Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- List of Figures
- List of Contributors
- Preface
- 1 The demographic background to development in Africa
- 2 Development projects and their demographic impact
- 3 Conceptualization of the impacts of rural development projects upon population redistribution
- 4 Capitalism and the population landscape
- 5 Unequal participation of migrant labour in wage employment
- 6 Africa's displaced population: dependency or self-sufficiency?
- 7 Population redistribution and agricultural settlement schemes in Ethiopia, 1958–80
- 8 Populating Uganda's dry lands
- 9 Environmental and agricultural impacts of Tanzania's villagization programme
- 10 Development and population redistribution: measuring recent population redistribution in Tanzania
- 11 Communal villages and the distribution of the rural population in the People's Republic of Mozambique
- 12 A century of development measures and population redistribution along the Upper Zambezi
- 13 Resettlement and under-development in the Black ‘Homelands’ of South Africa
- 14 Development programmes and population redistribution in Nigeria
- 15 Population, disease and rural development programmes in the Upper East Region of Ghana
- 16 Demographic intermediation between development and population redistribution in Sudan
- 17 A typology of mobility transition in developing societies, with application to North and Central Sudan
- 18 Rural population and water supplies in the Sudan
- 19 The impact of the Kenana Project on population redistribution
- 20 Migrant labour in the New Halfa Scheme
- 21 The Gash Delta: labour organization in pastoral economy versus labour requirements in agricultural production
- 22 The impact of development projects on population redistribution to Gedaref Town in Eastern Sudan
- 23 The growth of Juba in Southern Sudan
- Index
21 - The Gash Delta: labour organization in pastoral economy versus labour requirements in agricultural production
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 November 2011
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Tables
- List of Figures
- List of Contributors
- Preface
- 1 The demographic background to development in Africa
- 2 Development projects and their demographic impact
- 3 Conceptualization of the impacts of rural development projects upon population redistribution
- 4 Capitalism and the population landscape
- 5 Unequal participation of migrant labour in wage employment
- 6 Africa's displaced population: dependency or self-sufficiency?
- 7 Population redistribution and agricultural settlement schemes in Ethiopia, 1958–80
- 8 Populating Uganda's dry lands
- 9 Environmental and agricultural impacts of Tanzania's villagization programme
- 10 Development and population redistribution: measuring recent population redistribution in Tanzania
- 11 Communal villages and the distribution of the rural population in the People's Republic of Mozambique
- 12 A century of development measures and population redistribution along the Upper Zambezi
- 13 Resettlement and under-development in the Black ‘Homelands’ of South Africa
- 14 Development programmes and population redistribution in Nigeria
- 15 Population, disease and rural development programmes in the Upper East Region of Ghana
- 16 Demographic intermediation between development and population redistribution in Sudan
- 17 A typology of mobility transition in developing societies, with application to North and Central Sudan
- 18 Rural population and water supplies in the Sudan
- 19 The impact of the Kenana Project on population redistribution
- 20 Migrant labour in the New Halfa Scheme
- 21 The Gash Delta: labour organization in pastoral economy versus labour requirements in agricultural production
- 22 The impact of development projects on population redistribution to Gedaref Town in Eastern Sudan
- 23 The growth of Juba in Southern Sudan
- Index
Summary
Introduction
Traditionally, the Hadendowa pursue activities of a mixed economy, which comprises herding of cattle, camels, sheep and goats with rain cultivation of dura (Sorghum vulgare). In 1923 flush irrigation was established in the Gash Delta, where cotton was introduced for commercial production. More recently, castor has replaced cotton as the main cash crop in the scheme. That shift started in the late 1950s when the yield of cotton began to decline owing to factors such as pests and heavy growth of weeds, increasing the cost of production and decreasing the tenant's income, which was further affected by the international fall in cotton prices. Moreover, soil and agricultural research in the Sudan have proved that the Gash Delta is a suitable place for the production of castor (Abdel Rahman, 1970). Eventually, the area under castor cultivation increased gradually at the expense of cotton until the latter was abandoned completely in 1970–71 season.
Although the largest part of the Delta is allocated to the Hadendowa tenants, few of them have changed their pastoral mode of life and settled in the agricultural villages of the scheme. Today, their main interest is to look after their herds and to raise food crops. In the combination of these two activities pastoralism has continued to be the dominant mode of livelihood while commercial agriculture is pursued as a secondary activity. Since the inception of the Gash Delta Scheme in 1923, the Hadendowa have continued to create intricate administrative, political and economic problems for successive administrations whether at regional or national level.
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- Information
- Population and Development Projects in Africa , pp. 282 - 296Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1985