Tea is big business. After water, tea is believed to be the most widely consumed beverage in the world. And yet, as productivity increases, the real price of tea declines while labour costs continue to rise. Tea remains a labour intensive industry. With a distinguished career spanning over 50 years and rich experience in diverse crops, Mike Carr is eminently qualified to indulge in an intelligent discourse on tea agronomy. In addition to a comprehensive review of the principal tea growing regions worldwide in terms of structure, productivity and principal constraints, he has attempted to question and seeks to find the associated experimental evidence needed to support current and future crop management practices. The book will assist all those involved in the tea industry to become creative thinkers and to question accepted practices. International in content, it will appeal to practitioners and students from tea growing countries worldwide.

A reissue of Home-grown Fruit (2007). A practical and inspirational guide on how to grow your very own orchard, bramble or berry. What could be tastier than fruit, picked straight from your back garden? Growing your own fruit can be a rewarding pastime and you don't need a big garden or allotment to cultivate your favourite fruit, as they can grow well in containers and even hanging baskets. This beautiful and practical guide celebrates the produce of orchards, allotments and gardens, from rhubarb, gooseberries and strawberries to peaches, damsons and plums. Each fruit entry reveals all you need to know about growing and harvesting as well as providing useful tips on companion planting and pests and diseases. With beautiful illustrations throughout, you will find all you need for a fruitful, healthy garden all year round.

'Killing It combines three popular, profound topics: where our food comes from, how to achieve purpose in life and how to find lasting love' - Sunday Times

After a career spent writing about food, Camas Davis came to a realization: she had never forced herself to grapple with how it actually got to her plate. Out of love with her life and with the world she found herself in, she knew she had to make a change.

And so she set off for France. There, in the rolling countryside of Gascony, she would learn the art of butchery, and with it the art of eating and drinking well. Surrounded by farmers, producers, cooks and food-lovers, eating some of the world's least processed and most lovingly made food, Camas discovered the very authenticity she'd longed for in her old life. She just needed to return to America, and bring what she'd learnt back with her . . .

Killing It is the story of one woman's quest to understand what it means to be human and what it means to be animal too.

A charming and practical guide for anyone wishing to keep bees, accompanying the would-be beekeeper through every season of the bee-keeping year. From spring awakening and summer swarms to the autumn honey harvest and providing winter protection, this essential resource guides you each step of the way. There is extensive advice for beekeeping beginners, from siting and smoking your hives to rearing a queen and controlling your swarm. There is also in-depth information for improvers and more experienced apiarists who wish to experiment with different hive-management and queen-rearing techniques. Troubleshooting tips on protecting your hives and keeping your bees healthy are also covered. The book is also packed with practical advice on using beeswax, and of course, extracting and making the tastiest honey.

A detailed and practical guide to training donkeys-for farmers and homesteaders So you've gone and done it, you've bought a donkey! You know she can be useful around the farm-that's why you bought her. You know that throughout history, the donkey has been one of our most useful partners in labor: a low-impact power source that also produces fertilizer. But now, as she stands there eating, how do you get any of that dreamed-of usefulness out of her? This book can show you how. Get Your Ass to Work! is a practical, hands-on guide to training donkeys to work-in harness and packing-to serve the needs of small farmers and homesteaders. It offers a clear and detailed program for each step of training, designed to enable you to bring an untrained donkey into the animal work force within a month or six weeks. Although there are several books in print of general interest on donkeys and donkey care, none deal satisfactorily with training. Get Your Ass to Work! will help you train your donkey to haul loads on a sled or cart, pull farm equipment, skid logs, and pack firewood, tools, or camping gear while respecting and protecting the health of your animal and keeping you safe. The book outlines how to care for your donkey, including feed, shelter, and basic hoof care. The text is abundantly illustrated by original photographs of donkeys working, with artistic sketches and diagrams to show techniques. This book will be relevant to the homesteader and small farmer, enjoyable for everyone who enjoys donkeys and mules, and appealing to any animal lover.

A comprehensive collection of 500 beekeeping tips written by life-long beekeeper Jim Tew covers all aspects of beekeeping including: Becoming a Beekeeper, Beekeeping Equipment, The Beekeeping Year, Getting Live Bees, Colony Management, Honey, Bee By-Products, Pollination, Ailments, and Bee Biology. The tips are grouped logically so that novices can build their knowledge gradually, while old hands may prefer to dip in and out at random or use the index to refer to specific topics. Illustrated throughout with specially commissioned linocut prints by award-winning printmaker Melvyn Evans, Wisdom for Beekeepers is an ideal introductory read for newcomers to beekeeping, and a perfect gift for more experienced beekeepers.

2018 Nebraska Book Award 2018 Outstanding Academic Title, selected by Choice Homesteading the Plains offers a bold new look at the history of homesteading, overturning what for decades has been the orthodox scholarly view. The authors begin by noting the striking disparity between the public's perception of homesteading as a cherished part of our national narrative and most scholars' harshly negative and dismissive treatment. Homesteading the Plains reexamines old data and draws from newly available digitized records to reassess the current interpretation's four principal tenets: homesteading was a minor factor in farm formation, with most Western farmers purchasing their land; most homesteaders failed to prove up their claims; the homesteading process was rife with corruption and fraud; and homesteading caused Indian land dispossession. Using data instead of anecdotes and focusing mainly on the nineteenth century, Homesteading the Plains demonstrates that the first three tenets are wrong and the fourth only partially true. In short, the public's perception of homesteading is perhaps more accurate than the one scholars have constructed. Homesteading the Plains provides the basis for an understanding of homesteading that is startlingly different from current scholarly orthodoxy. Purchase the audio edition.

Support for smallholder agriculture is seen as increasingly important, both to boost the food security and incomes of the rural poor and to provide food for urban populations. But to achieve scale in agricultural interventions, NGOs must move beyond a project-by-project approach and instead enable farmers to engage with market players. Small Farmers, Big Change considers learning from the experience of Oxfam's global agricultural scale-up initiative as well as from wider agricultural markets-based programming. This book includes very practical examples of achieving wider change in smallholder agriculture, through influencing policy and investment decisions, linking smallholders into markets and value chains, and innovating service provision for small farmers. The case studies outline what steps were taken to facilitate new types of farmer organization and alliances with an emphasis on promoting equitable livelihoods and developing rural women's economic leadership. Drawn from Africa, Latin America and Asia, the cases include information about challenges faced and what remains to be done in the future. This book should be read by the staff of donor agencies, policy makers, NGO practitioners, academics and students of development studies and the environment.

Meat: A Benign Extravagance is an exploration of the difficult environmental, ethical and health issues surrounding the human consumption of animal flesh. It lays out in detail the reasons why we must decrease the amount of meat we eat, both for the planet and for ourselves and explores how different forms of agriculture shape our landscape and culture. At the heart of this book, Simon Fairlie argues that society needs to reorientate itself back to the land, both physically and spiritually and explains why an agriculture that can most readily achieve this is one that includes a measure of livestock farming. Simon is an authoritative author writing about one of the key food and farming issues of the moment. This book demands the interest of the public and media alike and is a major contribution to a debate that is sure to run and run.

Asia, Smallholder, Agrarian change

Do you long for the country life? Hobby Farming For Dummies is a practical guide that will show you how to handle all the basics of small-scale farming, from growing healthy crops to raising livestock and managing your property. You'll see how to decide what to farm, provide shelter and utilities, select plants, and protect your investment. It's all you need to dig in and start growing! You'll get a real idea of what it really means to jump from your current lifestyle to a life farming in the countryside. You'll get the information you need to decide if the farming lifestyle is right for you and your personality. You'll learn everything you need to know about property and how to access a power supply. You'll get practical advice on which animals would work best for your farm and you'll learn how to acquire them and what you need to know about caring for them properly. You'll get help with all of the major decisions like whether you're better off with subsistence farming or a more ambitious project. Find out how to: Make from change to a farm lifestyle Get along with your neighbors Find and buy rural properties Select and maintain equipment Raise and care for animals Use and preserve food items Avoid common farming pitfalls Choose plans for your farm Complete with lists of the ten unique opportunities for fun and the top ten misconceptions about farm living, Hobby Farming For Dummies will help you discover how you can live the simple life.

'a heartwarming tale of country living' - SUNDAY EXPRESS 'a charming memoir and a perfect choice for these unsettling times' - DEVON LIFE 'a delightful and funny memoir of her family's crazy life in the English countryside. Perfect escapist reading for these locked-down times.' - SALMAN RUSHDIE 'A total joy... enchanting, hilarious and vivid... Beautifully written, richly informative...' - LIZ CALDER 'A gem ... A heart-warming memoir of moving to the glorious Cornish countryside and taking up farming is the perfect antidote to city life.' - NIKOLA SCOTT "A love letter to the British countryside...a wonderfully earthy story of fresh Cornish air...an adventure from start to finish." - TOWN & COUNTRY "A light-hearted account of 30 years of trial and error on a Cornish farm...I loved every minute..." - SAGA Ever dream of packing up and escaping to a simpler life on the land, just the Cornish landscape and a few cows and goats rising up to greet you each day? When Rosanne and her husband left city life for the Cornwall idyll they knew little of farming, the seasons and milking; but over time they found their way, rising to each new challenge and embracing all that the land gave them. Growing Goats and Girls lovingly and invitingly charts the rural, hardworking and joyfully haphazard lives of Rosanne and her husband as they escape London to live off the land. In their tumbled-down farmhouse in Cornwall, they learn to rear goats, chickens, cows, bees - and two children - get to grips with unruly machinery and cantankerous farmers, and chart the changing seasons in glorious countryside over thirty years. Heart-warming and uplifting in its celebration of the simple things, this earthy portrait of life on the land taps into our collective imagination. After all, who hasn't dreamed of new beginnings, escaping into nature and living more simply. Growing Goats and Girls reminds us to appreciate the fleeting, timeless moments of beauty, nature and the simple comforts of family life.

These days, more and more citizens dream of escaping the rat race and moving to pastoral provinces--such as can be found in the Welsh countryside. This accessible and captivating volume offers practical, straightforward advice to those actively pursuing that dream, citing the author's firsthand experience in buying and selling a smallholding in Wales. A pragmatic guide for the urban expatriate, or for anyone with an interest in the pitfalls and positives of packing it all up and downsizing for a life in the country, this book is a helpful compendium that includes a glossary of Welsh place names and their meanings, as well as an essential list of Welsh words and phrases.

Smallholding as a concept is not limited to small-scale farming, and anyone can bring parts of it to their everyday lifestyle, whether it's a window box to grow produce, a garden to keep chickens or a field or two for other livestock. Providing a comprehensive overview of smallholding for the beginner, Smallholding is a practical guide to growing food and farming livestock. It helps the reader learn how to incorporate some self-sufficiency into their lifestyle, to become knowledgeable enough to keep livestock, and to enjoy working and being productive with the land they have. It also gives information about making a profit from the fruits of labour, such as selling surplus home grown produce at the farm gate or farmers' markets. Contents include an A-Z growing guide for fruits and vegetables, topics such as buying or renting land, soil health, composting, fruit trees, pasture management, stock fencing; and detailed livestock information about keeping bees, caring for poultry, goats, llamas and alpacas, pigs, sheep and cattle, and the legal requirements that come with it. Smallholding is a practical, comprehensive guide to smallholding for beginners, aimed at people who have access to land, as well as those growing produce in their back garden.

A comprehensive collection of 500 tips written by poultry expert Chris Graham covers all aspects of keeping chickens including: Becoming a Hen Keeper; Housing and Equipment; Choosing Chickens; Feeding Chickens; Eggs and Meat; Flock Needs; Breeding and Showing; and, Ailments. The tips are grouped logically so that novices can build their knowledge gradually, while old hands might prefer to dip in and out at random or use the index to refer to specific topics. The tips are also accompanied by simple annotated diagrams where required. Illustrated throughout with specially commissioned linocut prints by award-winning printmaker Melvyn Evans, Wisdom for Henkeeping is an ideal companion for newcomers to henkeeping, and also a perfect gift for more experienced poultry keepers.

This updated edition gives straight forward and easy-to-understand guidance on good management, common diseases and problems, and how to watch for the early signs of problems, with the idea of catching them before they prove fatal. Although free-range poultry are much healthier than those kept intensively, even they can suffer from coccidiosis, avian TB and other diseases as well as possibly having a vitamin deficiency or lice.Some knowledge of a bird's anatomy and how it works will help to explain why certain conditions are more likely to occur and so the book includes clear descriptions, photos, and diagrams of the various body functions and systems. It also includes charts of common disorders to enable identification of ailments from the bird's symptoms. Causes, treatments, and bird species affected are included.

Illustrated by professional artist Eric Copeland, and including amusing anecdotes from the 'joys' of working with pigs for a living, this is the book to read and enjoy preferably before, but certainly the moment those little pigs join the family.A recent report suggests that amateur pig keeping has shot up by 40 per cent since the likes of Gordon Ramsay and Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall introduced their young pigs to the TV cameras.But pig experts warn that pig keeping is not for the unwary or uninformed. Apart from the many regulations that have to be observed, there is a great deal to know about feeding, housing, moving and handling your pigs.

Sugarcane is the source of over three quarters of the world's sugar, and is grown widely in the tropics and sub-tropics. Despite rising demand, average yields have not increased significantly, partly because of continued vulnerability to pests and diseases. In addition, cultivation has been seen as damaging biodiversity and soil health with a negative effect on both yields and the environment. This volume summarises the wealth of research addressing these challenges. Volume 1 reviews cultivation techniques and sustainability issues. Part 1 summarises current best practice in sugarcane cultivation across the value chain, from planting through to post-harvest operations. Part 2 looks at ways of measuring the environmental impact of sugarcane cultivation as well as ways of supporting smallholders. With its distinguished editor and international team of expert authors, this will be a standard reference for sugarcane scientists, growers, government and non-governmental agencies responsible for supporting and monitoring the impact of sugarcane cultivation. It is accompanied by a companion volume reviewing breeding, pest and disease management.

Maintain a beautiful garden with chickens? Easy.

Chickens are great gardening assistants, with lots of benefits for a home garden and landscape--from soil-building to managing pests and weeds. Home gardens can be great chicken habitats if designed well, and "Gardening with Free-Range Chickens For Dummies" provides a plain-English guide with step-by-step guidance for creating a gorgeous chicken-friendly landscape that helps the chickens and the garden thrive.

"Gardening with Free-Range Chicken For Dummies" offers guidance and step-by-step instructions for designing and implementing a host of different chicken garden plans. Plus, you'll get detailed information on the best plants and landscaping materials for your chicken garden (and the ones to avoid), seasonal considerations, attractive fencing options, predator and pest control, and much more. An excellent supplement to "Raising Chickens For Dummies" and "Building Chicken Coops For Dummies"A plain-English guide with step-by-step guidance for creating a chicken gardenAdvice on how to manage chickens while maintaining a beautiful garden

If you're looking for step-by-step advice on building a chicken garden, "Gardening with Free-Range Chickens For Dummies "has you covered.

Water is critical to all human activities, but access to this crucial resource is increasingly limited by competition and the effects of climate change. In agriculture, water management is key to ensuring good and sustained crop yields, maintaining soil health, and safeguarding the long-term viability of the land. Water management is especially challenging on smallholder farms in resource-poor areas, which tend to be primarily rainfed and thus highly dependent on unreliable rainfall patterns. Sustainable practices can help farmers promote the development of soils, plants and field surfaces to allow maximum retention of water between rains, and encourage the efficient use of each drop of water applied as irrigation. Using simplified concepts and easy-to-understand language, this book: - outlines the theoretical underpinnings of sustainable water management in agriculture, -introduces a range of beneficial practices, including the enhancement of soil water retention, water loss reduction, rainwater harvesting, conservation agriculture, and small-scale irrigation -provides schematic diagrams, and resources for further reading to help readers put theory into practice Especially useful for farmers' groups, agricultural extension workers, NGOs, students and researchers working with farmers in dryland areas, this comprehensive yet concise book is a practical and accessible resource for anyone interested in sustainable water management.

In this engaging and informative memoir, the author of the classic Five Acres and Independence relates his family's experiences in realizing a dream of establishing and maintaining their own small farm.

The 'Good Life' has never been so popular. More and more of us are searching for the perfect rural idyll - our very own piece of the countryside where we can live side by side with nature, produce our own food, and have a degree of control over what we eat. Written by an experienced and successful smallholder, the Smallholding Manual is ideal for existing landowners as well as those contemplating a move to the countryside. Unlike previous books in this genre, it takes the reader right from that all-important Step 1 - finding the perfect smallholding to creating a viable lifestyle. It offers a complete introduction to the myriad potential land uses and provides clear, step-by-step guides to getting to grips with enjoying a new, more fulfilling lifestyle.

Water is critical to all human activities, but access to this crucial resource is increasingly limited by competition and the effects of climate change. In agriculture, water management is key to ensuring good and sustained crop yields, maintaining soil health, and safeguarding the long-term viability of the land. Water management is especially challenging on smallholder farms in resource-poor areas, which tend to be primarily rainfed and thus highly dependent on unreliable rainfall patterns. Sustainable practices can help farmers promote the development of soils, plants and field surfaces to allow maximum retention of water between rains, and encourage the efficient use of each drop of water applied as irrigation. Using simplified concepts and easy-to-understand language, this book: - outlines the theoretical underpinnings of sustainable water management in agriculture, -introduces a range of beneficial practices, including the enhancement of soil water retention, water loss reduction, rainwater harvesting, conservation agriculture, and small-scale irrigation -provides schematic diagrams, and resources for further reading to help readers put theory into practice Especially useful for farmers' groups, agricultural extension workers, NGOs, students and researchers working with farmers in dryland areas, this comprehensive yet concise book is a practical and accessible resource for anyone interested in sustainable water management.