106 Book rev~ws

the more experienced reader, to gain self-confidence. The reader is introduced to the crop growth simulator SUCROS87, of which a complete listing and detailed description are provided. This program is then combined with pest models. The over-emphasis on Wageningen- type models, however, is perhaps one of the book's weaknesses; there is no evaluation of these models as compared with analogous models from groups working in other countries.

In its role as a reference text on systems analysis in agriculture, the book has six parts: (1) theory of modelling and systems management; (2) basic techniques of dynamic simulation; (3) population development in time and space; (4) coupling of crop growth and pests, diseases and weeds; (5) decision making and management; and (6) epilogue. Each part includes one or more chapters authored by specialists in their respective fields. These chapters represent syntheses of important or quickly- developing topics, including dispersal and dispersion in space, stochasticity, the combining of crop and pest models, and application of operations research techniques in crop protection. Some of the chapters describe case studies, where concepts are applied to real-world situations: popula- tion models for fruit-tree red spider mite, population and competition models for weeds, simulation of aphid damage in winter wheat, and EPIPRE, the supervised control system of pests and diseases in wheat. Although the book is rich with examples on integrating pest and crop modelling, it is weak in the practical application of outputs from modelling efforts.

The book will be invaluable to students of systems analysis in plant protection, and will serve as a useful, up-to-date text for agronomists, plant pathologists, weed scientists and entomologists.

Serge Savary and Paul S. Teng

Climatic Risk in Crop Production: Models and Management for the Semi- arid Tropics and Subtropics. Edited by Russell C. Muchow and Jennifer A. Bellamy. CAB Internatonal, Wallingford, 1991. 548 pp. Price: £49.50. ISBN 0 85198 665 X.

The proceedings of the International Symposium on Climatic Risk in Crop Production: Models and Management for the Semiarid Tropics and Subtropics, held in Brisbane, Australia, 2-6 July 1990, are presented as 24 papers in seven parts. These seven parts deal with the following: the importance of climatic variability in crop production; methodologies for estimating climatic risks to crop production; use of crop m.odels in quan-

Book reviews 107

tifying climatic risks to crop production; optimising agronomic practice in response to climatic risk; decision making to reduce risk of crop fail- ure; advances in improved weather predictions; and setting priorities for risk-related agronomic research.

The book boasts contributions from world-renowned systems thinkers and researchers in agriculture which will attract readers. It is a mixture of reflections, reviews, and original research contributions. Despite the wide range of topics, including biological and social sciences, economics, methodologies, and frameworks for future developments, the book has a unifying theme: the importance of climatic risk in crop production, and the use of models and weather generators or long-term climatic records in quantifying climatic risk to crop production. The papers are coherent, well presented and informative, and represent the state of development and current thinking in systems-orientated research in agriculture. Some excellent and up-to-date applications of simulation models for optimising agronomic management for crop production in tropics and subtropics are presented.

The call for considerable expansion in interdisciplinary research involving all branches of physical, biological, and social science to ameliorate the effects of climatic risk should be acted upon. The book is highly recommended for skilfully merging the interests of field scientists and modeUers.

Upendra Singh

Simulation and Systems Analysis for Rice Production (SARP). Edited by F. W. T. Penning de Vries, H. H. van Laar and M. J. Kropff. PUDOC, Wageningen, The Netherlands, 1991. 369 pp. Price: Dfl 150.00. ISBN 90-22 0-1059-7.

SARP is a joint venture between the International Rice Research Institute in The Philippines and two organisations in The Netherlands: The Centre for Agrobiological Research and The Department of Theoretical Produc- tion Ecology of Wageningen Agricultural University. The intention of SARP is to promote a systems approach to rice production research. Five years' worth of progress has culminated in this book, which collects together papers from four different workshops held during 1990 and 1991.

Authors from 11 different countries have contributed to the book's 39 chapters, so an indication of the success of the systems approach is the extent to which diverse topics have been assimilated within SARP. This