Replenishing Soil Fertility in Africa, Edited

Volume 2 consists of 11 chapters in which the distribution, land-use and management of red and lateritic soils of India, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal, The Philippines, Vietnam, Kenya, Argentina and Bulgaria are described. There is some overlap with information on the Indian soils presented in volume 1, but the soil information on the other countries is stimulating reading. The internaŽ . tional soil classification schemes FAO–Unesco, Soil Taxonomy are used in most chapters in addition to national schemes. Apart from a chapter on Argentinean soils and some information in volume 1 in a chapter by A. van Wambeke, there is limited information on red soils in South America where they are of great importance and their management and constraints have been well-researched. These two volumes bring together useful information on important soils in the tropics but there are some errors and shortcomings which obligate mentioning. In vol. 1, it is stated that Fe toxicity is a serious problem affecting plant growth in red soils. Iron toxicity rarely occurs, however, in upland soils. It is a problem in acid–sulphate soils and in flooded rice soils where excessive iron uptake may cause iron toxicity, so-called ‘bronzing’ resulting from oxidized polyphenols. Some chapters also mention that goethite is a mineral with a red colour. Although several chapters touch upon it, there is no in-depth review of genesis and common pedofeatures of the red soils nor a thorough synthesis of how they should be managed in order to sustain agricultural production. Some of the information is dated and the books are not indexed, contain some unreadable Ž . line drawings e.g., pp. 96, 126, 316 in vol. 1; pp. 761, 75 vol. 2 and numerous misspellings. In conclusion, both volumes should have benefited from slightly more rigorous editing in which a slash-and-burn red pencil was combined with flawless checking. In my opinion, the books are not as significant to the literature of red soils as are the red soils to agriculture in the tropics. They are also a bit expensive. For less, one could buy a beautiful book of Gauguin.