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Leguminous Crops in Native Agricultural Practice
(July 1939) Sturdy, D.; Agricultural Officer, Territory
For the maintenance of soil fertility, and for the improvement of native dietary, the planting and use of leguminous crops is of value. It is accordingly the intention of this paper to review the customary practices adopted by some seven different tribes, divided into four groups, who inhabit the north-western portion of Tanganyika. Taking the area as a whole one finds that all the tribes grow one legume or more, but that the particular legumes grown differ considerably from group to group. Thus the Wakara grow Bambara groundnuts'(Voandzeia subterranea) as a food and Crotalaria striata as a green manure for maintaining the fertility of their overcrowded and limited island soils; the Wasukuma and the Wanyamwezi, in the cultivation-steppe south. of, Lake Victoria, grow groundnuts (Arachis hypogaea)(the average exported surplus of this crop in the past three years has amounted to over 10,000 tons from the two tribes), Bambara groundnuts, cowpea.