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 | | From: | jtnospam at yahoo.com | | Subject: | North Africa: Fertile Again? | | Date: | 14 Dec 2004 01:25:38 -0800 |
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 | In Roman times, the area of North Africa encompassed by present day
Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, was a vast wheat growing region that supplied
a large part of the world with its produce. After the Arab-Mohammedan
invasions of the 700's, most of it turned to desert. The Arabs brought
goats with them that stripped the vegetation and led to the washing out
of its topsoil, and there were probably other long-term climactic
changes as well.
My question is, can it be restored to its former agricultural
abundance, and what would it take to get it there? Comments?-Jitney
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| | From: | Maren Purves | | Subject: | Re: North Africa: Fertile Again? | | Date: | Tue, 14 Dec 2004 16:53:56 -1000 |
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| jtnospam@yahoo.com wrote:
> In Roman times, the area of North Africa encompassed by present day
> Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, was a vast wheat growing region that supplied
> a large part of the world with its produce. After the Arab-Mohammedan
> invasions of the 700's, most of it turned to desert. The Arabs brought
> goats with them that stripped the vegetation and led to the washing out
> of its topsoil, and there were probably other long-term climactic
> changes as well.
> My question is, can it be restored to its former agricultural
> abundance, and what would it take to get it there? Comments?-Jitney
>
trees?
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| | From: | Bruce Sinclair | | Subject: | Re: North Africa: Fertile Again? | | Date: | Wed, 15 Dec 2004 04:19:06 GMT |
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| In article , Maren Purves wrote:
>jtnospam@yahoo.com wrote:
>> In Roman times, the area of North Africa encompassed by present day
>> Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, was a vast wheat growing region that supplied
>> a large part of the world with its produce. After the Arab-Mohammedan
>> invasions of the 700's, most of it turned to desert. The Arabs brought
>> goats with them that stripped the vegetation and led to the washing out
>> of its topsoil, and there were probably other long-term climactic
>> changes as well.
>> My question is, can it be restored to its former agricultural
>> abundance, and what would it take to get it there? Comments?-Jitney
>>
>trees?
Quite :) I have read a few interesting articles on desertification ... and
how it can be reversed (and I think trees play a pivotal role). Suggest the
o/p does likewise :)
Bruce
------------------------------
Health nuts are going to feel stupid someday, lying in hospitals
dying of nothing.
-Redd Foxx
Caution ===== followups may have been changed to relevant groups
(if there were any)
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| | From: | Dean Hoffman | | Subject: | Re: North Africa: Fertile Again? | | Date: | Tue, 14 Dec 2004 06:31:56 -0600 |
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| On 12/14/04 3:25 AM, in article
1103016338.162744.52730@f14g2000cwb.googlegroups.com, "jtnospam@yahoo.com"
wrote:
> In Roman times, the area of North Africa encompassed by present day
> Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, was a vast wheat growing region that supplied
> a large part of the world with its produce. After the Arab-Mohammedan
> invasions of the 700's, most of it turned to desert. The Arabs brought
> goats with them that stripped the vegetation and led to the washing out
> of its topsoil, and there were probably other long-term climactic
> changes as well.
> My question is, can it be restored to its former agricultural
> abundance, and what would it take to get it there? Comments?-Jitney
>
A Yahoo search for desert reclamation turned up lots of responses.
First page here:
http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=desert+reclamation&sourceid=mozilla-search
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| | From: | Gordon Couger | | Subject: | Re: North Africa: Fertile Again? | | Date: | Sun, 19 Dec 2004 12:56:20 -0600 |
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| jtnospam@yahoo.com wrote:
> In Roman times, the area of North Africa encompassed by
present day
> Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, was a vast wheat growing region that
supplied
> a large part of the world with its produce. After the
Arab-Mohammedan
> invasions of the 700's, most of it turned to desert. The
Arabs brought
> goats with them that stripped the vegetation and led to the
washing out
> of its topsoil, and there were probably other long-term climactic
> changes as well.
> My question is, can it be restored to its former agricultural
> abundance, and what would it take to get it there?
Comments?-Jitney
>
Abundant yield in Roman time are crop failure to day. IF THEY
CAN STOP THE SAND FROM BLOWING much of North Africa cold grow
wheat at better yields than in Roman times. Much of the area
would need to be summer fallow making a a wheat crop every other
year and banking the moisture for the other year. Once the wheat
cover was established it would stop the blowing sand. I could do
it easily using minimum tillage methods. But fist the sand has
to be stopped blowing and it fenced to keep the livestock off
farm land. Because now any thing that grows there is something
there to eat it almost on the day it comes up.
I am not sure that the weeds could be controlled and the sand
kept from blowing using traditional methods.
The rainfall would increase a bit as more land was green.
But even with modern varieties the veils might be only 1/3 of
the world average or less. When I am selling wheat for under
$3.00 a bushels the pay is very poor even by 3d world standards.
When food gets to the point it is a paying proposition there is
usually a farmer there to make it work.
But it all hinges on stopping the sand from blowing and fencing
off the livestock including wild life.
Gordon Couger
Stillwater, OK
www.couger.com/gcouge
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