Sustaining the Soil

Indigenous Soil and Water Conservation in Africa

Chris Reij, Ian Scoones, Calmilla Toulmin, Chris Reij, Ian Scoones, Calmilla Toulmin

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2013
• Print ISBN: 9781853833724
• eBook ISBN: 9781134175932
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Biological Sciences
• Subtopic: Ecology
• Index: Biological Sciences

Indigenous soil and water conservation practices are rarely acknowledged in the design of conventional development projects. Instead, the history of soil and water conservation in Africa has been one of imposing external solutions without regard for local practice. There is a remarkably diverse range of locally developed and adapted technologies for the conservation of water and soil, well suited to their particular site and socio-economic conditions. But such measures have been ignored, and sometimes even overturned, by external solutions.

Sustaining the Soil documents farmers' practices, exploring the origins and adaptations carried out by farmers over generations, in response to changing circumstances. Through a comparative analysis of conservation measures - from the humid zones of West Africa to the arid lands of the Sudan, from rock terraces in Morocco to the grass strips of Swaziland - the book explores the various factors that influence adoption and adaptation; farmers' perceptions of conservation needs; and the institutional and policy settings most favorable to more effective land husbandry.

For the first time on an Africa-wide scale, this book shows that indigenous techniques work, and are being used successfully to conserve and harvest soil and water. These insights combine to suggest new ways forward for governments and agencies attempting to support sustainable land management in Africa, involving a fusion of traditional and modern approaches, which makes the most of both the new and the old.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Foreword
• Acknowledgements
• 1. Sustaining the soil: indigenous soil and water conservation in Africa
• 2. Making the most of local knowledge: water harvesting in the Red Sea Hills of Northern Sudan
• 3. Drought and the need to change: the expansion of water harvesting in Central Darfur, Sudan
• 4. The mastery of water: SWC practices in the Atlas Mountains of Morocco
• 5. Mountains, foothills and plains: investing in SWC in Morocco
• 6. Improved traditional planting pits in the Tahoua Department (Niger): an example of rapid adoption by farmers
• 7. Rehabilitating degraded land: zaï in the Djenné Circle of Mali
• 8. A measure for every site: traditional SWC techniques on the Dogon Plateau, Mali
• 9. The zaï: a traditional technique for the rehabilitation of degraded land in the Yatenga, Burkina Faso
• 10. Mulching on the Central Plateau of Burkina Faso: widespread and well adapted to farmers’ means
• 11. Firki-masakwa cultivation in Borno, north-east Nigeria
• 12. Indigenous SWC in Southern Zimbabwe: a study of techniques, historical changes and recent developments under participatory research and extension
• 13. Environmental change and livelihood responses: shifting agricultural practices in the lakes depression zone of Northern Zambia
• 14. ‘Grandfather’s way of doing’: gender relations and the yaba-itgo system in Upper East Region, Ghana
• 15. How rice cultivation became an ‘indigenous’ farming practice in Maswa district, Tanzania
• 16. Making the most of compost: a look at wafipa mounds in Tanzania
• 17. Cultivating the valleys: vinyungu farming in Tanzania
• 18. Pit cultivation in the Matengo Highlands of Tanzania
• 19. ‘Back to the grass strips’: a history of soil conservation policies in Swaziland
• 20. The ‘flexibility’ of indigenous SWC techniques: a case study of the Harerge Highlands, Ethiopia
• 21. Traditional ditches in Northern Shewa, the Ethiopian Highlands
• 22. Creating an inventory of indigenous SWC measures in Ethiopia
• 23. Local farming in the former Transkei, South Africa
• 24. Traditional SWC techniques in the Mandara Mountains, Northern Cameroon
• 25. New perspectives on local conservation techniques: a case study from Malawi
• 26. The rapid evolution of small-basin irrigation on the Jos Plateau, Nigeria
• 27. A SWC system under threat: a visit to Maku, Nigeria
• 28. Evolution of traditional techniques of soil conservation in the Bamileke region, West Cameroon
• Bibliography
• Acronyms and abbreviations
• List of authors
• Index