Endogenous Development of Woodland Cultivators in Africa

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We have conducted agroecological and socioecological studies in the Bemba villages in the woodland of northern Zambia, on the traditional shifting cultivation (chitemene system) and newly introduced semi-permanent cultivation. Also, we have promoted the comparative studies on the cultivators of the woodland in Zambia and Tanzania. Major findings are as follows.1, The Bemba villagers of the research area have kept a subsistence life with strong reliance on the chitemene system. But since 1986 semi-permanent cultivation of maize has begun to spread among the villages. After experiencing a rapid transition period, the village started to build a atable system where chitemene cultivation for subsistence coexisted with semi-permanent cultivation for cash crop. These process and mechanism have been clarified precisely.2, Chitemene system is characterized by the compilation of chopped branches of the woodland trees into the center of the cleared land and burning them. The chitemene system util … More izes soil organic matter as well as ashes effectively through the burning. Under nutrient-poor sandy soils of the woodland, chitemene with the rotation and mixed cropping had been the only sustainable means of agriculture. These agroecological conditions have been clarified.3, Bemba men climb the tees and lop off all the branches with an ax. And they burn the pile of dead branches and leaves. These practices are deeply related to their ancestral worship and their cosmology concerning hot-cold symbolism. These beliefs are changing through the transition of the generations, which coincide with agricultural change. These data have been collected precisely.4, Ecological conditions, impacts of the cutting trees and recovering process of the woodland have been traced by vegetation analysis and satellite-image analysis. Through these studies we have grasped the environmental dynamics and the problems of land use system in the research area.5, We have investigated socioecological and agroecological conditions of various ethnic-groups living in the woodland such as the dwellers of Bangweulu swamp, the Tongwe, the Matengo and the Nymwezi. These studies will contribute to clarify the potentials of the indigenous agricultural systems and the peasant societies for endogenous development. Less