Agro-environmental Study of the Sustainability of Indigenous Agriculture In Central and Southern Africa

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The research was conducted to characterize indigenous agricultural systems in central and southern Africa from the three different aspects; i.e., environment, agricultural method and socio-economic background. The fundamentals, potentials and future perspective of indigenous agriculture were analyzed by comparing several indigenous agricultural systems, and what is requested for the indigenous agriculture to be sustainable was considered. The selected seven research areas are; 1) Bukoba, western Lake Victoria zone of Tanzania, 2) Makete, 3) Tukuyu, 4)Mbozi, which all belongs to the Southern Highland of Tanzania, 5) Mpika, northern Zambia, 6) Kasempa, south-western Zambia and 7) Mongu, Zambezi flood plain, western Zambia.The main findings are;i). The distribution of permanent banana gardens at Bukoba was controlled by thick soil layers, which otherwise bring about rocky grassland. Soil fertility has been maintained by incorporating farmyard manure and banana residues into wits. Banana b … More io-mass measurement revealed that annual dry matter production ranged 1.8-4.8 t that is comparable to cereal production with moderate care. The high population density of the area of more than 400 forces farmers to diversify their livelihood strategy to increase grassland farming or selling banana for cash mainly due to the fragmentation of banana gardens through generations.ii) The vegetation and soils of mountain slopes of the Tanzanian Southern Highland characterized the cultivation systems such as slash-and-burn, mound with burn, mound without burn and simple hoe cultivation. Collective works that are highly systematized by rituals are very common in the area, but they are diverse according the way people adopted Christianity.iii) The twenty years history of a village at Mpika is characterized by adoption of maize cultivation for commercial farming, but later by regression to chitemene shifting cultivation under the pressure of the structural adjustment policy. This was due to farmers choices ice utilize whatever opportunities thereby chitemene remained as the most reliable means of production. The population density of the area remained in the range of 1-25 person/km^2 during the period, and the carrying capacity of the chitemene was evaluated 10/km^2.iv)Indigenous agriculture at the Zambezi Floodplain is controlled by flood, whereby seasonal shift of crop land and cattle took place. It is revealed that the floodplain is a fundamental that provide not only the means of production (agriculture, cattle and fish) but also a society that holds multi-ethnical coexistence.Conclusively, indigenous agriculture is 1)largely controlled by available natural resources, which determines the heterogeneous distribution of people. 2) The change in agrarian society is not understood by population increase nor environmental degradation theories, but by change in peoples' life style in socio-economic perspective 3) The difference in the intensity of indigenous agricultural systems is due to the result of maximum use of the environment under given technology, and its potentials will be extended through socio-economic changes. Less