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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The Challenge for Rainfed Agriculture in Western and Southern Sudan: Lessons from Abyei
Authors:Huntington, Richard
Ackroyd, James
Deng, Luka
Year:1981
Periodical:Africa Today
Volume:28
Issue:2
Period:2nd Quarter
Pages:43-53
Language:English
Geographic term:Sudan
Subjects:subsistence farming
millet
Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment
Development and Technology
Economics and Trade
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/4185998
Abstract:In an effort to find alternatives to the mechanisation of rain-fed agriculture, researchers are re-examining the practices of traditional agriculture to see if these might provide a basis for modernisation that is different from the largely imported farming system used on the mechanised schemes. In this context, the authors observed the 1980 agricultural season near Abyei, South Kordofan Province. The system of traditional agriculture, in this case sorghum production, can best be understood in terms of two cycles - the annual cycle of the growing season (dominated by the two natural factors of rainfall and topography), and a long-term cycle of shifting agriculture and periods of fallow (dominated by a parasitic weed). All aspects of this traditional farming system operate to minimise the amount of human labour necessary for every operation. Any program to increase sorghum production must be at least as complex as the traditional system since it must face the same complicated package of environmental constraints and problems. Note, ref.
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