Desertification and disarray: the threats to plant genetic resources of southern Darfur, western Sudan

Author:

Robinson Jonathan

Abstract

A civil war is being fought in Darfur in western Sudan that has resulted in a humanitarian disaster with large numbers of Sudanese refugees seeking a safe haven in neighbouring Chad. The conflict is largely ecological in origin and is based on competition for natural resources, including plant genetic resources. Western Sudan has relatively low rainfall and supports rainfed sedentary agriculture and nomadic pastoralism, and a range of domesticated plant species is grown under irrigation by seasonal watercourses. Nomadic pastoralist populations move their herds according to established routes of seasonally available range and pasture species. There has always been a delicate balance between the sedentary and nomadic ways of life that through careful use of water and plant genetic resources has maintained the ecology of the region in balance. Drought, deforestation, overpopulation and overgrazing have accelerated desert encroachment and have exerted huge pressures on the ecology of the region. Indigenous plant genetic resources, including many wild species used as famine foods, are the key to livelihoods in the region. The upsurge in violence has resulted in many farmers abandoning their farms and seed stocks. Social systems are disrupted and rehabilitation of agriculture will be very difficult. This article describes domesticated and wild plant genetic resources of southern Darfur and details their importance to livelihoods in the region.

Publisher

Cambridge University Press (CUP)

Subject

Plant Science,Genetics,Agronomy and Crop Science

Reference43 articles.

1. Collecting in Jebel Marra;El Ahmadi;Plant Genetic Resources Newsletter,1981

2. Deterioration of a sustainable agro-silvo-pastoral system in the Sudan: the gum gardens of Kordofan

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