Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-dsjbd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T00:55:20.375Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

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

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 February 2007

Jonathan Robinson
Jonathan Robinson*
Affiliation:
Consultant, Tick-aho, Joroisniemenkehätie, 79600, Joroinen, Finland
*
*Corresponding author: E-mail:, [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

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.

Keywords

agricultural biodiversityconflictfamine foodsfodderpastoralismSudan
Type
Research Article
Information
Plant Genetic Resources , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , April 2005 , pp. 3 - 11
Copyright
Copyright © NIAB 2005

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abu-Al-Futuh, IM (1989) Study on the processing of Balanites aegyptiaca fruits for drug, food and feed. In: Wickens, GE, Haq, N, Day, P (eds) New Crops for Food and Industry London: Chapman and Hall, pp. 272–279.Google Scholar
Ahmed, AA (1983) Forest reserves and woodland savannah regeneration on the sub-Saharan massif of Jebel Marra, Democratic Republic of Sudan (Natural Ecosystem Recovery). Vegetatio 54: 65–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Andrews, FW (1950–1956) The Flowering Plants of the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, 3 vols Arbroath: T. Buncle & Co.Google Scholar
Anon. (2004 a) Fleeing the horsemen who kill for Khartoum. The Economist, 15–21 May, pp. 21–24.Google Scholar
Anon. (2004 b) Shuffling paper while Africans die. The Economist, 7–14 August, p. 10.Google Scholar
Anon. (2004 c) Decision time in Sudan. The Economist, 28 August–3 September, pp. 33–34.Google Scholar
Balick, MJ (1989) Native neotropical palms: a resource of global interest. In: Wickens, GE, Haq, N and Day, P (eds) New Crops for Food and Industry. London: Chapman and Hall, pp. 323–332.Google Scholar
Blench, R (1991) Connections between Egypt and sub-Saharan Africa, the evidence of cultivated plants. In: Davies, WV (ed.) Nubia from Prehistory to Islam. London: British Museum pp. 54–56.Google Scholar
Croston, RP and El Ahmadi, AB (1982) Collecting in Darfur. Plant Genetic Resources Newsletter 50: 28–31.Google Scholar
Denton, IR (1978) Sorghum and millets in Sudan, a progress report. Plant Genetic Resources Newsletter 33: 27.Google Scholar
Dirar, HA (1984) Kawal, meat substitute from fermented Cassia obtusifolia leaves. Economic Botany 38: 342–349.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
El Ahmadi, AB and Croston, RP (1981) Collecting in Jebel Marra. Plant Genetic Resources Newsletter 46: 18–19.Google Scholar
El Amin, HM (1990) Trees & Shrubs of the Sudan. Exeter: Ithaca Press.Google Scholar
El Tahir, IM (1991) Okra Genetic Resources in Sudan. Report of an international workshop on okra genetic resources held at the National Bureau for Plant Genetic Resources,New Delhi, India,8–12 October 1990 pp. 34–35.Google Scholar
El Tahir, IM (1993) Variability in tomato accessions collected from western and northern Sudan. Plant Genetic Resources Newsletter 95: 26–27.Google Scholar
El Tahir, IM (1994) Collection and characterisation of hot pepper germplasm in Sudan. Capsicum and Eggplant Newsletter 13: 36–39.Google Scholar
George, RAT (1980) Onion germplasm in the Sudan. Plant Genetic Resources Newsletter 42: 18–20.Google Scholar
Haaland, G (1991) Systems of agricultural production in western Sudan. In: Craig, GM (ed.) The Agriculture of the Sudan. London: Oxford University Press. 230–251.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hassan, MS, Dinnar, HMA, Hussein, SA, Ahmed, AK and Geneif, AA (1984) Indigenous horticultural germplasm of western Sudan. Plant Genetic Resources Newsletter 59: 4–11.Google Scholar
Hassan, MS, Geneif, AA, Ahmed, MK, Hussein, SA, Dinnar, HMA and Attere, F (1983) Horticultural crops collected in Sudan. Plant Genetic Resources Newsletter 56: 33–41.Google Scholar
Hughes, D and Rhind, D (1988) Control of the millet headworm in the Western Sudan. Tropical Pest Management 34: 346–348.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ibrahim, FN (1984) Ecological Imbalance in the Republic of the Sudan—with Reference to Desertification in Darfur. Bayreuth: Druckhaus Bayreuth Verlagsgesellschaft mbH.Google Scholar
Jamal, A and Huntsinger, L (1993) Deterioration of sustainable agro-silvo-pastoral system in the Sudan: the gum gardens of Kordofan. Agroforestry Systems 23: 23–38.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mahmoud, MA, Khidir, MA, Khalifa, MA, El Ahmadi, AMB, Musnad, HAR and Mohamed, ETI (1995) Sudan: Country Report to the FAO International Technical Conference on Plant Genetic Resources (Leipzig 1996) Rome: FAO.Google Scholar
Massey, RE (1926) Sudan Grasses. Botanical Series Publication No. 1, Department of Agriculture and Forests Sudan Government. Khartoum: McCorquodale & Co. (Sudan).Google Scholar
Mitchell, CW (1991) Physiology, geology and soils. In: Craig, GM (ed.) The Agriculture of the Sudan. London: Oxford University Press, pp. 1–18.Google Scholar
Mohammed, ETI (1991) Okra genetic resources in Sudan. International Crop Network Series, No. 5 Rome: IPGRI, pp. 34–35.Google Scholar
Nerd, A and Mizrahy, Y (1993) Domestication and introduction of marula (Sclerocarya birrea sbsp. c affra) as a new crop for the Negev Desert of Israel. In: Janick, J, Simon, JE (eds) New Crops. New York: John Wiley and Sons, pp. 496–499.Google Scholar
Perdue, RE, Jones, E and Nyati, CT (1989) Vernonia galamensis: a promising new industrial crop for the semi-arid tropics and subtropics. In: Wickens, GE, Haq, N and Day, P (eds) New Crops for Food and Industry. London: Chapman and Hall, pp. 197–207.Google Scholar
Richards, P and Ruivenkamp, G (1997) Seeds and Survival: Crop Genetic Resources in War and Reconstruction in Africa. Rome: IPGRI.Google Scholar
Salih, OM and Nour, AM (1992) Nutritional quality of uncultivated cereal grains utilised as famine foods in western Sudan as measured by chemical analysis. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture 58: 417–424.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simpson, IG (1991) Land tenure. In: Craig, GM (ed.) The Agriculture of the Sudan. London: Oxford University Press, pp. 101–116.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
SINGER (2004) The System-wide Information Network for Genetic Resources. Rome: IPGRI, http://singer.grininfo.net.Google Scholar
Suliman, M (1999) The Sudan: A Continent of Conflicts. A report on the state of war and peace in the Sudan. Bern, Switzerland: Swiss Peace Foundation, Institute for Conflict Resolution and SDC, Federal Department of Foreign Affairs.Google Scholar
Tostain, S (1992) Enzyme diversity in pearl millet (Pennisetum glaucum L.). 3. Wild millet. Theoretical and Applied Genetics 83: 733–742.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Tothill, JD (ed.) (1948) Agriculture in The Sudan: Being a Handbook of Agriculture as Practised in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan. London: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Utomo, BI and van Valkenburg, JLCH (1999) Vernonia Schreber. In: de Padua, LS, Bunyapraphatsara, N and Lemmens, RHMJ (eds) Medicinal and Poisonous Plants 1. No. 12(1): Plant Resources of South-East Asia. Leiden: Backhuys Publishers. 493–496.Google Scholar
Vietmeyer, N (1996) Lost Crops of Africa: v1. Grains. Washington, DC: Washington National Academy Press.Google Scholar
Walsh, RPD (1991) Climate, hydrology, and water resources. In: Craig, GM (ed.) The Agriculture of the Sudan. London: Oxford University Press, pp. 19–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wickens, GE (1977) The Flora of Jebel Marra (Sudan Republic) and its Geographical Affinities. Kew Bulletin Additional Series V London: HMSO.Google Scholar
Wickens, GE (1991) Natural vegetation. In: Craig, GM (ed.) The Agriculture of the Sudan. London: Oxford University Press, pp. 54–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
WIEWS (2004) World Information and Early Warning System on PGR. Rome: FAO, http://apps3.fao.org/wiews/.Google Scholar
Williamson, J (1975) Useful Plants of Malawi. Malawi: University of Malawi.Google Scholar