16 | Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) Report

by grazing intensity of livestock or wildlife. In these environments, livestock and wildlife production systems have the potential to increase incomes and improve sustainable use of land not suitable for cropping, provided conflicts of resource use and disease transmittances are anticipated, planned for and mitigated or avoided.

9. Forests are important potential resources that need to be well managed for poverty alleviation within the SSA region. AKST, however, is not yet well integrated in forestry/forest management policies within the SSA region. Consequently, value-addition and fair trade of traceable timber and timber products is minimal. Limited research on forestry and agroforestry in SSA hampers the development of forest resources into income-generating enterprises that could alleviate rural poverty.

10. Biomass is the most important source of energy in Africa today, meeting more than 50% of its total primary energy consumption. Its use in traditional forms such as firewood results in inefficient energy conversion, environmental and health hazards and is time-consuming in terms of collection. Several options exist to modernize for the supply of more efficient energy services, among them liquid biofuels and electricity and heat from biomass.

2.1 Crop Production Systems in the SSA
In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), agricultural production is mainly rainfed and farming systems are largely dependent on the broad ecological zones defined in large part according to changes in the intensity of rainfall and evapotranspiration. Crop production takes place under extremely variable agroecological conditions. For example, annual average precipitation ranges from less than 100 mm in the desert, northeast of Ethiopia, to 3,200 mm/year in Sao Tome and Principe, with large variations between countries (AQUASTAT, 2005). Climatic variations, types of cultivated crops, cultural practices, farmers’ production objectives and other biotic and abiotic factors contribute to the variety of farming systems found in SSA (Dixon et al., 2001).

2.1.1 Land, soil and water management
Agricultural systems in many SSA countries are under threat because soils have been damaged, eroded or not well managed; water supplies are minimal and/or erratic; and some farming systems are inefficient. Land and water are (sometimes) the sources of conflicts between farmers and herders in arid areas of West and Central Africa. Crop damaged by herders’ livestock, cattle corridors and grazing lands encroachment and blockage of water points by farmers are the predominant causes of small conflicts in SSA rural areas. Competition over land is cited as one of the main causes of farmer and herder conflicts (Downs and Reyna, 1988; Bassett and Crummey, 2003). Climate with frequent episodes of severe drought in the semiarid lands have led to serious degradation of vegetation cover and there are increasing threats of wind and runoff erosion and depletion of soil fertility on a large scale in many parts of sub-Saharan Africa. In such conditions, soils require chemical and manure amendments if they are to provide the higher yields needed for food security.

 

          Soil and water are two important resources for all farming systems and their preservation is crucial to sustain agricultural production in sub-Saharan Africa. Their management is highly influenced by land use and tenure systems.

2.1.1.1 Land management
Sub-Saharan Africa has 2.4 billion ha of land with forest area estimated at 627 million ha (MA, 2005), of which over 5 million ha per year is lost (FAO, 2001). In the year 2000, roughly 20% of SSA’s potential arable land was in cultivation. However, in some countries such as in Burundi, over 93% of the population is rural and entirely reliant on agriculture for their survival and income, hence most of the land, 90% of the total cultivated area, is devoted to food crops and 10% to export crops (Leisz, 1998). Land lies at the heart of social, economic and political life in most of SSA, but across many countries there is a lack of clarity regarding land tenure. National policies on land tenure systems are contested throughout the region.

SSA is nearly 34% pastoral, 30% forest and woodland and just under 7% of cropland (WRI, 1994). Another 30% is a small part urban and roads and the rest chiefly sand, rock and poorly vegetated terrain. However, the demand for cropland is highly variable and some countries have little room for expansion. The highest proportions of cropland and permanent pasture are in western and eastern Africa; the highest percentages of cropland by country are in Burundi (52.3%), Mauritius (52.2%), Rwanda (46.9%), Nigeria (35.4%), and Uganda (33.7%) (WRI, 1994). These countries, particularly Rwanda, have little scope for the expansion of agricultural production other than by intensification. It is worth noting that some of the countries with advanced commercial agriculture, e.g., Kenya and Zimbabwe, have only low to average proportions of cropland and Kenya has a considerable area with serious environmental limitations. Land use in SSA has also evolved over time from extensive uses of land to more permanent land use types.

In some part of pre-colonial Africa, land was mostly conceived of as a common resource to be used, not as a commodity to be measured, plotted, subdivided, leased, pawned or sold (Bohannan, 1963; Colson, 1971). For most of pre-colonial SSA, with its low population densities and relatively limited population movements, land was a resource that all community members should have access to in order to subsist. Subsistence remained the main motive for accessing land and disputes about land boundaries were insignificant. Community members had a ritual relationship to land and did not differentiate between land for agricultural and other purposes (Pottier, 2005). The population had developed efficient systems of land use compatible with their environment. Land use in tropical Africa has evolved from hunting and collection practiced by people such as the Pigmies in the Zaire/Congo Basins through shifting cultivation, widely practiced throughout SSA, to bush fallowing (Pritchard, 1979). These practices had the advantages of minimizing soil erosion, preserving agrobiodiversity, maintaining ecological stability and optimizing the utilization of different soil nutrients.

It was under the impact of colonialism that community leaders were made into landlords on the grounds that they were community leaders and therefore holders of the