Introduction

Summary

As these lines are written, people are dying of hunger and hunger's attendant diseases in the Wolof region of Senegal (as indeed they are dying, often in much greater numbers, throughout the West African Sahel). Wolof fatalities, as yet, are few in number – above all the old, the weak, and the very young. The great majority will at least survive this hungry season (1973) to reap the next harvest. Few however, in rural areas, can face the long-term ecological future with any degree of confidence.

The Wolof farm in the savannah region of north-western Senegal, the Senegal and Gambia rivers to north and south, the Atlantic ocean to the west and the Ferlo desert to the east. No part of this region could be described as agriculturally fertile, soils being (in varying degrees) poor in humus, dry and sandy. And as soil deteriorates with overcultivation, so the desert still expands from the north and east. Agricultural techniques have improved only very slowly with French technical guidance, productivity per acre remaining low despite the limited use of chemical fertilisers and some light machinery. Wolof response to the pressure of rising population, and of rising expectations for at least some imported ‘luxuries’, in these circumstances has been to extend the area under cultivation. This means a neglect of necessary fallow periods even on relatively good soils, and new agricultural settlement in ever poorer soils.