A Review of African Pastoral Production Systems: Approaches to Their Understanding and Development

Abstract

In this paper we examine African pastoral production systems mainly from a socio-economic viewpoint. By and large, we find that this economy is consistent with general economic principles. All pastoral practices are rational based on the difficult environment and the cardinal objectives of subsistence and survival. We then argue that the implication of this in terms of pastoral development in its correct sense is to introduce technologies that are built on, among others, principles of flexibility, diversity and the perceptions of the people concerned: the pastoralists. The post-modern thinking is not to reorganise the structures of pastoral production but to understand them with a view to enhancing and complementing them