Roots in the African Dust: Sustaining the Sub-Saharan Drylands - Hardcover

Mortimore, Michael

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521451736 ISBN 13: 9780521451734

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1998

Synopsis

The image of Africa in the modern world has come to be shaped by perceptions of the drylands and their problems of poverty, drought, degradation, and famine. Michael Mortimore offers an alternative and revisionist thesis, dismissing on theoretical and empirical grounds the conventional view of runaway desertification, driven by population growth and inappropriate land use. In its place he suggests a more optimistic model of sustainable land use, based on researched case studies from East and West Africa where indigenous technological adaptation has put population growth and market opportunities to advantage. He also proposes a more appropriate set of policy priorities to support dryland peoples in their efforts to sustain land and livelihoods. The result is a remarkably clear synthesis of much of the best work that has emerged over past years.

About this title

Review

'... admirably demonstrates how both herders and farmers recognise and act upon environmental variability in their short and long-term decision making.' Cambridge Anthropology

Book Description

This account of the state of knowledge concerning dryland Africa dismisses the misleading and overly generalised image of a continent dogged by poverty, drought, degradation, and famine. Offering a more optimistic view of change in the drylands, it synthesises much of the best work from past years.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1998
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521451736
• ISBN 13: 9780521451734
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 238