English pastoral husbandry has been largely neglected by previous historians. It is generally agreed that the mid-eighteenth century saw a revolution in breeding practices, moving livestock husbandry from hopeless confusion to a controlled, 'scientific' selection for marketable traits. The academicians, mostly economic historians, who have developed this model of pastoral history rely heavily upon farming manuals dating from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries for evidence of the changes they claim to perceive. Agricultural manuals are complex literary documents. However, in the current historiography, the manuals are quoted as simple records of contemporaneous agricultural practice, the intricacies of authorship, audience and motive for publication being almost entirely ignored. A critical survey of the manuals which deal with pastoral husbandry beginning with the thirteenth, rather than the fifteenth, century reveals flaws in the use which has been made of the manuals and, therefore, in the conclusions which have been drawn from them. In order to accomplish a reconsideration of English pastoral husbandry, it is necessary to reincorporate the extant medieval farming manuals and to examine all didactic agricultural texts as representative of a single genre. Discussion of livestock husbandry was carried out in terms of generation and nutrition of animals. Therefore, any intimations of procedural changes or scientific influence upon breeding and feeding in the discussions of manuals which deal most extensively with pastoral husbandry should be noted as of particular interest. Finally, the manuals must be considered within a social context. It is here that the interaction of science and agriculture becomes particularly important, though as a tool for understanding the manuals as documents rather than solely as the motor for late eighteenth-century changes in livestock husbandry. Such an analysis reveals an amazing continuity of actual information in the agricultural manual genre. There are no changes in the depictions of practices of breeding and feeding. However, especially in the late seventeenth and eighteenth century texts, a preoccupation with attracting the attention of institutional science, particularly the Royal Society, emerges as a new trend. Yet there is no indication in the textual record that livestock husbandry was ever affected by 'Natural Philosophy'. Far from simply recording contemporary practice, agricultural manuals, especially those which expressed a desire to ally with institutional science, reveal themselves more as vehicles for their authors' social aspirations than as exemplars of agricultural practice. Once this is recognized, the prevailing models of pastoral husbandry lose credibility. Eighteenth-century animal breeding was no more nor less 'scientific' or intellectually sophisticated than preceeding breeding programs. In short, the use of farming manuals to corroborate economic models of agrarian development has been, at best, somewhat spurious. Studying livestock husbandry and its relationship to institutional science in medieval and early modern England can be peculiarly helpful in assisting to rectify this error. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

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Este trabalho visa realizar uma análise histórica da concepção de fertilidade na agricultura, observando de que forma a constituição deste conceito se relaciona com transformações históricas da sociedade, considerando a logica econômica que preside a agricultura industrial. Procura-se ressaltar as origens da formação do atual conceito de fertilidade e em que medida este foi influenciado pelo desenvolvimento da economia e da ciência moderna. Buscaremos também, ressaltar como as formas de produção que se colocam como contraponto a agricultura industrial entendem a questão da fertilidade, quais as alternativas por elas apresentadas ao manejo da fertilidade para os sistemas de produção ditos mais sustentáveis, e sobre que fundamentos epistemológicos e metodológicos elas se assentam. A fertilidade do solo na agricultura e, aqui, encarada como objeto de análise. Entendemos que o estudo do conceito de fertilidade, seu desenvolvimento teórico e as suas relações com a economia e a ciência apresenta a totalidade dos determinantes que moldaram e consolidaram a concepção cientifica e agronômica de fertilidade. O desenvolvimento histórico do conceito cientifico de \"fertilidade\" e suas implicações sócio-históricas espelham, portanto, um emaranhado de relações entre a economia, a sociedade e a ciência agronômica, que mostra, sob outro angulo, que ele próprio e o resultado de um processo histórico e social. Essa análise teórica possibilita elucidar caminhos analíticos para o entendimento e a construção de uma agricultura na perspectiva de uma sociedade mais justa e mais sustentável. Aparentemente pontual, a questão da fertilidade e aqui apreendida como a \"ponta de um iceberg\" de complexas e profundas relações entre o desenvolvimento da economia e da agronomia no âmbito da ciência, que contribuem para o agravamento das crises ambiental e civilizatória atuais ao validarem um conjunto de tecnologias que nada mais são do que a base instrumental de um modelo de desenvolvimento rural socialmente excludente e concentrador de riquezas. Complexa por natureza, a análise dessas inter-relações e das próprias crises acima citadas demandam um olhar crítico e que, sobretudo, supere as fronteiras disciplinares, enriquecendo o conhecimento com os achados de ciências especializadas numa perspectiva interdisciplinar. Dessa forma, o atual trabalho busca fazer uma leitura da fertilidade como um aspecto de destaque relacionado a crise da agricultura industrial através de um dialogo entre literaturas técnicas agronômicas e sociais. Esse dialogo interdisciplinar visa aumentar a amplitude de analise, e promover uma abordagem mais abrangente e historicamente situada sobre o tema em questão. / This project establishes a historical analysis of the soil fertility concept in agro-ecosystems, noticing how its constitution is related to historical transformations of society, considering the economic logic which presides the industrial agriculture. We highlight the origins of the formation of the current concept of fertility and to what extent, and how, this concept was influenced by the economy and modern science development. We also emphasize how the ways of production which arise in opposition to industrial agriculture face the issue of fertility, which alternatives to fertility management for more sustainable production systems they present, and which epistemological and methodological basis they have. Fertility is here understood as the \"top of the iceberg\" of deep and complex relations between economic and agronomic development in the scope of science that contribute to the worsening of the recent environment and civilization crisis by the validation of a set of technologies that are no more than the instrumental basis of rural social excluding development model which concentrates wealth. The analysis of the referred complexes interrelations demands a critic theoretical perspective in order to overcome the disciplinary boundaries and to enrich knowledge with the findings of the specialized science fields with an interdisciplinary perspective. Finally, the present project aims to highlight the fertility as a relevant aspect of the industrial agriculture crisis through a dialog between technical agronomic theory and social literature. This interdisciplinary dialog aims to promote a breadth and historical based analysis about this subject.

This thesis is a work of theory; it is also historical. It attempts to provide a critique of the categories through which the phenomena of agricultural development and land reform are habitually grasped. It is divided into three parts. In the first part three main theoretical orientations to the study of capitalist agrarian development are discussed, both abstractly and with reference to their accounts of Latin American rural society in the 1960's. It is argued that all three are unable to explain adequately the process of social and agrarian change. This inability is traced to the fact that all three reduce social totalities to two or more distinct sub-entities or sub-totalities. The author calls this general position the social problematic of dualism. Its inability. to account for social change is, he argues, traceable to the fact that the existence of the sub-entities into which social totalities are divided, is posited as theoretically prior to the relations which connect them. These points are pursued in the second and third parts of the thesis. In the second part an alternative to dualism' with particular reference to its variants of the separation of a realm of industry from a realm of agriculture, and of the separation of a realm of the economic from a realm of the social, is provided through a detailed theorisation of capitalist social relations. It is argued that the existence of distinct realms of agriculture, industry, economy and society is a real effect of the essential relations of capitalist society, and that these divisions must be transcended through an elucidation of the character of such relations. This is done by distinguishing three forms of capitalist development which are produced by these essential relations. Further examples of a dualist analysis in contemporary theorisations of petty commodity production, the world economy and the articulation of modes of production are discussed. In the third part the author returns to an examination of the Latin American context through a discussion of the case of Chile. The theoretical insights developed in the earlier parts are systematically applied to various aspects of Chilean history from the conquest of Latin America to the 1960's, and to the processes of land reform which covered the decade 1962-1973. It is suggested that the agrarian social transformations which this country experienced are only explicable in terms of a position which systematically transcends all dualist assumptions.

Este trabalho visa realizar uma análise histórica da concepção de fertilidade na agricultura, observando de que forma a constituição deste conceito se relaciona com transformações históricas da sociedade, considerando a logica econômica que preside a agricultura industrial. Procura-se ressaltar as origens da formação do atual conceito de fertilidade e em que medida este foi influenciado pelo desenvolvimento da economia e da ciência moderna. Buscaremos também, ressaltar como as formas de produção que se colocam como contraponto a agricultura industrial entendem a questão da fertilidade, quais as alternativas por elas apresentadas ao manejo da fertilidade para os sistemas de produção ditos mais sustentáveis, e sobre que fundamentos epistemológicos e metodológicos elas se assentam. A fertilidade do solo na agricultura e, aqui, encarada como objeto de análise. Entendemos que o estudo do conceito de fertilidade, seu desenvolvimento teórico e as suas relações com a economia e a ciência apresenta a totalidade dos determinantes que moldaram e consolidaram a concepção cientifica e agronômica de fertilidade. O desenvolvimento histórico do conceito cientifico de \"fertilidade\" e suas implicações sócio-históricas espelham, portanto, um emaranhado de relações entre a economia, a sociedade e a ciência agronômica, que mostra, sob outro angulo, que ele próprio e o resultado de um processo histórico e social. Essa análise teórica possibilita elucidar caminhos analíticos para o entendimento e a construção de uma agricultura na perspectiva de uma sociedade mais justa e mais sustentável. Aparentemente pontual, a questão da fertilidade e aqui apreendida como a \"ponta de um iceberg\" de complexas e profundas relações entre o desenvolvimento da economia e da agronomia no âmbito da ciência, que contribuem para o agravamento das crises ambiental e civilizatória atuais ao validarem um conjunto de tecnologias que nada mais são do que a base instrumental de um modelo de desenvolvimento rural socialmente excludente e concentrador de riquezas. Complexa por natureza, a análise dessas inter-relações e das próprias crises acima citadas demandam um olhar crítico e que, sobretudo, supere as fronteiras disciplinares, enriquecendo o conhecimento com os achados de ciências especializadas numa perspectiva interdisciplinar. Dessa forma, o atual trabalho busca fazer uma leitura da fertilidade como um aspecto de destaque relacionado a crise da agricultura industrial através de um dialogo entre literaturas técnicas agronômicas e sociais. Esse dialogo interdisciplinar visa aumentar a amplitude de analise, e promover uma abordagem mais abrangente e historicamente situada sobre o tema em questão. / This project establishes a historical analysis of the soil fertility concept in agro-ecosystems, noticing how its constitution is related to historical transformations of society, considering the economic logic which presides the industrial agriculture. We highlight the origins of the formation of the current concept of fertility and to what extent, and how, this concept was influenced by the economy and modern science development. We also emphasize how the ways of production which arise in opposition to industrial agriculture face the issue of fertility, which alternatives to fertility management for more sustainable production systems they present, and which epistemological and methodological basis they have. Fertility is here understood as the \"top of the iceberg\" of deep and complex relations between economic and agronomic development in the scope of science that contribute to the worsening of the recent environment and civilization crisis by the validation of a set of technologies that are no more than the instrumental basis of rural social excluding development model which concentrates wealth. The analysis of the referred complexes interrelations demands a critic theoretical perspective in order to overcome the disciplinary boundaries and to enrich knowledge with the findings of the specialized science fields with an interdisciplinary perspective. Finally, the present project aims to highlight the fertility as a relevant aspect of the industrial agriculture crisis through a dialog between technical agronomic theory and social literature. This interdisciplinary dialog aims to promote a breadth and historical based analysis about this subject.

Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento CientÃfico e TecnolÃgico / Esse trabalho se propÃe a fazer uma tipificaÃÃo de produtores rurais com base na metodologia do diagnÃstico dos sistemas agrÃrios, considerando que o enquadramento atual realizada pelo Programa Nacional de Fortalecimento da Agricultura Familiar (PRONAF) à feito apenas com base na renda dos produtores. EntÃo, para realizar essa tipificaÃÃo serÃo levados em consideraÃÃo outras variÃveis de cunho qualitativo, sendo necessÃria ainda a realizaÃÃo de zoneamento agroecologico, entrevistas histÃricas e observaÃÃo da trajetÃria de acumulaÃÃo. Para efetuar esse trabalho, foi escolhido o vale do riacho Forquilha, no sertÃo central cearense, no MunicÃpio de Quixeramobim, onde tambÃm se encontra instalado o Projeto Pingo dâÃgua, importante arranjo produtivo local. Foram, entÃo, determinados quatro sistemas de produÃÃo fundamentais de acordo com as zonas agrocecologicas existentes no Vale, mas a partir alguns sistemas surgiram ramificaÃÃes em virtude da trajetÃria de acumulaÃÃo. Foi, entÃo, realizada a re-tipificaÃÃo dos produtores e sistemas de produÃÃo da localidade e, com base nas informaÃÃes levantadas, foi sugerida uma nova classificaÃÃo para que o crÃdito e a assistÃncia cheguem de fato a outros produtores que atà entÃo estariam fora de alcance. / The present study proposes a typification of rural producers based on the methodology of agrarian system diagnosis, considering that current framing carried by the National Program to the Family Farm Strengthening (PRONAF) is done based only on producersâ incomes. So, in order to design such typification, other qualitative variables will be considered, still with the need for agroecological zoning, historical interviews and observation of accumulation trajectory. To make this work possible, the Riacho Forquilha Valley, in Quixeramobim, in central backlands of Ceara, was chosen, where is also installed the Drop of water Project (Projeto Pingo DâÃgua), important local productive arrangement. Four primary production systems were determined according to existing agroecological zones in the valley, but, from some systems some branches were raised, due to the accumulation trajectory. The retypification of producers and systems of local production was done and, based on collected information it was suggested another classification in order to allow the credit and the assistance to effectively arrive to other producers who would be so far out of reach.

This thesis is a work of theory; it is also historical. It attempts to provide a critique of the categories through which the phenomena of agricultural development and land reform are habitually grasped. It is divided into three parts. In the first part three main theoretical orientations to the study of capitalist agrarian development are discussed, both abstractly and with reference to their accounts of Latin American rural society in the 1960's. It is argued that all three are unable to explain adequately the process of social and agrarian change. This inability is traced to the fact that all three reduce social totalities to two or more distinct sub-entities or sub-totalities. The author calls this general position the social problematic of dualism. Its inability. to account for social change is, he argues, traceable to the fact that the existence of the sub-entities into which social totalities are divided, is posited as theoretically prior to the relations which connect them. These points are pursued in the second and third parts of the thesis. In the second part an alternative to dualism' with pärticular reference to its variants of the separation of a realm of' industry from a realm of*agriculture, and of the separation of a realm of the economic from a realm of the social, is provided through a detailed theorisation of capitalist social relations. It is argued that the existence of distinct realms of agriculture, industry, economy and society is a real effect of the essential relations of capitalist society, and that these divisions must be transcended through an elucidation of the character of such relations. This is done by distinguishingi; three forms of capitalist development which are produced by these essential relations. Further examples of a dualist analysis in contemporary theorisations of petty commodity production, the world economy and the articulation of modes of production are discussed. In the third part the author returns to an examination of the Latin American context through a discussion of the case of Chile. The theoretical insights developed in the earlier parts are systematically applied to various aspects of Chilean history from the conquest of Latin America to the 1960's, and to the processes of land reform which covered the decade 1962-1973. It is suggested that the agrarian social transformations which this country experienced are only explicable in terms of a position which systematically transcends all dualist assumptions. / University of Bradford

To farm more sustainably, some farmers are rediscovering and innovating knowledge, skills, and technologies that were used before the modernisation of agriculture in the 1950s. One such 'retro-innovation' is the use of draft animals as a source of labour on farms. As modern farming and agronomy pay little attention to 'retro-innovations', not much is known about why and how farmers reintroduce draft animals on their farms. Therefore, the potential of draft power to contribute to the sustainable development of agriculture also remains unclear.   To fill this gap, this study uses interviews and participant observation with seven draft animals’ farmers in Northern Italy. Results indicate that these farmers are organic small-scale farmers using both draft animals and tractors. Engaging in multiple farming activities is an important aspect of these farms. Although draft animals are primarily used in vegetable growing, they can, among others, be involved in logging, marketing the farm production, and used for horse-riding. Their reintroduction as source of labour aligns with the so-called “peasant logic” to farming. This style of farming is reflected in farmers’ craftsmanship, co-production, and autonomy, and the use of draft animals as a skill-oriented technology. Farmers engaged in a peasant style of farming use draft animals as: (1) a technology to increase the farm autonomy and sustainability; (2) work companions with whom they collaborate and develop a strong relationship; and (3) a retro-innovation that is motivated by their self-perception as local stewards.   The study indicates that the relationship between farmers and their draft animals is the most rewarding aspect of animal traction, confirming the meaningful role of non-humans in farm practices and emphasising the central role animals can take in a peasant logic of farming. Future research should continue exploring the role of retro-innovation and of relationships between humans and non-humans for sustainable agricultural development.