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It is designed to be used as a reference book that answers basic questions about how food is produced from plants, and aims to demystify the subject of growing food as far as possible. The focus is firmly on the technical aspects of food crops; topics such as animal husbandry, agrochemicals and genetic engineering are only briefly mentioned. There is a strong international flavour to the book, with a view to making it user friendly throughout the English speaking community. In fact the manual is designed to be also used by those who normally speak or read English as their second language, using simple English terminology and phrasing, with explanations and cross references of the terminology, acronyms and terms used. The book is divided into three sections, described further in the Table of Contents: Section 1. -Principles and Practices used in Agriculture and HorticultureSection 2. - Description and Characteristics of the Main Food CropsSection 3. - Naming and Classification of Plants, Seed Purchase Procedures, Conversion Tables & Statistics, Planning and Assessing Agricultural Projects