V Productivity Actual Und Potential of the Desert and Other Dry Regions To- 

 gether with some of the Problems Involved. 



(1) Productivity. 



(i) The deserts are of no actual and potential productive value, except very 

 locally for light browsing by nomadic to semi- nomadic hardy sheep and 

 goats based on drinking points and except for very limited irrigation of 

 suitable soils. The Namib is of much less value than the Great Nama 

 Land Desert for browse, local as this is even in the last named region. 



For reasons of protection of adjacent regions of greater value the conser- 

 vation of the deserts, toward their margins is essential. 



(ii) The sub • deserts Karroo and Kalahari are of value for grazing and brow- 

 sing. In the Karroo steady and widespread deterioration has followed the 

 mismanagement of the browse land, presenting a national problem. Nothing 

 less than a combined individual and national effort to reclaim the Karroo 

 veld can save this region from desolation, a desolation that would have 

 disastrous effects on regions adjacent because of the eastward and north- 

 ward march of the sub- desert. Local irrigation is actual and potential, 

 but demands much care in the use of water. 



(iii) The arid regions are in imminent danger of increasing desiccation as the 

 outcome of mismanagement of livestock. These regions are of little crop 

 production value, apart from local peasant field husbandry, which demands 

 constant direction if its deteriorating influence is to be avoided. 



(iv) The sub- arid region of the Transvaal Bushveld is in imminent danger due 

 to mismanagement of the natural grazing. Arising from the same cause, 

 there are marked signals of distress in portions of Central Tanganyika. 



African peasant arable agriculture in Central Tanganyika requires particu- 

 lar guidance and the continued insistence on conservation measures if the 

 growing deterioration of portions of the country is to be stemmed in time. 



(2) Some of the Problems Involved. 



Matters of far-reaching significance in the maintenance and the development of 

 productivity in the arid and sub - arid regions are:- 



(i) Where Tsetse- fly still exists on a large scale its attempted removal and 

 the efforts to introduce livestock to fly -free areas must be accompanied 

 by a policy and practice of herd control and pasture management, supply of 

 water points, conservation farming and informed and firm administrative 

 direction of the local people. Particularly disastrous is the consequence 

 of uncontrolled continuance of the widespread 'lobola* or purchasing of 

 wives by means of thriftless livestock — the status of a man being judged 

 not by quality of his livestock but by the number. In 1928 I sounded the 

 note to the Governor of Tanganyika of the day that because no government 

 in Africa at that time appeared prepared to shoulder these necessary con- 

 trolling responsibilities the 'fly' should be considered as the guardian of 



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