Pastoral adaptation to risks in dry regions: a framework for analysis

Abstract

Pastoralism, for many, is a profession destined to die. To them the purpose of social enquiry should be make the process of annihilation less painful and perhaps even slower. Improvement in the conditions of a pastoral way of life may make the transition to sedentarisation more difficult. There are others who argue that there is no linearity between pastoral and sedentary land-use systems. Also, the one does not totally preclude the others. Pastoralists do own land and cultivate in years of good rainfall, in many cases. At the same time, in the given ecological environment any other way of life would not be sustainable. Because of very low productivity and high variability in the fertility of grazing and cultivation lands. Neither is it correct to assume that cultivation on a large scale would be able to either provide employment or income in a sustained manner in arid environments,. The problem of soil erosion has been known to increase with intensive cultivation.