Food production and rural development in the sahel: Lessons from Mali's operation Riz‐Segou R. James Bingen Westview Press, Boulder Colorado, 1985, 167 pp.
| Published date | 01 October 1987 |
| Date | 01 October 1987 |
| Author | Hendrik C. Knipscheer |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1002/pad.4230070411 |
Book
Reviews
407
earlier writings; the author’s editorial skills do not always manage to disguise joins and
overlaps; and there are in this context insurmountable obstacles to be overcome: in
particular there are risks both of trying to cover too much ground too superficially and of
glossing over the huge diversity
of
cultural and constitutional differences that characterize
the contexts in which these ostensibly similar, but often in reality very different, offices
must operate. The present work sometimes falls into both these traps. The problem is
compounded by the author’s evident anxiety to preach the gospel according to St Ombuds-
man to the unconverted. Enthusiasm in an author need by no means be a fault; indeed it
can be refreshingly infectious, but here it sometimes becomes a little irritating-perhaps
because the ombudsman idea
(or
at least widespread recognition of the need for some kind
of independent machinery for checking bureaucratic excesses) is nowadays
so
widely
accepted. The book has a somewhat old-fashioned flavour, more appropriate to the climate
of suspicion surrounding the idea of ombudsmen that widely prevailed a decade
or
two
ago.
But this is
not
to say that this book is without merit,
or
that the crusade for more and
better ombudsmen is over. The author squeezes in a lot
of
factual information, critical
commentary and illustrative material; the book is generally well set out and written in an
unpretentious style. The modest complement
of
footnotes marks this as being a book more
suited to the general reader than to the advanced scholar. Readers
of
this journal may find
items of particular interest
in
a chapter
on
‘Developing countries’, which outlines recent
and prospective developments
in
a large number
of
countries, including more substantial
sections on Israel and India. The author shows an awareness
of
some
of
the ‘special
problems’ associated with the introduction of ombudsmen (at least
in
anything resembling
their Western forms)
in
developing countries-notably the difficulty of maintaining indepen-
dence of the office
in
one-party States-but here, as elsewhere
in
the book, one is tantalized
by a fleeting glimpse of promising arguments inadequately sustained and developed.
GAVIN DREWRY
Royal Holloway and Bedford
New
College,
University
of
London.
FOOD PRODUCTION AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT IN THE SAHEL:
R.
James Bingen
Westview Press, Boulder Colorado,
1985,
167
pp.
LESSONS FROM MALI’S OPERATION RIZ-SEGOU
Retrieval of past research is a major problem scientists
in
the third world are facing. Many
research projects are launched with the presumption that little
or
no previous research has
been undertaken. This is seldom the case. The difficulty, however, is how to lay one’s
hands on previous research results. These are rarely published and mainly are contained
in
limited numbers of mimeographed reports which rapidly disappear. The literature is
‘fugitive’. Westview Press has a special studies series which publishes editions of
only
300
to
1000
copies under a relatively fast processing procedure. The author
of
Food Production
and Rural Development in
the
Sahel
should be complimented for using this channel to
document his research, experiences, and analyses.
The book includes seven chapters. The first two cover the socioeconomic and political
setting, a general historic overview. Chapter
3
reviews the rice sector in the Mali agricultural
sector and the role of Operation Rez-Segou (ORS). The next three chapters discuss,
in
a
fair amount of detail, the other work programmes of ORS, irrigation (improved), rice
production, and training. The last chapter is devoted to conclusions and implications for
Sahel rice production policy.
The book is well written and highly informative. However, the scope is not as broad as
the title suggests. The core is solely a description
of
the
ORS:
rice production in (part
of)
Mali rather than food production
in
the Sahel. The discussion of implications
of
the ORS
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