Environmental Factors in Agriculture: Observation and Experiment in Agricultural Meteorology (ca 1900-1950)
Final Report Abstract
The project examined the history of agricultural meteorology during the first half of the twentieth century. It investigated national and international institutions involved in agricultural meteorology, stakeholders, and main developments in this area using both traditional historical methodologies (archival research; close reading of published primary sources) and digital humanities tools (databases, notebooks for the analysis of the data collected). During the project, I examined in depth the role that the technical commission on agriculture established by the International Meteorological Organization (IMO) had in promoting research in agricultural meteorology during the first half of the twentieth century. Alongside the work of the IMO commission, I also analysed the contributions made by the International Institute of Agriculture (IIA) to the growth of agricultural meteorology and ecology, with a special focus on the theories of the Italian agronomist Girolamo Azzi and their influence on the IIA’s strategy in agricultural meteorology. Alongside the work of international organizations, I examined a few national case studies (in particular, the British agricultural meteorological scheme) to understand how observational and experimental activities were carried out in agricultural meteorology during the first half of the twentieth century, but also to assess the impact that agricultural meteorology had on farming activities. With the support of a student assistant, I created a dataset of bibliographic information on publications in agricultural meteorology printed in the first half of the twentieth century. The analysis of this dataset provided an overview of the developments of agricultural meteorology complementary to the analysis of the case studies mentioned above (IMO, IIA, national agrometeorological services). The project has achieved all the three objectives listed in the original proposal by tackling both international institutions involved in agricultural meteorology and selected case studies of national agrometeorological schemes. The review article commissioned by WIREs Climate Change has also prompted a reflection on the more recent developments of agricultural meteorology and how they are connected (and differs from) the developments in the first half of the twentieth century. The datasets produced as part of the project (Bibliographies of Agricultural Meteorology (1900-1950) and Membership of the IMO Commission for Agricultural Meteorology (1913-1947)) can be accessed via Mendeley data. The code written for managing and analysing the data is open source and available on GitHub.
