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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