Soil science and the politics of expertise: Empire, land and fundamental research

Accounts of the history of soil science in the tropics have tended to present a story of linear scientific progress, moving from past generalisations toward an appreciation of the variety of soils in the tropics from roughly the mid-1970s. This thesis presents a different narrative, showing the wide range of attempts to generate nuanced understandings of the varieties of tropical soils as part of visions of colonial development earlier in the century.

This thesis examines the ambitions for soil science at the major centres for agricultural science and education in the British Colonial Empire between 1920 and 1965. These include the Imperial College of Tropical Agriculture (Trinidad), the Amani Station (Tanganyika) and the East African Agriculture and Forestry Research Organisation (Kenya). Soil science, particularly soil surveying, was afforded significance at these institutions for a variety of reasons, reflecting personal ambitions, wider political developments and economic imperatives. A range of approaches to the study of soils were taken, and the connections between soil science and the aims and objectives of Empire differed geographically and historically.

By paying close attention to the trajectory of programmes of colonial soils research in practice, this thesis highlights the contrast between ambition and implementation. Factors such as shortages of funding, difficulties of recruiting qualified personnel and a lack of coordination between institutions undermined efforts to generate scientific knowledge of soils. Rather than being an exception, this thesis suggests that the gap between visions of large-scale scientific projects and the more limited nature of work on the ground was the norm.