Disparity dilemma

Since the 1950s there has been an increasing international awareness of the uneven socioeconomic development between the industrialized nations of the north and the nations of the tropical belt. Initially this disparity was believed to be the result of inherent under development of the tropical regions. However, major efforts in foreign assistance have largely failed to solve the problems of insufficient food production coupled with fast population growth. Many experts now believe that certain basic characteristics of the tropical environment are a major factor of the north-south imbalance and that a fundamental change in attitude towards the tropical world is needed. The persisting ecological constraints of tropical agriculture is an interdisciplinary investigation into the disparity. It examines thoroughly the conditions that make the continuing shifting cultivation an ecological necessity and the greatest part of humid tropical lowlands unsuitable for intensive agricultural exploitation, while m ecologically exceptional areas highly productive land use is possible. The persisting ecological constraints of tropical agriculture by Wolfgang Weischet and Cesar Caviedes 1993 336pp ISBN 0 582 05692 6 Longman Scientific & Technical, Longmans Group UK Ltd 5 Bentinck Street London W1M 5RN UK