Resource information
Abstract
The persistent interplay of food production problems, land
degradation, and social and climatic difficulties on the Horn of
Africa result in recurring famines in spite of vast sums of money
spent on agricultural development. As land resources--which
undergird both social and production systems in Africa--become
increasingly degraded, development efforts, especially in
problematic areas, need to become part of comprehensive resource
use programs that take into account the existing regional land
use ecology. Designs which disrupt the ecology of established
land uses can lead to extensive degradation because such uses are
linked to wider areas; and the effects of such disruption can
ultimately threaten the viability of the proposed schemes
themselves.
While African agriculture has traditionally met greater food
needs by expanding the area under cultivation and irrigation, the
increasing scarcity of new high quality arable land means that
multiple use of "high potential" areas will become a priority.
This paper describes a multiple land use in a "high potential"
river basin of Somalia, in the context of the existing use
patterns involved in irrigated agriculture and nomadic
pastoralism. The spatial and temporal access and use of
resources are analyzed, and recommendations made for improving
the integration of these production systems.