A Book Review on:

ELEMENTARY STATISTICS IN AGRICULTURE AND

ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES


INTRODUCTION:
Elementary Statistics in Agriculture and Environmental Sciences is a book by Chuda Prasad Dhakal, Associate professor of Institute of Agriculture and Animal Science, Rampur Campus, published in 2070 BS. A good book is not merely written or compiled; it is crafted. This book is designed for agriculture and environment science students so the textual and sensory format is carefully chosen for that audience. Dhakal’s this book in statistics is an endeavor for agriculture and environmental science graduating students. This is a wonderful book that presents an eclectic selection of statistical concepts, personalities, and events that are ordered from simple to complex topics one providing base for another topic and making it easy to understand with the upcoming chapters.
SUMMARY OF THE CONTENT:
The book consists of thirteen chapters; each chapter is divided in to small sub topics. Chapter one describes the basic statistical concept which contains the introduction, background information and uses of statistics. Similarly, it describes the role of statistics in agriculture and environmental science and its limitations. It also defines the different terminologies used in statistics and finally answers to the question "Why do data need to be statistically analyzed?" Chapter two is on data organization; it is related to the arrangement of data using different methods. It also describes different method of classification of data and principles of classification. The chapter three describes the ways of representation of data using different graphs and diagrams like different types of bar diagrams, ogives etc. Similarly, chapter four is concentrated on developing ideas on measures of calculating central tendency. It describes commonly used types like mean, median, mode and mid-range. Chapter five develops the knowledge on meaning, purpose and commonly used methods of dispersion. The chapter also consist in detail about each method of measure of dispersion along with their properties and examples. It has nicely given the interpretation of standard deviation and variance in data analysis using examples each.
The skewness, kurtosis and moments is discussed in chapter six. It has described different methods of measurement of skewness like Karl Pearson’s skewness, Bowley’s skewness, Kelly’s measure of skewness. It has also described kurtosis and its types and derived the skewness and kurtosis in terms of moments. The theory of probability is discussed in chapter seven with very good examples and exercise. It develops idea from basic to higher level of probability and its rules. It describes ideas on permutation and recombination in a very simple way. Similarly, the chapter eight is on probability distribution it describes types of probability distribution Binomial distribution, Poisson distribution and normal distribution. Chapter nine is “Correlation and Regression analysis” it provides the reader with a practical introduction to the use of correlation and regression analysis. Correlation analysis refers to the measurement of association between or among variables, and regression analysis focuses primarily on the use of linear models to predict changes in the value taken by one variable in terms of changes in the values of a set of explanatory variables.  This chapter also provides methods for calculating correlation coefficient. Chapter ten is “Sampling Theory and Estimation of Parameters”. It provides the detailed discussion about the different sampling techniques and the different situation to apply it. “Hypothesis testing is discussed in chapter eleven. It contains the concept of terminologies of hypothesis testing, P-value concept, different test for e.g. Z- test, t-test, F-test. Similarly, Chapter twelve is “Chi-square test” it develops the idea of non-parametric tests. And chapter thirteen is the last chapter “Analysis of Variance and Experimental Designs”. It describes the procedures that allow us to compare three or more populations with ease. Each chapter begins with a short description of the statistic and when it should be used. This is followed by a more in-depth explanation of how the statistic works. At the end of each chapters there is exercise to work out that helps the readers practice more on the subject matter.
ANALYSIS AND EVALUATION OF BOOK:
This book provides an inexpensive, brief overview of statistics to help readers gain a better understanding of how statistics work and how to interpret them correctly. One of the real strengths of the book is the depth of experience teaching descriptive and inferential statistics that the author displays. He really understands how and why students find the interpretation of data difficult and has given very good examples and exercises on the interpretation of data. The author admits that he has personally experienced that students are repeatedly baffled with mathematical and statistical theories that come side by side. Despite understanding logic and theories of statistics and deriving techniques of analyzing numerical data and drawing useful conclusions in practical life experiences students seem to be only going through theoretical portion while its practical application is more important. This book seems to develop logic and understanding in students rather than merely solving the numerical problems. It has focused on practical application of the methods. It has some a lot nice features and a few shortcomings as well. The best feature of the book is its choice of questions in exercise section at the end of every chapters, which are excellent and should appeal especially to agriculture and environmental science college students. The questions are not solely related to just buying pen or chocolates it has good questions relevant interesting objects like number of caterpillars in cardamom, number and height of trees, import and export of agricultural products etc. Similarly, the unique feature of this book involves style, even spacing and presentation of formulas with their symbols giving perfect appearance.
Despite the book is very simple and understandable it contains some spelling and grammatical mistakes. It contains several topics important in analysis of biological science research of agriculture however it lacks topics important in social science like Index number and time series analysis. The inclusion of such topics could have appealed more number of readers.
CONCLUSION:
This is an excellent, stimulating, and inspiring book for under graduate and post graduate students of agriculture and environment science. The price is a true bargain for a work of this quality. The book is highly recommended for library and personal acquisition, and it also is a perfect gift for any young person interested in statistics.


REFERENCES:
Dhakal, C.P., (2070). Elementary statistics in agriculture and environmental science. Lalitpur: Sajha Prakashan, 2013 xiv,264p. (ISBN 978-9937-32-225-3)


























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