Soil phsicist East Africa Agriculture & Forestry Research Organisation

Abstract

The planning of land use for all forms of development in East and Central Africa is dominated by the need for efficient exploitation of the limited rainfall this applies both"' to the vast semi-arid areas, where techniques for "'- conservation and economic use of r3.infall are critical for the survival of agriculture, and to the restricted high altitude catchment areas, whose management may seriously affect the volume _md the reliability of both river flow and underground water supplies a basic necessity for efficient land-use planning is a knowledge of the water use of indigenous vegetation and of the various economic alternatives offered by agriculture and forestry crops .