Sustainable Yields

The main cause of the instability now evident in the ecology of the savannah zone is the profound change in sociological conditions over the past 30 or 40 years. The soil cannot provide the increased production which is needed by the population. Any agricultural activity has some effect on soil conditions. As these effects are magnified by those of population and economic pressures, making the abandonment of traditional farming methods based on a short period under crops with a long fallow necessary, it seems that we may have embarked on a course leading to irreversible soil degradation.