embedding them in biological and environmental sciences. Even in primary and high school curricular, there is none like that. The author has never heard any kid in Sixth Form mention of reading agriculture as a profession; but Medicine; Nursing; Public Health; Law; Computer Science and others. In far away United States; Germany; Russia; France; Italy; Canada; Mexico and other European countries; North and South America, the "rich also cry" agriculture are now in vested hands of less than 1% of World Citizens, Companies, Farms working on "Factory Lines".No wonder, the author laments on that excruciating twelve years experience in UK, coupled with the mess he met in Ebonyi State, Nigeria, where everyone have left agriculture for non-existent white collar job and miss-road politics in a bid to make quick money. Everywhere, in the rural Ebonyi are empty over 580,000 hectares of fertile agricultural land deserted and crying for help; while the free-hold land tenure owners languish in perjury in urban-flaws and slums. The author came to the conclusion that Agriculture is in Peril and a Doom for World Food Problems, where the population stands at over 6 billion and projected at 9 billion by 2050.In the book, the author starts with an Executive Summary, introduces the subject matter and goes ahead with specific areas: challenges to world food problems, land availability/distribution, land degradation/pollution; farm mechanisation, climate change, pests and diseases. Others include: population explosion, other issues, addressing world food problems, sustainable agriculture agricultural revolution, sustainable agriculture, how sustainable works and conclusions/references. The author advocates recurrent agricultural revolution over millennium to affirm man's continued existence on planet earth. This book is recommended to all who believe that our agriculture is in danger and spells doom for world food basket and man's continued existence on the Planet Earth.