The Role Of Perennial Grasses In Sustaining Production In Semi-Arid Areas

Abstract

In much of Africa, including large parts of Zimbabwe, the rainfall is too low and erratic to sustain successful agricultural cropping so that economic production depends upon using herbivores (e.g. cattle) to convert natural vegetation into products which are of value to man (e.g. meat, milk, hides). In Africa, significant and increasing human deprivation is occurring In these semi-arid savanna range-lands. Solutions to these problems are complicated as they involve interactions between socio-political, economic, financial and ecological factors, often operating under very different time scales.