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Agro-diversity on a farming frontier: Kofyar smallholders on the Benue plains of central Nigeria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 December 2011

Robert McC. Netting  and
M. Priscilla Stone
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Résumé

Cet article examine la proposition que les niveaux de l'agro-diversité déclinent en conséquence de l'augmentation de l'intensification des systèmes agricoles. La plupart de la littérature sur l'agriculture itinérante souligne le grand nombre d'espèces de plantes, à la fois sauvages et cultivées, que ces systèmes incorporent, tandis que les descriptions de l'agriculture mécanisée et intensive indique quʼun petit nombre d'espèces survivent.

Cet article fait un compte-rendu sur un système agro-économique qui est connu pour son intensité—celui des Kofyars au centre du Nigéria—mais qui cependant arrive à maintenir un haut niveau de diversité. Cet article explore plus généralement le rôle de la bio-diversité dans les systèmes agricoles des petites exploitations, et présente des arguments en faveur de ces systèmes, qui comme celui des Kofyars, favorise la bio-diversité comme faisant part de la ‘soutenabilité’ économique et environnementale, bien quʼils commencent à s'adapter à de nouvelles conditions agricoles.

Information

Type
Biodiversity on the farm
Information
Africa , Volume 66 , Issue 1: The Social shaping of biodiversity: perspectives on the management of biological variety in Africa , January 1996 , pp. 52 - 70
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 1996

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