ABSTRACT
Nomadic herdsmen received much of the initial blame for desertification in the Sahel in the early 1970s because it was felt that they had let their herds grow too large during good rainfall years and that this had led to overgrazing. However, it was recognized later that overgrazing was as much the result of external factors as of the dynamics of pastoralism, because the area of pasture available for grazing had been reduced by the expansion of rainfed cropping on to marginal rangelands normally used for grazing, and by the increased cultivation of cash crops like groundnuts on fallow lands traditionally grazed by nomadic herds in the dry season. Simply trying to regulate grazing in isolation from other agricultural sectors will therefore not be sufficient to prevent overgrazing and control desertification.
