Camilla Toulmin, Professor, Lancaster University, UK

Camilla Toulmin is a British economist, specialising on African agriculture, drylands, tenure and climate change. She became a Senior Associate at the International Institute for Environment & Development (IIED) in 2017, after 12 years at its Director. She has been appointed Professor in Practice at the University of Lancaster's Environment Centre (LEC) and is currently an Associate at the Institute for New Economic Thinking (INET). She is the author of Climate Change in Africa (Zed Books, 2009) and Cattle, Women, and Wells: Managing Household Survival in the Sahel (OUP, 1992).

"This book will be enlightening for all researchers, development practitioners and government decision-makers concerned with rural development in the Sahel, not only in Mali. It is a highly accessible book, as it explains discipline-specific vocabulary clearly. It is a comprehensive and detailed study in which a small village gives a vivid identity to rural people in the Sahel." - Ann Waters-Bayer, Agriculture and Human Values

"This book will be enlightening for all researchers, development practitioners and government decision makers concerned with rural development in the Sahel, not only in Mali. It is a highly accessible book, as it explains discipline specific vocabulary clearly. It is a comprehensive and detailed study in which a small village gives a vivid identity to rural people in the Sahel." - Ann Waters-Bayer, Springer

"In one neat volume Camilla Toulmin has documented the deepest historic change that humanity makes; the change from hand-to-mouth diurnal farming to modern agriculture...Toulmin is engaged, observing clinically but never pushing suggestions or urging change. She remains detached, giving us a glimpse of a disappearing African world and the birth of a new and challenging one." - Richard Dowden, Author of Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles, African Arguments