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 Tropical
Agroecosystems
Advances in Agroecology
Series Editor: Clive A. Edwards
Agroecosystem Sustainability: Developing Practical Strategies,
Stephen R. Gliessman
Agroforestry in Sustainable Agricultural Systems,
Louise E. Buck, James P. Lassoie, and Erick C.M. Fernandes
Biodiversity in Agroecosystems,
Wanda Williams Collins and Calvin O. Qualset
Interactions Between Agroecosystems and Rural Communities
Cornelia Flora
Landscape Ecology in Agroecosystems Management
Lech Ryszkowski
Soil Ecology in Sustainable Agricultural Systems,
Lijbert Brussaard and Ronald Ferrera-Cerrato
Soil Tillage in Agroecosystems
Adel El Titi
Structure and Function in Agroecosystem Design and Management
Masae Shiyomi and Hiroshi Koizumi

Advisory Board
Editor-in-Chief
Clive A. Edwards
The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
Editorial Board
Miguel Altieri
University of California, Berkeley, CA
Lijbert Brussaard
Agricultural University, Wageningen, The Netherlands
David Coleman
University of Georgia, Athens, GA
D.A. Crossley, Jr.
University of Georgia, Athens, GA
Adel El-Titi
Stuttgart, Germany
Charles A. Francis
University of Nebraska, Lincoln, NE
Stephen R. Gliessman
University of California, Santa Cruz
Thurman Grove
North Carolina State University, Raleigh, NC
Maurizio Paoletti
University of Padova, Padova, Italy
David Pimentel
Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Masae Shiyomi
Ibaraki University, Mito, Japan
Sir Colin R.W. Spedding
Berkshire, England
Moham K. Wali
The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH
 Tropical
Agroecosystems
Edited by
John H. Vandermeer

CRC PR E S S
Boca Raton London New York Washington, D.C.
Front and back covers: Rustic coffee production in Chiapas, Mexico. (Photos courtesy of John Vandermeer.)

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Tropical agroecosystems / edited by John H. Vandermeer.

p. cm. -- (Advances in agroecology)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ).
ISBN 0-8493-1581-6 (alk. paper)
1. Agricultural ecology--Tropics. 2. Agricultural systems--Tropics. I. Vandermeer,
John H. II. Series.

S589.76.T73 T76 2002

630′.913—dc21 2002031318

This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reprinted material
is quoted with permission, and sources are indicated. A wide variety of references are listed. Reasonable
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International Standard Book Number 0-8493-1581-6
Library of Congress Card Number 2002031318
Printed in the United States of America 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 0
Printed on acid-free paper
 The Editor
John H. Vandermeer Ph.D., is a Margaret Davis Collegiate Professor in the
Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at the University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor. His work has been in tropical agroecosystem ecology, tropical forest
ecology, and theoretical ecology. He is the author of over 150 scientific articles and
9 books.
Professor Vandermeer was born in 1940 in Chicago, Illinois. He received his BS
in zoology from the University of Illinois, Champaign/Urbana, and his masters in
zoology from the University of Kansas. His doctorate was awarded in biology from
the University of Michigan in 1969 based on laboratory and theoretical work with
protozoa in a thesis entitled The Competitive Structure of Communities: A Theoretical
and Empirical Approach with Protozoa. He did postdoctoral work at the University
of Chicago with Richard Levins and was assistant professor at State University of
New York at Stony Brook before returning to the University of Michigan in 1971
as an assistant professor.
Professor Vandermeer has been a visiting scholar at Princeton University; CATIE,
Costa Rica; INPA, Brazil; ECOSUR, Mexico; UCA, UNA, and URACCAN, Nica-
ragua, and has taught or coordinated courses for OTS. He has received two Fullbright
Awards, one to support a year as visiting professor in the National Agricultural
University of Nicaragua and one to support a year as a visiting scholar in the
Department of Ecological Agriculture at Wageningen University, The Netherlands.
He is a faculty associate in the Program in American Culture, Program in Latin
American and Caribbean Studies, Program in Science, Technology and Society, and
Michigan Consortium for Theoretical Physics. He was an Alfred Thurneau Distin-
guished Professor from 1994 to 1997 and was awarded the Sokal Prize in 1996. In
2002 he was appointed a Margaret Davis Collegiate Professor.
 Contributors
Sonia Altizer Luis García-Barrios
Department of Environmental Studies Colegio de la Frontera Sur
Emory University San Cristobal de las Casas, Mexico
Atlanta, Georgia [email protected]
[email protected]
Luko Hilje
Carlos M. Araya Unidad de Fitoprotección
Escuela de Ciencias Agrarias Centro Agronómico Tropical de
Universidad Nacional Investigación y Enseñanza
Heredia, Costa Rica Turrialba, Costa Rica
[email protected] [email protected].,ac.cr

Inge Armbrecht Laxman Joshi

Department de Biología International Centre for Research in
Universidad del Valle Agroforestry
Cali, Columbia Jl. CIFOR, Sindang Barang
[email protected] Bogor, Indonesia
[email protected]
Hendrien Beukema
Department of Plant Biology
Ivette Perfecto
Biol Centrum Rijksuniversiteit
School of Natural Resources and
Groningen, The Netherlands
Environment
[email protected]
University of Michigan
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Andrew P. Dobson
[email protected]
Department of Ecology and
Evolution
Princeton University Chris Picone
Princeton, New Jersey The Land Institute
[email protected] Salina, Kansas
[email protected]
Johannes Foufopoulos
School of Natural Resources and Robert A. Rice
Environment Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center
University of Michigan National Zoological Park
Ann Arbor, Michigan Washington, D.C.
[email protected] [email protected]
Bernal E. Valverde Gede Wibawa
Royal Veterinary and Agricultural Indonesian Rubber Research
University Institute
Department of Agricultural Sciences Palembang, Indonesia
Frederiksberg, Denmark [email protected]
[email protected]
Sandy Williams
John H. Vandermeer Swansea, U.K.
Department of Ecology and [email protected]
Evolutionary Biology
University of Michigan Mark L. Wilson
Ann Arbor, Michigan Departments of Epidemiology and
[email protected] of Ecology and Evolutionary
Biology
Meine van Noordwijk University of Michigan
International Centre for Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan
Agroforestry [email protected]
Jl. CIFOR, Sindang Barang
Bogor, Indonesia
[email protected]
 Contents
Chapter 1
Introduction................................................................................................................1
John Vandermeer

Chapter 2
Plant–Plant Interactions in Tropical Agriculture.....................................................11
Luis García-Barrios

Chapter 3
Pest Management in Mesoamerican Agroecosystems ............................................59
Luko Hilje, Carlos M. Araya, and Bernal E. Valverde

Chapter 4
Managing Mycorrhizae for Sustainable Agriculture in the Tropics.......................95
Chris Picone

Chapter 5
Technological Change and Biodiversity in the Rubber Agroecosystem
of Sumatra..............................................................................................................133
Laxman Joshi, Gede Wibawa, Hendrien Beukema, Sandy Williams,
and Meine van Noordwijk

Chapter 6
The Coffee Agroecosystem in the Neotropics: Combining Ecological and
Economic Goals.....................................................................................................159
Ivette Perfecto and Inge Armbrecht

Chapter 7
Tropical Agricultural Landscapes..........................................................................195
Robert A. Rice

Chapter 8
Interactions between Wildlife and Domestic Livestock in the Tropics................219
Johannes Foufopoulos, Sonia Altizer, and Andrew Dobson

Chapter 9
Tropical Agriculture and Human Disease: Ecological Complexities Pose
Research Challenges..............................................................................................245
Mark L. Wilson

Index......................................................................................................................263
 CHAPTER 1

Introduction

John Vandermeer

CONTENTS

The Scope of Tropical Agroecosystems....................................................................1

In the Spirit of the Agroecological Approach...........................................................2
The Nature of Ecological Knowledge .............................................................3
A New Green Revolution: The Contour Pathway...........................................3
Ecological Knowledge and a Gentle, Thought-Intensive Technology............5
A Focus on the Tropics .............................................................................................6
How This Book is Organized....................................................................................7
References..................................................................................................................9

THE SCOPE OF TROPICAL AGROECOSYSTEMS

In the classical word association test of psychologists, what comes to mind when
I say tropical agriculture? I tried this on several friends and got answers like extreme
rural poverty, deforestation, banana plantations, and the like. The answer mainly
depended on the person taking the test. To the conservationist, the answer was
deforestation, to the Nicaraguan farmer “my only option” was the response, and
poor soils, intransigent pests, and slave labor were others — responses as varied
and eclectic as the people giving them. It is, indeed, an eclectic subject. That eclectic
nature is both intellectually more satisfying and probably in the end more relevant
to the problems of today’s tropics than a more traditional approach that might be
expected from a collection with the title Tropical Agroecosystems.
Consider, for example, the traditional “increasing agricultural production,” a
sacrosanct goal of almost all classically trained agronomists. Examining this goal

0-8493-1581-6/03/$0.00+$1.50 1
© 2003 by CRC Press LLC
2 TROPICAL AGROECOSYSTEMS

from a broad perspective, we see articulations with seemingly unrelated issues.

Conservationists, for instance, would emphasize that tropical agriculture competes
for land with conservation goals (not really an accurate point of view, but a popular
one — see, for example, Vandermeer and Perfecto, 1999). So entrenched is this idea
that it is sometimes even difficult to bring it up in serious conversation — agriculture
bad, natural forest good, case closed, no argument permitted. However, a serious
examination of this issue reveals considerable complication, as noted perceptively
in the recent volume by Angelsen and Kaimowitz (2001). They note problems with
the simple idea that an increase in agricultural productivity (produce per hectare) is
positive for conservation goals (with better technology you can produce the same
amount on less land, thereby leaving more land for conservation/preservation).
Indeed, such a position is at odds with standard economic theory. Standard theory
posits that with increased production, more producers are attracted to the productive
activity. Thus the unintended consequence of greater productivity could be the
transformation of even more natural forest to agriculture (e.g., once pesticides were
available to control the boll worm, forests could be cut down to make cotton fields,
something that no one would have done before the technology was available). So,
does increased agricultural productivity encourage more conservation or does it
promote more agricultural transformation? Angelsen and Kaimowitz, after examin-
ing several case studies, conclude that one cannot generalize, but the trend is actually
in the direction of more land clearing as agricultural efficiency increases, quite
opposite to the standard assumption of the conservationists.
It is also somewhat standard, or at least was so in the recent past, to note that
the majority of poverty exists in the tropics, and that in order to feed the burgeoning
populations in tropical lands, better agricultural technology needs to be developed.
Yet world food production has been more than adequate to feed the entire world
population ever since the Malthusian position was first articulated in the 19th century.
Clearly the problem of hunger is not a problem of agricultural productivity, as has
been repeatedly noted in the past (e.g., Lappé et al., 2000).
Many other subjects could be cited in which tropical agriculture is intimately
involved, albeit at times quite indirectly. To repeat, it is an eclectic subject. So what
ought to be the focus of a volume entitled Tropical Agroecosystems, embedded in
a series entitled Advances in Agroecology?

IN THE SPIRIT OF THE AGROECOLOGICAL APPROACH

In the spirit of the word “agroecology,” certain foci should be emphasized and,
by implication, others ignored. In the agroecological approach, ecological knowl-
edge takes center stage. Yet ecological knowledge itself is eclectic and voluminous.
What methods might be used to categorize and systematize the immense amount
of ecological knowledge that exists, from professional ecology journals to oral
traditions?
INTRODUCTION 3

The Nature of Ecological Knowledge

First, ecological processes are general, but their particulars are local. Weeds
compete with crops, a general ecological phenomenon. But, for example, in a
Nicaraguan backyard garden it is the sedges that are most competitive against maize,
whereas the morning glory vines and Heliconia plants that may appear as weeds at
first glance are really beneficial because they maintain the field free of sedges over
the long run (Schraeder, 1999). Predators eat their prey in all ecosystems, but which
predator eats which prey is dependent on local conditions. It is itself almost a general
rule that local particulars may override general rules in ecology, a fact that continues
to frustrate the attempts by ecologists to devise meaningful general rules.
Second, in much the same way that ecological forces are simultaneously general
and local, our knowledge about those forces is also both local and general. Intimate
experience of local farmers cannot be matched by generalized knowledge of the
ecologist, yet sophisticated training of the ecologist cannot be matched by experi-
ential knowledge of the local farmer. Thus, for example, residents in a small valley
in Cuba observe that trees grow toward the wind (Levins, pers. comm.). This
particular valley is arranged such that the surrounding mountains block out the sun
most of the day, except when it appears through the same mountain pass that allows
the daily breezes access to the valley. Consequently, the trees that strain for more
light, according to ecological principles, in fact do grow toward the wind according
to local knowledge. Such stories could be multiplied a thousandfold across the globe.
Local residents may have intimate knowledge about the ecological forces that sur-
round them. However, their experience is limited to a relatively small geographical
and intellectual setting, preventing them from seeing their knowledge in the larger
context that a professional ecologist may automatically assume. On the other hand,
the ecologist may find the deviance of local circumstances baffling in relation to
that same larger context and be unable to appreciate the rich texture that comes from
detailed particular knowledge that the local farmer automatically assumes. If local
knowledge is to be part of the process of agricultural transformation, a clear pre-
requisite to the development of a truly ecological agriculture, the people who own
that knowledge must be part of the planning process. This implies a great deal about
equality — equality in education, equality in economic and political power.

A New Green Revolution: The Contour Pathway

A new agricultural revolution seems to be brewing. It is the revolutionary change

to more ecological forms of agriculture. This change is neither unwelcomed nor
unexpected. But change, even revolutionary change, is not new to agriculture, with
revolutions being announced at rather regular intervals recently. The forces that
actually direct and promote change are not always evident.
The consequence of the original agricultural (Neolithic) revolution was that
human cultural evolution invaded the natural world in a major way. While any
ecosystem is subject to the changes wrought by genetic change in component species,
the agroecosystem is unique among ecosystems in that changes can be extremely
4 TROPICAL AGROECOSYSTEMS

rapid because they are driven by cultural rather than organic evolution. We may have
genetically modified wild teosinte to produce domesticated maize, but we plant
maize not because we have a maize-planting gene inside of us, but because of a
series of historical events in our evolving culture. Domestication may have been a
genetically based evolutionary change, but agroecosystems evolve through the pro-
cess of cultural evolution.
Because cultural evolution is the driving force behind change, changes in agro-
ecosystems in the past have not invariably been in the direction of improving the
system, but rather have emerged from whatever happened to be the forces shaping
cultural evolutionary changes of the times. Thus, for example, the expansion of sugar
beet production in Napoleonic France was not for the purpose of producing sugar
for the French people. It was done to secure independence from English-controlled
cane sugar markets as part of Napoleon’s imperial strategy. Many other examples
could be cited in which economic, cultural, or political forces, the forces that in fact
shape cultural evolution, created the conditions under which agroecosystems under-
went dramatic changes.
The contemporary world is no different, except perhaps in that change happens
far more quickly than in the past, and its effects are felt worldwide. But agroeco-
systems remain under pressure to change. That changes in agroecosystem structure
and function should be brought under control and directed rationally is part of the
philosophy of the agroecological approach. Rather than allowing skewed economic
interests to dictate the direction of change, rather than encouraging the externaliza-
tion of real costs of production, rather than letting a philosophy born of other interests
(the unrelenting search for increased profits, for example) dictate the direction of
change, there ought to be a concerted effort to design agroecosystems in a rational
fashion. It is here that the ecological agriculture movement has been fairly clear in
its philosophical distinction from industrial agriculture. A useful metaphor is the
hunter in unfamiliar terrain with a topographic map for guidance. To get from point
A to point B one might draw a straight line between the two points on the map and
proceed to follow that line, climbing hill and valley, perhaps scrambling up cliff
faces and rappelling down steep gullies, eventually getting to point B in the “most
efficient manner possible.” Indeed it would be the most efficient in the sense that
the line on the map was the shortest possible. Another way of getting from A to B
would be to follow a pathway along the contours provided on the topographic map.
While this will be a longer absolute distance, one will likely arrive at point B faster
and more efficiently than with the straight-line approach. In the first case we ignore
the topographic contours and insist that our peculiar notion of efficiency dictates
that a straight line is the shortest distance between two points, that we can ignore
the contours. In the second case we view the contours as our signposts to guide us
to the goal. The philosophy of industrial agriculture has been akin to drawing a
straight line on a topographic map. The metaphorical contours are the myriad
ecological interactions that inevitably exist in an agroecosystem, the interactions
that industrial agriculture has sought to ignore. Ecological agriculture philosophy
acknowledges the contours not only as extant barriers to the straight line approach,
but as useful signposts as to where to construct the contour pathway that will most
efficiently get us to point B (Swift et al., 1996).
INTRODUCTION 5

Ecological Knowledge and a Gentle, Thought-Intensive Technology

In response to the crisis in modern industrial agriculture, conventional agricul-

tural researchers clamor for more funds to do more of the same, seeking a new
technological fix to each problem that arises. Even more troubling, at the other end
of the political spectrum a surprisingly reactionary force seems to have emerged. If
the modern industrial system is a consequence of hard-nosed scientific research
applied to the problems of ever higher production at whatever environmental cost,
they argue, it is this hard-nosed scientific approach that needs to be changed. This
position frequently takes on a romantic air, and the techniques of our forebearers
become models to be emulated, even venerated, regardless of their potentially neg-
ative environmental effects. I have always been in opposition to those who locate
the problem of industrial agriculture in the application of Western science. Indeed,
my position is not that we need less science and more old-fashioned tradition, but
rather that we need more and better science.
Given that the industrial model still dominates, we might think of agriculture,
as so many in the developed world yet think of it, as simply another form of industrial
production, with inputs to and outputs from the factory, with expenditures, gross
revenues, and profits, and so forth. In this model, if agrochemicals are inputs to the
factory and wheat or barley are the outputs from the factory, where is the factory?
Is it the farm? But where are the machines in the factory? Are they simply the
tractors, plows, cultivators, pickup trucks, and the like? Perhaps. But there is surely
a more important collection of “machines” on the farm — the soil and its dynamic
biological inhabitants, the insect pests and their natural enemies, the sun and shade
and weeds and water, and all the other factors that are usually referred to as ecological
factors. These are the machines that do the real producing on the farm, and the trucks
and tractors only function to bring the inputs to and take the outputs away from the
real machines.
But there is a profound difference between these machines and the machines of
a regular factory (Carroll, Vandermeer, and Rossett, 1990). The machines in a regular
factory were designed and built by men and women, and their exact function and
operation are known with great precision — they do pretty much what their designers
intended them to do. But no human being designed the machines in the factory that
is the farm. They were molded by hundreds of millions of years of evolution, and
their exact operation remains enigmatic to anyone who minimally understands our
current state of scientific knowledge about how ecosystems work. We are, in effect,
making products with machines we understand only superficially. It is as if we send
a blind worker into a factory filled with machines, tell her nothing about what the
machines are or what they are intended to do, and then tell her to produce something
useful.
The industrial model has been able to avoid understanding much about the
machines, at least temporarily, by a brute-force approach. It is as if the blind worker
began by knocking over all the machines that were not immediately familiar to her
upon first touch. It is increasingly obvious to most observers that the science of
ecology must play a larger role. The machines in the factory are the ecological forces
that dictate what can and cannot be done on the farm, and understanding those
6 TROPICAL AGROECOSYSTEMS

machines is the goal of agricultural ecology, whether applied to conventional agri-

culture or to a more ecological agriculture. The mobilization of the science of ecology
in service of understanding agroecosystems is critical to future developments in
agriculture if we are to avoid the mistakes of the past.
Yet most applications of ecological principles to agroecosystems remain either
hopelessly naive or are even mislabeled. For example, the recent textbook titled
Crop Ecology (Loomis and Connor, 1992) provides excellent material about the
physiology of crop plants, but by most standards of what the science of ecology
actually covers, the book probably should not have the word ecology in the title.
And the many alternative, organic, holistic, or ecological agriculture texts and guide-
books are frequently guilty of substituting popular visions of ecology for what really
ought to be concrete scientific knowledge. It is not that popular visions of ecology
are irrelevant, nor that local experiential knowledge about particular ecosystem
function is unimportant, but rather that there in fact is a body of scientific knowledge
called ecology that should be mobilized in an effort to make a more ecologically
sound agriculture. Just as physics represents the scientific foundation of mechanical
engineering and chemistry that of chemical engineering, the science of ecology
should, and I predict one day will, represent at least one pillar of the scientific
foundation of ecological agriculture.
Richard Levins has provided a useful guiding philosophy for the future devel-
opment of an agriculture based on ecological principles. What we want is not the
bull-in-the-china-shop technological developments we have seen in the past in indus-
trial agriculture. Yet we also do not want a return-to-the-good-old-days philosophy
that rejects modern scientific approaches. What we want is an approach to techno-
logical development that takes a holistic view, incorporates both the knowledge we
have of academic ecological science and the local knowledge farmers have of
functioning ecology, and seeks to develop an agriculture that produces for the good
of people. It is a philosophy that rejects standard economic accounting (assuming
that what is profitable is what is good) and seeks to internalize all environmental
costs. In short, it is a philosophy that looks to the contours on the map as signposts
for development, gently maneuvering through the ecological realities rather than
trying to bully them into submission, and it is based on general human knowledge,
not restricted knowledge gained from reductionist science. In short, it is gentle,
thought-intensive technology.

A FOCUS ON THE TROPICS

The observations in the above paragraphs are general. Their application to

tropical situations is special. Tropical areas present ecological, cultural, and political
problems that demand separate analysis. Tropical ecology has long been recognized
as a distinct science, with its own professional journals and academic positions. The
environment of the tropics is thought to be special in many ways, from the lack of
a biological down season (winter), to generally poor soil conditions, to extremely
high biodiversity. All of these ecological factors are of major import to agricultural
development and practice.
INTRODUCTION 7

Similarly, the cultures of the tropics are themselves complicated and diverse.
Still not completely transformed by Western consumer culture, many tropical cul-
tures retain their traditional methods of resource management, including agriculture.
It is not only a moral imperative that we tread lightly as we seek transformation of
agroecosystems in such areas, here is much of the raw material for future rational
development. Consider, for example, the recent work of Morales and Perfecto (2000).
In seeking to understand and study traditional methods of pest control among the
highland Maya of Guatemala, they began by asking the question, “What are your
pest problems?” Surprisingly they found almost unanimity in the attitude of most
of the farmers they interviewed — “We have no pest problems.” Taken aback, they
reformulated their questionnaire and asked, “What kind of insects do you have?”,
to which they received a large number of answers, including all the main character-
istic pests of maize and beans in the region. They then asked why these insects were
not pests, and again received all sorts of answers, always in the form of how the
agroecosystem was managed. The farmers were certainly aware that these insects
could present problems, but they also had ways of managing the agroecosystem such
that the insects remained below levels that would be categorized as pests. The initial
approach taken by these researchers probably was influenced by their original train-
ing in agronomy and classical entomology, but interactions with the Mayan farmers
caused them to change. Rather than study how Mayan farmers solve their problems,
they focused on why the Mayan farmers do not have problems. The existence of
this very special tropical culture drove the research of these two Western scientists.
Political forces are likewise very special in most of the world’s tropics. Modern
agriculture, like the rest of the modern capitalist economy, is really an international
affair. And most important in that international structure is the relationship between
the developed and underdeveloped world, the North and the South. The decoloni-
zations of this century have created what is in effect a different form of colonialism.
The former colonies are now members of the so-called South (in the recent past
called the Third World) and retain important remnants of their colonial structure.
As difficult as life may be for some citizens of the developed nations, one can hardly
fail to notice a dramatic difference in conditions of life in the South. It is in the
South that agricultural production has seemingly not been able to keep up with
population growth (although this is only an illusion), where dangerous production
processes are located, where raw materials and labor are supplied to certain industries
at ridiculously low cost, where air and water pollution run rampant, where people
live in desperation, where talk of bettering the state of the environment is frequently
met with astonishment — “How can you expect me to worry about tropical defor-
estation when I must spend all my worry-time on where I will find the next meal
for myself and my children?”

HOW THIS BOOK IS ORGANIZED

The chapters in this book are a small subset of chapters that could have been
written. They were chosen to represent a broad range of approaches to agroecosystem
analysis, focusing on the special problems of the tropics. To speak of blatant
8 TROPICAL AGROECOSYSTEMS

omissions first, there are no chapters on tropical soils, although Picone’s chapter on
mycorrhizae treats the subject indirectly. I had planned on a chapter discussing
tropical soils, but all potential authors refused, mainly because the subject is too
large for a single chapter. Clearly, a separate volume on tropical soils and agroecol-
ogy is warranted.
The chapters that do form the body of the book are roughly organized in three
main sections. Chapters 2 through 4 treat specific ecological issues associated with
production, Chapters 5 and 6 examine two case studies of agricultural transformation
and its effect on biodiversity, and Chapters 7 through 9 treat some key landscape
issues.
In Chapter 2, García-Barrios presents a classification of tropical agroecosystems
in a new and challenging manner. The underlying principles of plant ecology are
presented as a framework, and tropical agroecosystem types are organized within
the framework. In this way the normally confusing cacophony of classification
systems is significantly reduced.
While the chapter by García-Barrios is based at the level of plant-to-plant
competition, the incorporation of trophic dynamics is represented in the offering by
Hilje and colleagues in Chapter 3. In agroecosystems generally, the ecological force
of herbivory is normally cast as the problem of pests and the solution as pest
management. Hilje et al. provide an important historical focus to the development
of IPM programs in Mesoamerica. They describe an impressive number of IPM
programs that are currently underway, but go on to emphasize the barriers to further
development. Structural constraints derived largely from the special historical cir-
cumstances of the Mesoamerican countries severely constrain the development of
IPM programs. They go on to analyze the role of agrichemical industries in the
developing paradigms of IPM and discuss the possible costs and benefits of trans-
genic crops in pest management.
The recent understanding of mycorrhizal biology as described in great detail in
Chapter 4 by Picone is in the tradition of detailed ecological knowledge. Picone
summarizes recent mycorrhizal research generally and then applies it to the particular
situations of tropical environments, finally providing some insight as to the potential
for improving on the sustainability of agroecosystems.
The next two chapters (Chapters 5 and 6) are complementary; they address
the issue of associated biodiversity and agricultural transformation in two case
study tropical agroecosystems — rubber in Sumatra and coffee in northern Latin
America. The sisipan system of regenerating a jungle rubber system in Indonesia
focuses on local knowledge, as described in the chapter by Joshi and colleagues
(Chapter 5). They discuss the way in which these local knowledge systems even-
tually affect biodiversity and its conservation. Similarly, Perfecto and Armbrecht
discuss recent improvement of coffee production in northern Latin America and
its effect on biodiversity. They also discuss current international political efforts
at creating an economic system in which world consumers can aid in the preser-
vation of biodiversity through sensible purchasing decisions, in the form of cer-
tified shade or biodiversity-friendly coffee.
The final three chapters in the collection (Chapters 7 through 9) treat more
landscape-level phenomena. Geographer Rice, in Chapter 7, summarizes the
INTRODUCTION 9

distribution of tropical agroecosystems in the world and discusses the mechanisms

that cause such distributions, raising concerns about current directions of political
and economic change and how that will affect future distributions. In the next chapter,
Foufopoulos and colleagues discuss the historically significant interplay of wildlife
and domesticated animals, especially in Africa. They further present some disturbing
questions about the future of both conservation of large ungulates and the problems
posed by the latter for agricultural expansion. Finally, Wilson treats a subject rarely
acknowledged in the ecological literature, that of the interaction of agriculture and
human health. More than just a question of producing food for people, agroecosys-
tems represent massive modifications of human habitats and consequently may have
important effects on all aspects of human existence. Wilson documents how, in the
past, diseases from malaria to Rift Valley fever have been intimately interactive with
agroecosystem transformation.

REFERENCES

Angelsen, A. and D. Kaimowitz, Agricultural Technologies and Tropical Deforestation, CABI

Publishing, CAB International, NY, 2001.
Carroll, C.R., Vandermeer, J.H., and Rosset, P., Eds., Agroecology, McGraw-Hill, New York,
1990.
Lappe, F.M., Collins, J., and Rosset, P., World Hunger 12 Myths, Institute for Food and
Development Policy, San Francisco, 1998.
Levins, R., personal communication.
Loomis, R.S. and Connor, D.J., Crop Ecology, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1992.
Morales, H. and Perfecto, I., Traditional knowledge and pest management in the Guatemalan
highlands, Agriculture and Human Values, 17:49–63, 2000.
Schraeder, E., Intercropping in a Traditional Production System in Nicaragua, M.S. thesis,
University of Michigan, 1999.
Swift, M.J. et al., Biodiversity and agroecosystem function, in Biodiversity and Ecosystem
Function. Global Diversity Assessment, Mooney, H.A., et al., Eds., Cambridge Uni-
versity Press, London, 1996, pp. 433–443.
Vandermeer, J.H. and Perfecto, I., Breakfast of Biodiversity, Institute for Food and Develop-
ment Policy, San Francisco, 1999.
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