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Intensification Patterns in West African Agriculture

Intensification Patterns in West African Agriculture Volker Stamm, Darmstadt Social and Cultural Conditions and Constraints* Ambiguous facts, unsatisfactory explanations Constant population growth and increasingly scarce land resources, to a large extent caused by inappropriate farming methods, endow the theme of farming intensification in agricultural research and development practice with a longterm topicality. Numerous attempts to achieve an increase in production by exogenous initiatives must be regarded as having failed for the most part, at least in the area covered by these considerations. However, the West African savannah and coastal regions are characterized by cropping Systems of very varied degrees of intensity, some of which are capable of supporting an extraordinarily high population density and others which have proven viable and developed further in a remarkable way under extremely difficult natural conditions. Only too rarely do we have access to knowledge about their origins and development over longer periods. Even the recently published, impressively dimensioned volume on 'L'intensification agricole au Sahel' (BREMAN/SISSOKO 1998) neglects such aspects in favor of a purely technical viewpoint. West Africa remains a totally unexplored territory in terms of agrarian history (for its methods used and findings obtained relating to Europe see SLICHER VAN BATH (1963) and most recently, 1993; NETTING http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsgeographie de Gruyter

Intensification Patterns in West African Agriculture

Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsgeographie , Volume 45 (1) – Oct 1, 2001

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Publisher
de Gruyter
Copyright
Copyright © 2001 by the
ISSN
2365-7693
eISSN
2365-7693
DOI
10.1515/zfw.2001.0004
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Volker Stamm, Darmstadt Social and Cultural Conditions and Constraints* Ambiguous facts, unsatisfactory explanations Constant population growth and increasingly scarce land resources, to a large extent caused by inappropriate farming methods, endow the theme of farming intensification in agricultural research and development practice with a longterm topicality. Numerous attempts to achieve an increase in production by exogenous initiatives must be regarded as having failed for the most part, at least in the area covered by these considerations. However, the West African savannah and coastal regions are characterized by cropping Systems of very varied degrees of intensity, some of which are capable of supporting an extraordinarily high population density and others which have proven viable and developed further in a remarkable way under extremely difficult natural conditions. Only too rarely do we have access to knowledge about their origins and development over longer periods. Even the recently published, impressively dimensioned volume on 'L'intensification agricole au Sahel' (BREMAN/SISSOKO 1998) neglects such aspects in favor of a purely technical viewpoint. West Africa remains a totally unexplored territory in terms of agrarian history (for its methods used and findings obtained relating to Europe see SLICHER VAN BATH (1963) and most recently, 1993; NETTING

Journal

Zeitschrift für Wirtschaftsgeographiede Gruyter

Published: Oct 1, 2001

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