Sustainability and subsistence systems in a changing Sudan: ethnobotanical and archaeobotanical investigations into past, present and future crop choices.

Abstract

• Summary points of this interim project report:  Interviews with farmers have revealed dramatic, little-recorded changes in crops grown over the last 100 years in north Sudan.  Traditional agricultural knowledge is rapidly disappearing with some information only remembered by elderly farmers.  Several cereals and pulses that were the most important food crops grown by villagers until recent decades, but are now little used, are comparatively tolerant to aridity and heat. Their presence in the regional archaeobotanical record also reveals their long term use, further suggesting their environmental suitability.  The case-study highlights the relevance of traditional agricultural knowledge to debates concerning future food security and agricultural resilience.