This is a fairly slim volume, even more so when you notice that the actual text only uses 160 pages with the other 30 being lists for ‘further reading’ and a glossary. Despite this, however, the book manages to put much information into its seven chapters and a conclusion. All chapters contain an extensive reference list for further reading.

Examination of the first few pages reveals that this text is a translation of a French book published in 2008 but the translation has been very well done and I found no areas of suspected error.

However, be warned. The title of the book is deceptive. If you are expecting a general text book covering the impact of crop protection in all its forms on the environment, how such impact, if present, can be minimized and how such studies have developed into the science of agroecology, you may be disappointed. Approximately 75% of the book concerns crop protection (and here read insect control) in cotton and how such crop protection has developed through Integrated Pest Management (IPM) to a broader study of how cotton crop agronomy can be manipulated in various world regions to maintain biodiversity under intensive and less intensive agriculture. In fairness, there is information relating to other crops, particularly in the later chapters, but a return to cotton is soon made.

The introduction tries to set the text in context but I did detect a slight bias by the authors against chemical crop protection. Statements such as ‘Because their specificity of action is often too broad and because their active ingredients are toxic, it is now well established that chemical plant protection products … have serious secondary effects on human health and on the wider environment’ annoyed me as they are far too simplistic. This view was compounded in chapter 1 (The New Issues in Crop Protection) by the statement that ‘Since the 19th Century, not only have crop protection methods and the resulting harvests proved inadequate …’. In retrospect there may be some truth in this latter statement but it ignores the valuable contribution made by the R&D based agrochemical companies, particularly since the 1950s.

The text is supplemented throughout by ‘information boxes’ containing useful facts relevant to that chapter. Box 1 gives the chronology of important steps in the recent development of crop protection. While I cannot fault the items included, I suggest the list is far too simplistic as it concentrates almost entirely on insect control and ecology. A better Box title was needed.

Chapter 2 provides an excellent overview of cotton growing, while chapter 3, entitled, somewhat emotively, ‘Stepping off the Pesticide Treadmill’ deals largely with progress in the control of cotton pests from improved and more directed chemical control to introduction of GM crops, IPM and organic production. Pesticide resistance to insecticides used on cotton is first mentioned here and I was surprised to find no reference here, or in subsequent chapters, to the excellent work of Insecticide Resistance Action Committee (IRAC) in this context. Chapter 4 deals exclusively with integrated control largely targeted at insects; not initially just for cotton even though the chapter soon turns to cotton for its prime examples.

Chapter 5 ‘Harmonising Control Methods: Mirage and Reality’ introduces genetic manipulation (GM) of crops before reviewing conventional plant breeding advances for cotton and how such new varieties were effectively used by improved agronomic practice. Genetic Manipulation of cotton then follows with emphasis on the production and use of Bt cotton containing a gene or genes from Bacillus thuringiensis that enable the plant to produce a chemical toxic against Lepidoptera pests. Other GM traits in cotton are included but, somewhat surprisingly, there is no mention of the public outcry that seems to accompany GM crop research in some countries, largely due to its feared environmental impact or effect on human health.

Chapter 6 ‘Ecological Bases of the Management of Populations’ begins, as did some other chapters, in a political manner by talking about the United Nations Conference on the Protection of the Environment, held in Stockholm in 1972 and other similar, more recent, gatherings that serve to highlight the issues without defining in detail how to resolve them. While such information is no doubt valuable in tracing public concern over the environment I preferred to read about a defined issue, what was actually being done to correct it and the results obtained. The chapter does this to some extent with examples devoted to maintaining biodiversity and the concepts were most interesting. Chapter 7 offers more practical illustrations under the title ‘Habitat Management: The Factor Uniting Agronomy and Ecology’. I really enjoyed this chapter as it gave positive illustrations of how to think about the issues and guidance on what action can be taken to maintain or improve biodiversity.

Chapter 8 ‘Conclusion’ reviews all areas but I again detected a slight bias against the crop protection industry that researches and develops synthetic chemicals for pest management.

Who would buy and read this book? At the retail price it is certainly not cheap and may thus be more readily bought by libraries than private individuals. Although devoted largely to cotton, I am not sure that an expert in cotton production would need it even though reading it may give good background information on why cotton agronomy is as it is. Students and researchers in the fields of ‘Environmental Studies’ or ‘Agroecology’ (if such a course exists) would certainly find the book interesting.