Agricultural development in drought-prone Africa conference

We are dealing with the marginal areas of sub-Saharan Africa, with mean annual rainfalls of around 400-700 ram. These are natural grasslands and savannas, where pastoralism has often dominated in the past and where, even today, the most rational form of land use would probably be extensive ranching. That these areas are now experiencing a rapid expansion of crop farming can be attributed to demographic pressures from the increasing populations of the traditionally arable farmers and to an increasingly sedentary lifestyle on the part of many former pastoralists.