The Spread of Food Production in Sub-Saharan Africa

1962 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 211-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Desmond Clark
Keyword(s):  
Freshwater Fish ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Elaeis Guineensis ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Limiting Factor ◽  
Collecting Methods ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Equatorial Forest ◽  
Forest Foods ◽  
Permanent Presence

After the end of the Pleistocene, sub-Saharan Africa seems to have been more receptive of than contributory to cultural progress in the Old World as a whole. By that time favourable localities in the subcontinent—the margins of lakes and watercourses, the sea coasts, the peripheral regions of the equatorial forest—were sometimes supporting nearly, or entirely, sedentary communities of hunting-collecting peoples who were enabled to live in this way due to the permanent presence of one or more staple sources of food: freshwater fish, water animals and plants, and sea foods; and forest foods (the Dioscoreas, Elaeis guineensis, and other oil-bearing plants), either perennial or capable of being stored. Evidence of such occupation is seen in the midden accumulations in both cave and open sites at this time. Populations could thus become more concentrated and an increase in density may be inferred, the limiting factor being the maximum that any one environment could support by intensified collecting methods (fig. I).

scholarly journals An afebrile heartwater-like syndrome in goats

2013 ◽  
Vol 84 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rhoda Leask ◽  
Kenneth P. Pettey ◽  
Gareth F. Bath
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Signs ◽  
Control Measures ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Limiting Factor ◽  
Febrile Reaction ◽  
Presumptive Diagnosis ◽  
Appropriate Treatment ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Characteristic Features ◽  
And Control

Heartwater is a serious limiting factor for sheep and goat production in the major endemic area of sub-Saharan Africa and therefore most knowledge, research and control methods originate from this region. Whilst the usual or common clinical presentations can be used to make a presumptive diagnosis of heartwater with a good measure of confidence, this is not always the case, and animals suffering from heartwater may be misdiagnosed because their cases do not conform to the expected syndrome, signs and lesions. One aberrant form found occasionally in the Channel Island breeds of cattle and some goats is an afebrile heartwaterlike syndrome. The most constant and characteristic features of this heartwater-like syndrome comprise normal temperature, clinical signs associated with generalised oedema, and nervous signs, especially hypersensitivity. The presumption that the disease under investigation is the afebrile heartwater-like syndrome entails a tentative diagnosis based on history and clinical signs and the response to presumed appropriate treatment (metadiagnosis). The afebrile heartwater-like syndrome presents similarly to peracute heartwater but without the febrile reaction. Peracute cases of heartwater have a high mortality rate, enabling confirmation of the disease on post-mortem examination. Recognition of the afebrile heartwater-like syndrome is important to prevent deaths and identify the need for appropriate control measures.

scholarly journals Response of Chickpea (Cicer aritienum L.) to Sulphur and Zinc Nutrients Application and Rhizobium Inoculation in North Western Ethiopia

2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (10) ◽  
pp. 2040-2048
Author(s):  
Beza Shewangizaw Woldearegay ◽  
Anteneh Argaw ◽  
Tesfaye Feyisa ◽  
Birhan Abdulkadir ◽  
Endalkachew Wold-Meskel
Keyword(s):  
Crop Production ◽  
Block Design ◽  
P Uptake ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Limiting Factor ◽  
Rhizobium Inoculation ◽  
Combined Application ◽  
Nodule Volume ◽  
P Application ◽  
Sub Saharan

In sub-Saharan Africa, multiple plant nutrients deficiency besides nitrogen (N) and phosphorus (P) is a major growth-limiting factor for crop production. As a result, some soils become non-responsive for Rhizobium inoculation besides P application. Based on the soil test result, the soil of Experimental sites had low organic matter (OM), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), sulphur (S) and zinc (Zn)[xy1]. Hence, an experiment was carried out on-farm at Gondar Zuria woreda in Tsion and Denzaz Kebeles to evaluate the effect of Rhizobium inoculation, S and Zn application on yield, nodulation, N and P uptake of chickpea. The experiment included twelve treatments developed via factorial combination of two level of inoculation (Rhizobium inoculated, un-inoculated), three level of S (0, 15, 30 kg Sulphur ha-1) and two levels of Zn (0, 1.5 kg Zinc ha-1). The treatment was laid out in randomized complete block design with three replications. Results showed that the highest mean nodule number (15.3) and nodule volume (1.3 ml plant-1) over locations were obtained with Rhizobium inoculation integrated with 15 kg S and 1.5 kg Zn ha-1 which resulted in 37.8% and 116.7% increment over the control check, respectively. It was also observed that combined application of Rhizobium and 30 kg S ha-1 caused the highest (6.7) mean nodulation rating and seed yield (1775.5 kg ha-1) over locations which resulted in 86.1% and 28 % increase over the control check, respectively. Moreover, this treatment improved P use efficiency of chickpea. On the bases of observed result, it can be concluded that the response of chickpea to Rhizobium and P application can be improved by S application and Rhizobium inoculation with application of 30 kg S ha-1 with recommended rate of P and starter N is recommended for chickpea production at the experimental locations in Gonder Zuria Woreda.

Pastoralism in sub-Saharan Africa

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane Gifford-Gonzalez
Keyword(s):  
Social Relations ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Human Genetics ◽  
Lipid Analysis ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Dairy Production ◽  
Southwest Asia ◽  
Sheep And Goats ◽  
Pastoral Mobility ◽  
Sub Saharan

African pastoralism is distinctive from that of Southwest Asia, focusing on dairy production with cattle, sheep, and goats. The latter were domesticated in Southwest Asia and introduced, but debate continues on whether indigenous African aurochs contributed genes to African domestic cattle. Pastoralism emerged in what was then a grassy Sahara and shifted south with the mid-Holocene aridification. Zooarchaeology and genetics show the donkey is a mid-Holocene African domesticate, emerging as an aid to pastoral mobility during increasing aridity. Pastoralism is the earliest form of domesticate-based food production in sub-Saharan Africa, with farming emerging millennia later. Human genetics and lipid analysis of Saharan ceramics shows an early reliance on dairying. With the emergence of pastoralism, new economies and social relations emerged that were carried by pastoralists across the whole of Africa.

Recommendations: The Development of the Agrarian Sector, with Emphasis on Food Production and Distribution

1988 ◽  
Vol 17 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-33
Author(s):  
Michael F. Lofchie ◽  
Gleb V. Smirnov
Keyword(s):  
Food Production ◽  
Agricultural Development ◽  
Food Distribution ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Debt Burden ◽  
Rural And Urban ◽  
Ecological Problems ◽  
Production And Distribution ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Investment Goods

A critical problem for Africa is that of food production and distribution, highlighted by declines in food production, widespread hunger, and famine. There are several interrelated sources of this problem, both domestic and external. Among them are ecological problems, engendered by climatic and natural conditions; land fertility depletion in many regions of sub-Saharan Africa; the extreme scarcity of financial resources, accentuated by the debt burden and falling terms of trade; a deficit of investment goods and research and development facilities needed for agricultural development; and weaknesses in rural infrastructure, both economic and social. Unbalanced interaction between the rural and urban economies as well as archaic socioeconomic structures play a major role in the problems of food distribution, with consequent effects on food production.

scholarly journals Ancient DNA reveals a multistep spread of the first herders into sub-Saharan Africa

Science ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 365 (6448) ◽  
pp. eaaw6275 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary E. Prendergast ◽  
Mark Lipson ◽  
Elizabeth A. Sawchuk ◽  
Iñigo Olalde ◽  
Christine A. Ogola ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Iron Age ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Eastern Africa ◽  
Multiphase Model ◽  
Later Stone Age ◽  
Genome Wide ◽  
Genome Wide Data ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Pastoral Neolithic

How food production first entered eastern Africa ~5000 years ago and the extent to which people moved with livestock is unclear. We present genome-wide data from 41 individuals associated with Later Stone Age, Pastoral Neolithic (PN), and Iron Age contexts in what are now Kenya and Tanzania to examine the genetic impacts of the spreads of herding and farming. Our results support a multiphase model in which admixture between northeastern African–related peoples and eastern African foragers formed multiple pastoralist groups, including a genetically homogeneous PN cluster. Additional admixture with northeastern and western African–related groups occurred by the Iron Age. These findings support several movements of food producers while rejecting models of minimal admixture with foragers and of genetic differentiation between makers of distinct PN artifacts.

Accelerating food production in sub-Saharan Africa

1987 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 700-700
Author(s):  
A. M. Thomson
Keyword(s):  
Food Production ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
Sub Saharan

scholarly journals Dilemma of nitrogen management for future food security in sub-Saharan Africa – a review

Soil Research ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 55 (6) ◽  
pp. 425 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cargele Masso ◽  
Fredrick Baijukya ◽  
Peter Ebanyat ◽  
Sifi Bouaziz ◽  
John Wendt ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Food Security ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Smallholder Farmers ◽  
Lake Victoria ◽  
Research Capacity ◽  
Sub Saharan Africa ◽  
N Recovery ◽  
Sub Saharan ◽  
Other World ◽  
N Use

Food security entails having sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet dietary needs. The need to optimise nitrogen (N) use for nutrition security while minimising environmental risks in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is overdue. Challenges related to managing N use in SSA can be associated with both insufficient use and excessive loss, and thus the continent must address the ‘too little’ and ‘too much’ paradox. Too little N is used in food production (80% of countries have N deficiencies), which has led to chronic food insecurity and malnutrition. Conversely, too much N load in water bodies due mainly to soil erosion, leaching, limited N recovery from wastewater, and atmospheric deposition contributes to eutrophication (152 Gg N year–1 in Lake Victoria, East Africa). Limited research has been conducted to improve N use for food production and adoption remains low, mainly because farming is generally practiced by resource-poor smallholder farmers. In addition, little has been done to effectively address the ‘too much’ issues, as a consequence of limited research capacity. This research gap must be addressed, and supportive policies operationalised, to maximise N benefits, while also minimising pollution. Innovation platforms involving key stakeholders are required to address N use efficiency along the food supply chain in SSA, as well as other world regions with similar challenges.

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