Despite the expansion of commerce and industry, most Africans remain farmers
and herders; although the majority of these are producing for the market, at least in a
small way, and many are highly market oriented. In northern and north-western Africa,
wheat, oats, maize, and barley are the important grain crops. Dates, olives, and citrus fruit
are the main tree crops; a variety of vegetables are grown. Goats, asses, sheep, camels,
and horses are the most significant livestock kept. In the Sahara region, nomadic herders
raise camels and goats, and a few farmers, situated in oases, grow dates and grains. South
of the Sahara, in the Sahelian region, and in the most fertile areas north of the coastal
forests, slash-and-burn agriculture-a method in which small areas were burned, cleared,
and planted and then allowed to revert to bush – has given way to settled farming. Grains,
especially maize, sorghum, millet, and rice, are the main crops outside the rainforests.
Yams, manioc, okra, plantain, and banana are important crops, especially in the coastal
hinterlands and forested areas of central Africa. Cattle cannot be raised in tsetse fly areas
and dense forests, cattle are raised; many are still kept for traditional reasons of social
prestige and wealth, but commercial stock rearing is increasing. Dairy farming is limited,
located primarily around urban centers in eastern and southern Africa.
Although some 60 per cent of all cultivated land is in subsistence or semi
subsistence agriculture, commercial or cash-crop farming is common in all parts of the
continent. Food stuffs are grown for local urban markets, but cloves, coffee, pineapples,
cotton, cacao sugar, tea, maize, rubber, sisal, groundnuts (peanuts), palm oil, and tobacco
are among the long-established crops grown by Africans for export. In the past 15years
there has been significant development of new export crops, aimed at the high-value end
of the western, primarily European market, including green beans, roses and other
flowers, and kiwi fruit. For certain traditional African agricultural exports, such as cacao,
groundnuts, cloves, and sisal, the continent produces the majority of the world supply.
Large scale plantations and farms, often owned by foreign companies or farmers of
European descent, and found mainly in eastern and southern Africa, concentrate on
citrus, tobacco, tea and other export crops.
Titany answered the question on January 18, 2022 at 05:27