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Science 30 September 1983:
Vol. 221. no. 4618, pp. 1341 - 1347
DOI: 10.1126/science.221.4618.1341
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Articles

Rangeland Productivity and Exploitation in the Sahel

H. Breman 1 and C. T. de Wit 1

1 ecologist of the Malian-Dutch research project Primary Production Sahel, is at the Centre for Agrobiological Research, Wageningen, The Netherlands. C. T. de Wit is head of the Department of Theoretical Production Ecology, Agricultural University, Wageningen, The Netherlands.

Results of a Malian-Dutch research project on the Sahelian pastures and their utilization suggest reasons why some efforts to develop traditional livestock farming in this area have been unsuccessful. Failure to appreciate the effects of low soil fertility as well as low rainfall on pasture production has resulted in underestimation of the productivity of the nomadic and seminomadic livestock farming system and overestimation of the possibilities for increasing production by better management and by modernization.


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