Abstract
THE attention which has recently been given to the widespread and serious nature of soil erosion in the African continent has perhaps insufficiently emphasized two aspects of the problem. One is that the serious and rapid erosion is of recent growth—not only in large measure consequent upon the control of the continent by Europeans but also actually in danger of being increased by the very measures designed to combat it. The other is that the African cultivator has already evolved over large areas a system of farming designed to combat soil erosion and maintain soil fertility, and that the essential need is to encourage and develop this system rather than to supersede it. A recent tour in Nigeria has convinced me that the African system may hold the key to the solution of some of the most urgent problems of soil erosion in America and elsewhere.
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STAMPs, L. Soil Conservation in Tropical Africa. Nature 141, 268–270 (1938). https://doi.org/10.1038/141268a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/141268a0