I've seen some work on sub-Saharan land reclamation (from desert) which involves the use of ground covering short bushes which provide water retention and reduced evaporation and growing food crops in the same space. then after the food crop is hrvested, the goats can be allowed in to mop up the rest, fertilzing as they go.
I don't know if this is applicable but goats are pretty voracious.
Shame african elephants can't be used like the indian ones, it'd be a lot easier to shift the "Bush". keep to the Fen Causeway
it is quite rare for nature to do the work of growing trees without them helping the water table, is it not?
couldn't they be made into pellets for woodstoves perhaps?
with those root systems, and hydroscopic characteristics, one might think it might merit some particular research. perhaps to drain swamps, perhaps for some medicine. if it's so tough, perhaps it could be formed into long-lasting tools, like plough blades.
if it has any use at all, i would imagine the oldest people living there might remember what their ancestors did with it.
nice to see the power transitioned peacefully...
very interesting diary, thanks! ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
Yes, one of the solutions recommended was making charcoal for export markets in Europe and South Africa. But that is some pretty nasty work and still very polluting. But one of the problems was consistency in the charcoal output since coming from long distances and different suppliers and different sources of plants even. One firm is doing some of the exporting with some success.
But I agree that the gasification of biomass may be the best option if it proves viable and especially if small facilities can be built up inland to even provide fuels for the communal and commercial farmers. This could also make mechanization of farming more feasible. Rutherfordian ------------------------------ RDRutherford
a country with limited resources and pretty arid countryside that may limit some ability to be extremely hands on.
with that 'level of development' i would have thought hands are what they're bound to depend on. maybe pigs would root them up, maybe they need help with good steel for saws. maybe the sheer ambient temperatures make that kind of hard work suicidal...
i remember confronting wickedly thorny vines in hawaii that climbed hundreds of feet up trees, and thinking on how difficult they'd be to eradicate.
then there's the kuzu 'problem' in the american south, while in japan the root is prized and of high value, so there might be different cultural points of reference to consult...
with lots of time, those resourceful humans will find some way to capitalise difficulty, or have we really met our match here?
the future needs for a shrinking amount of water will make us really creative... ~"When an inner situation is not made conscious, it appears outside as fate." Karl Jung~
Not familiar enough with grazing habits of elephants so have no idea if it would work. But interesting. Rutherfordian ------------------------------ RDRutherford
