An agricultural experiment is usually associated with a scientific method for testing certain agricultural phenomena. A central point in the work of Paul Richards is that experimentation is at the heart of agricultural practice. The reason why agricultural experiments are something different for farmers and agronomists is not their capacity to experiment as such but the embedding of experiments in a specific ecological, material and institutional environment. Using a historical perspective, changes are examined in the organization of agricultural experiments focusing on the Netherlands and colonial Indonesia during the first half of the 20th century and the international agricultural research institutes for the period thereafter. The results show a gradual shift in the role of experiments in the connection between science and practice. Initially, the link was considered to be established through various forms of experiments, rooted in an integrated social and technical understanding of agronomy. Gradually, this turned into a connection primarily established through various forms of communication. Recent work of Richards incorporates ideas that address key issues emerging from the history of agricultural experiments, dealing with an integrated social and technical understanding of agriculture.

The paper considers local responses to the introduction of an Ebola Treatment Centre in eastern Sierra Leone during the West African epidemic of 2014–15. Our study used qualitative methods consisting of focus groups and interviews, to gather responses from patients, members of the families of survivors and deceased victims of the disease, social liaison workers from the centre, and members of the general public. The data indicate that scepticism and resistance were widespread at the outset, but that misconceptions were replaced, in the minds of those directly affected by the disease, by more positive later assessments. Social workers, and social contacts of families with workers in the centre, helped reshape these perceptions, but a major factor was direct experience of the disease. This is apparent in the positive endorsements by survivors and families who had members taken to the facility. Even relatives of deceased victims agreed that the case-handling centre was valuable. However, we also present evidence of continuing scepticism in the minds of members of the general public, who continue to suspect that Ebola was a crisis manufactured for external benefit. Our conclusions stress the importance of better connectivity between communities and Ebola facilities to facilitate experiential learning. There is also a need to address the wider cognitive shock caused by a well-funded Ebola health initiative arriving in communities with a long history of inadequate health care. Restoring trust in medicine requires Ebola Virus Disease to be re-contextualized within a broader framework of concern for the health of all citizens.

Rice today is food to half the world's population. Its history is inextricably entangled with the emergence of colonialism, the global networks of industrial capitalism, and the modern world economy. The history of rice is currently a vital and innovative field of research attracting serious attention, but no attempt has yet been made to write a history of rice and its place in the rise of capitalism from a global and comparative perspective. Rice is a first step toward such a history. The fifteen chapters, written by specialists on Africa, the Americas, and Asia, are premised on the utility of a truly international approach to history. Each brings a new approach that unsettles prevailing narratives and suggests new connections. Together they cast new light on the significant roles of rice as crop, food, and commodity and shape historical trajectories and interregional linkages in Africa, the Americas, Europe, and Asia.

Poverty-Related Diseases (PRDs) emphasize poverty as a ‘breeding-ground’ for a range of diseases. The study presented here starts from the premise that poverty is a general condition that can limit people’s capacity to prevent, mitigate or treat diseases. Using an interpretation of health seeking behaviour (HSB), inspired by the salutogenic approach, we investigated how people deal with PRDs, their ability and strategies put in place to cope. We collected HSB data from two groups of respondents in Cameroon: labourers of the Cameroon Development Corporation (CDC) living in settlements called camps and students of the state universities of Buea and Yaoundé living in settlements we refer to as campuses. By selecting these groups, the study offers a unique view of how different people cope with similar health challenges. We carried out semi-structured interviews with 21 camp dwellers and 21 students in a cross-sectional study. Our findings revealed 1) respondents use multiple resources to cope with PRDs. 2) Respondents’ perceptions of diseases and connection with poverty closely ties to general hygienic conditions of their living environment. 3) Utilisation of health facilities is not strongly dependent on financial resources. 4) Volatile health facilities are a major challenge and reason for people to revert to other health resources. The study brings out the need for organisations (governmental and non-governmental) to strengthen people’s capacities to cope with health situations through better health and housing policies geared at incorporating practices currently used by the people and supporting pro-hygienic initiatives. People’s living conditions are a crucial factor for health and diseases. In developing countries like Cameroon, poverty is a major condition affecting the way people deal with health issues. We studied people’s a health-seeking behaviour action in two settings: camps, housing labourers of the Cameroon Development Cooperation, and campuses, places where students of the state universities of Buea and Yaoundé reside. We interviewed 21 camp dwellers and 21 students about their health challenges and responses. The results show health challenges not only relate to exposure to diseases but also to the reliability, affordability and functionality of medical services, the hygienic conditions in the living environment and money. For treatment of common diseases, foremost malaria and typhoid, the last resort was going to a clinic or hospital. More prominent responses were cleaning and other hygienic measures, self-medication using available tablets, herbs or other traditional medicine, consultation at small pharmacies or unofficial ‘doctors’. Public health services should anticipate people’s health behaviour to better address the health challenges of people living in poor conditions.