Horticulture and Livelihood Security. P. Nath and P.B. Gaddagimath. 2011. Scientific Publishers (India), Jodhpur, India. 550 pp. Tables, charts, figures and black-and-white photographs and illustrations; no index. 6.5-inch x 9.7-inch format. $45.63 (Rs 2450.00). Hardcover. ISBN-978-81-7233-674-5.
Horticulture and Livelihood Security is a well-timed publication. With the rising concerns about hunger, malnutrition, and income generation for a world population of about 9 billion people in 2050, this book is a valuable resource for policy-makers, researchers, and farming communities. The book investigates and reviews how horticulture provides food, nutrition, and employment and source of income for millions of people throughout the world. It covers information and recommendations that further the link between horticultural development and livelihood security. It contains a foreword that serves as an introduction and justification of the book. The book has a table of contents with different sections and articles, but has no index, the lack of which makes it hard to find a specific subject in the book.
The book contains 39 articles grouped in six sections. The format of the articles is not uniform. Some articles include an abstract, an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. Others lack the abstract or the conclusion. The authors of the articles are scientists, technocrats, policy-makers, or development personnel.
The book as a whole is well illustrated. It contains photographs, charts, graphs, and tables to back up the foundations of the research. The content of the book is based on research and data, which make it a reliable source of information. The information of the book is useful for government officials and policy-makers, extension scientists, researchers, and academics in the fields of horticulture, economics, public health, resource economics, or agribusiness.
The strength of the book is that it covers multidisciplinary research on how to grow enough nutritious food and make it accessible to people, a task that is challenging and complex and that needs multi-national and multi-organizational effort and collaboration. This breadth gives the reader knowledge about the different factors affecting food production and accessibility to food and how they interact with each other. It also investigates the challenges of food accessibility and provides definitions for some of the terminology widely used in the areas of food, poverty, and health. The book is rich in information on the role of horticulture in food security, peoples’ health, and economic growth. It is recommended as a reference book but can also be used as a textbook. It is inexpensive. Its pricing, at about $50.00 for hardcover, makes it affordable to professionals as well as to students.
