1. Hunting
Although used to be an
important activity it is now confined to a few places and to few ethnic groups
and people. Only a few tribes such as the Pygmies of the Zairian forests and
the Bushmen of the Kalahari continue to hunt and collect on a full time basis.
Elsewhere, hunting and collecting may take place but only as a supplement to
agriculture or pastorial activities.
2. Pastoralism - Livestock
An important way of life for millions on drylands of
Africa. A form of subsidence agriculture based on the herding of domesticated
animals. It is adapted to dry climates where intensive subsistence agriculture
is difficult or impossible. Pastoral Nomads live in the arid and semi-arid
belts of North Africa, West, East and parts of Central Asia. The Fulanis of
West Africa and Maasai of Kenya are examples of nomadic groups. The
Nomadic tribes are divided into 3 Groups:
a.
True Nomads such as the Fulani, Tuaregs
and Masai who are constantly on the move with their large herds of cattle and
consider nomadism as a way of life.
b.
Transhumance is a seasonal migration of
the nomads and their livestock between mountains and lowland pastures in search
of green pasture following changes in climate and vegetation..
c.
Sedently Agriculturalists : settled pastoralists
attend to their farms as well as keep such animals as cattle, sheep and goats.
3. Crop Cultivation
It is a
form of agriculture in which only enough crops are produced to meet the
requirements of the family. In good years, there may be a surplus to
sell and put aside for hard times. Subsistence farmers primarily rarely use
fertilizers and the sizes of their farms are very small. The whole farming
system is based on human labor and draft animals. The key implements are
the hoe and cutlass (matchette). Type of crops grown depends upon the climate
and environment. Whereas Africans in the forest belt grow root crops like yams
and cassava; plantains, oil palm; their counterparts in the savanna grow
millets, sorghum etc. Maize, cassava (manioc), peanuts, beans, sweet potatoes
introduced to Africa by the Portuguese, possibly from Brazil. There are 4 main
agrarian areas: a) Forest cultivators who adopt either Shifting Cultivation or
Land Rotation as a method of farming, b) Savanna cultivators and Oasis
cultivators who use irrigation extensively.
Rotational Bush Fallow System:
In this farming system, local groups clear small
portions of land by slashing the vegetation and burning the debris after leaving
it to dry in the sun. As a result, shifting cultivation is sometimes known as
Slash-and-Burn Agriculture. Crops are then cultivated on the plot of land for a
certain number of years and when production declines (in the third or fourth
year), the plot of land is abandoned and new farms are created in a similar
manner. People who practice bush fallow system of cultivation live in small
rural villages. In the past, the farmers used to rotate with their settlements
and belongings. They moved all settlements occasionally to settle near the new
farms. This system was called Shifting cultivation.
With rapid increases in population, the size of
plots reduces and the number of years a cultivated land may lie fallow to
regain its fertility is shortened.
Plantation Agriculture: A form of industrialized agriculture found primarily in tropical
rainforest regions of Sub-Saharan Africa. It is a permanent agriculture in
which cash crops introduced by the Colonialists (such as banana, coffee, tea
and cocoa) are cultivated and harvested for sale. This farming receives the
most attention from African governments because of the exports it generates.
Characteristics of Traditional Agricultural Systems.
Traditional farmers in developing countries today
grow about 20% of the world's food on about 75% of its cultivated land.
INTER-PLANTING which is the simultaneous cultivation of several crops on the
same crop of land is common. Some inter-planting strategies practiced in by
farmers include the following:
Ÿ
Polyvarietal cultivation: a plot of land is planted with several varieties
of the same crop.
Ÿ
Intercropping: two or more different crops are simultaneously planted on the same
crop of land. (Merits include- pest control, self sufficiency, full use of
fertilizers and nutrients). For example a carbohydrate rich grain that uses
soil nitrogen may be planted alongside a protein-rich legume that puts the
nutrients back.
Ÿ
Agroforestry or Alley Cropping: crops and
trees are planted together. For example, a grain or legume can be planted
around fruit-bearing orchard trees or in rows between fast-growing trees that
can be used for fuelwood.
Ÿ
Polyculture: A more complex form of
intercropping in which many different plants maturing at various times are
planted together. If cultivated properly, such farms can provide food, fuel, and
fertilizers and also meet other food needs of farmers.
Ÿ
Merits of the Poly-culture type of Farming are:
Ÿ
Root
systems at different depths in the soil capture nutrients and moisture
efficiently and minimize the need for fertilizer and irrigation.
Ÿ
Year
round plant coverage also protects the soil from weeds, and erosion.
Ÿ
The
mixed cropping is a check on insects that may feed on one crop and leave the
others.
Ÿ
Crop
diversity is also an insurance against bad weather.
Ÿ
Recent
ecological research on crop yields of 14 ecosystems found that on the average,
polyculture (with four or five crops) produces higher yields per unit of area
than high-input monoculture.
4. Fishing
Fishing is common among coastal dwellers and
those living around rivers, lakes and creeks. Methods used include dug-out
canoes, nets etc. Modern technology has brought the outboard motor, but the use
of large trawlers not common.
Colonial
rule brought significant changes to traditional agriculture in Africa.
1. Introduction of new crops
such as pineapple, corn and also cash crops
2. Large portions of fertile
land were appropriated and reserved for European farms and plantations in
Zimbabwe, Kenya and other parts of Africa.
3. Reserved Forests and Game
reserves were created with often serious implications for farmers and
pastorialists.
4. Cash crops were promoted as
a means of involving Africans in the International trade and ensuring supply of
tropical products for European Industry. Some of the crops include cotton,
cocoa, coffee, peanuts oil palm etc. (See Page 163 for maps)
5. Cash cropping supplanted
food crop cultivation and necessitated the Importation of food from European
countries.
1. State Farms – Ghana,
Mozambique, Angola and Ethiopia
2. Planned Resettlement Schemes
– Kenya, Tanzania
3. Irrigation schemes – Mali,
Nigeria, Ghana etc
4. Large scale capitalist
Agriculture - Cote’d Ivoire, Botswana
See
page 177 for Map.
Food Aid:
Many African countries cannot or do not grow enough
food and cannot also afford to import grains from abroad so in times of
disasters such as famines, the US and other advanced nations have rallied to
provide food aid. Today about 8000 million people or 15% of the world’s
population get less than 2000 calories per day. By the mid-1980’s food aid were
exceeding 10 million tons of grains annually. US has been the greatest
contributor and African countries have been the largest recipients. Whereas
emergency food aid in times of disasters may be welcome, long-term aid may be
less desirable.
Impacts of Food Aid on Recipient Nations:
a)
Free
or low low-cost food can drive down food prices in the recipient nations
b)
Food
aid quickly becomes an essential part of the national food supply hence denying
the countries of local self-sufficiency
c)
There
are also problems of ensuring that the food is distributed to those in greatest
need who often live in remote rural areas than in the urban areas where the
politician live.
d)
Food
aid may be offered for political support
e)
It
is often an attempt to get rid of surpluses that accumulate in developed
countries.
The real stakeholders in the new gm crop revolution
reside in today’s poor countries. It is in the developing countries that both
farmers and consumers might realize sizeable material gains over the current
circumstances. Some reasons for this include:
Advantages:
a)
Increases
in yields and hence a faster route to feed the world’s teeming population
b)
Reduction
in pesticide and fertilizer usage hence less groundwater pollution
c)
Increases
in the nutrient value of basic foods
d)
Plants
that are better able to tolerate drought, salinity, diseases and lack of soil
nutrients
e)
Tropical
agriculture is technically more difficult than temperate zone agriculture
because of poor soil, extremes of moisture and heat, drought, and a host of
pests and parasites that attack crops. Over 30% of crop yield is lost to
pathogens and pests in parts of Africa.
f)
Some
environmental gains may come from gm crops. (i) Pesticide use would be reduced
using herbicide resistant gm varieties. This will reduce runoff of pesticides
into surface streams and groundwater. (ii) The continuous expansion of land to
increase crop yield could be halted by the planting of high yielding gm plant
varieties. This could reduce deforestation and land degradation in the
tropics.
g)
African
agriculturalists may stand to benefit from research on GM foods already completed
in developed countries.
Disadvantages:
1.
If
gm crops continue to be developed by private firms in the developed world, poor
farmers in developing countries would find the seeds too expensive to
purchase.
2.
There
is the potential for developing countries to depend upon private foreign
companies whose operation is based on profit rather than food security and
lower food prices.
3.
There
is also the problem of using indigenous plants from the developing countries to
develop new gm crops and applying US patent laws to own them
4.
Also
disagreements over genetic uniformity of crops that will narrow the biological
varieties we have today
5.
The
developing countries have weak institutions for monitoring and abating the
hazards that can accompany gm production and social problems of its
commercialization.
The risks of genetically modified crops:
a)
The
most serious environmental risk is the likelihood of transgenic elements
escaping from cultivated crops into wild relatives (or contaminating organic
varieties on nearby farms). A potential solution is to incorporate the gene in
the plastids genome. In most plants, plastids are maternally inherited and not
transmitted via pollen.
b)
The
creation of new viruses and plant diseases with no known properties through the
exchange of genes.
c)
The
potential for pests to evolve resistance to the toxins produced by Bacillus
thuringiensis (plants with Bt genes).
d)
Crops
carrying antibiotic genes used as selectable markers may generate
anti-resistance in livestock or humans.