AGRICULTURE CONTINUES to be the key industry. It is not only the dominant form of employment but also forms the basis for a way of life for, perhaps, two-thirds of the world's households. Agriculture being the function of physical, socio-institutional and techno-economic factors which are dynamic in nature, keeps on changing with the basic objective of increasing production and generation of foodgrains surplus. The traditional system of farming is in the process of transformation to modern agriculture which itself is undergoing a set of equally and generally even in more rapid changes. So it has added new dimensions in agriculture which need to be studied and analysed. This collection of essays in the eight volumes of New Dimensions in Agricultural Geography is designed to encapsule the major themes and recent trends and concepts on the field in the light of conceptual revolution in the discipline. More than 150 renowned scholars of various discipline from all over the world have contributed original papers on different themes which make this work multi-disciplinary. These volumes have been designed to help not only research scholars in particular area but also others who wish to keep abreast of the latest development in the field of agricultural geography. — The First Volume — Historical Dimensions of Agriculture containing 19 articles deals with the origin, diffusion and development of agriculture, research trends in agricultural geography, world agricultural systems and methods and techniques in agricultural geography. — The Second Volume — The Ecology of Agricultural System deals with the selected parameters of physical environment specially the climatic elements which affect the agricultural landscape in spite of technological advancement in agriculture. — The Third Volume — Socio-economic Dimensions of Agriculture, containing 19 articles deals with socio-economic environment which have bearings on agricultural systems. The first eight articles deal with social parameters specially labour, caste, women etc., while the last 11 articles examine the impact of techno-economic factors specially the various facets of irrigation which is a basic agricultural input. — The Fourth Volume — Landuse and Agricultural Planning contains 19 articles dealing with concepts, theories, models of landuse, land capability and suitability, wastelands and dynamics of landuse. — The Fifth Volume — Spatial Dimensions of Agriculture includes articles on agricultural systems of specific areas such as Himalayas, Bastar, Uttarakhand etc. It also deals with dynamics of crop landuse, cropping pattern and its diversification, crop ecology and crop-combination analysis. — The Sixth Volume — Human Perception and Technological Change in Agriculture contains only 15 articles and covers four basic themes. The first set of three articles deals with human perception and his consequential response, while the second set includes articles on correlates of technological change and adoption of agricultural innovations. The third set of articles deals with the assessment of socio-economic transformation in rural India. The last set deals with agriculture and human settlement. — The Seventh Volume — Dynamics of Agricultural Development includes articles on concept of development and its various facets. Besides assessing the trends of levels of agricultural development, it also examines and evaluates its impact on environment and ecological parameters. — The Eighth Volume — Anthropogenic Dimensions of Agriculture containing 17 articles deals with regional imbalances in agricultural productivity methods of its measurement, and also its correlates and determinant. It also focuses on food availability and food security at regional and continental level.
