ABSTRACT
The ability of the Wola highlanders to maintain some of their gardens under long-term cultivation, within the broad context of a shifting strategy, raises intriguing questions about the nature of their agricultural practices, notably their sustainability. While they may move to clear new sites, when crop yields fall below certain tolerable levels, and sometimes for other reasons too, and so overcome any productivity shortfalls, they do not frequently have recourse to this option in some locales, keeping gardens under cultivation for decades, even generations. One of this book’s aims is to account for this, within the broad context of a comprehensive ethnographically focussed review of the natural environment. This chapter draws together the many themes addressed to comprehend how, given the constraints of their montane environment, they can practice semi-permanent agriculture, adding no outside amendments to sites.
