RAINFALL FOR TILLAGE MANAGEMENT DECISIONS

Effective management for agricultural development depends strongly on the regions' infrastructure and local community's culture and means We stern world agriculture management, cannot simply be copied to the Afr ican semitropic conditions. Developing effective management systems fo r any specific local condition, demands a quantative in-depth understa nding of the particular soil and climate restrictions in which crust f ormation, surface seal and very high rain intensities are the dominant factors. A computer-based approach to this problem has been proposed. The approach adopted in Israel will be described in this paper, along with an illustration of applications on various scales of time and sp ace. Study of a Cameroon rain storm reveals a promising method which i s based on the small basin concept, absorbing all the rainfall in situ . The system is the Areal Basin, locally called, diguette. The main id ea here is to divide the area into big basins, each of them practicall y a small field. They are to be cultivated by the farmer, whatever mea ns are available to him, that is, manual labor or animal traction.