A Note on the
Appropriate Agricultural Technology and the Designation of Agro-Ecological Zones
for African Environments
Cleophas Lado
Abstract: The paper examined the designated different agro-ecological zones of some African environments, each with a different ‘sustainable potential’ such as vulnerable arid and semi-arid (low potential) areas suffering from chronic land degradation; high potential or enhancement areas with continued potential for sustainable intensive cropping; and forested areas including genetic reserves. The paper concludes that though Africa has already reached the limits of ‘high tech’ agricultural development, at the same time most relatively poor farmers in low-resource areas face a series of almost insurmountable pricing, repressive tenurial systems, etc. from which better irrigated technology cannot save them.