Africa > Landscape and climate

Landscape and climate

Climate:
Africa has several different climates. You mostly can recognize a climate on the landscape. In the middle of Africa it is very humid and hot. In the north it is very dry and hot. In fact, there are many differences.

The savannahs are sometimes hot and dry, sometimes very humid.

A farmer goes to places where the temperature, the soil and the landscape is good enough for grocery.
Some areas, like deserts or steppes are not good enough for agriculture.

At the left you see  a map of Africa. The dark green parts are the areas where you can find rain forests. The light green areas are savannahs.
North and South of the savannahs are the steppes (purple) and the yellow parts are desert areas. Finally, the blue areas are areas where you can find a mixture of some climates (mostly caused by the present of the oceans)

Rain forest:
Tropical rainforests are mostly densely overgrown with all kinds of trees. We read that there are more than 100 different kind of trees! Some of the trees grow higher than 40 meters.
There is rainfall each day and the temperature is mostly very high.
To cultivate the soil is difficult. Not all areas are useful for agriculture. If a farmer cannot use his ground anymore, then he moves on to another place in the forest, put it on fire to create open fields and then they will use it for agriculture for a couple of years. The ashes of the burned trees are a kind of muck, but after some years, the fields are useless. Which means that the farmer has to move on again.
This is not good for the rain forest; the rain forest in increasing dramatically... it will have much consequences for human being, since the tropical forests are the lungs of planet Earth!

Savannah:
The steppe and the savannah look alike. In fact, the only big difference between them is that savannahs have grasslands with here and there trees, and steppes are dry areas with here and there some grass. Sometimes it is hard to say if the area is a steppe or already a desert.
Savannah areas mostly have two rain seasons: the long rains and the short rains. During the months between the rain seasons it can become very hot and dry. Farmers in these areas mostly use all the things they have on their fields for themselves. If they are lucky, they have enough to sell on the markets. Comparing to other areas, the savannahs are the best places to have agriculture.

Steppe and desert:
Steppes can be found around deserts. The two well known deserts in Africa are Kalahari desert and the Sahara. The steppe grass can survive dry seasons for a long time. You will not find much trees on steppe areas. The wet season is only a short season. So, even the fact that the soil is suitable for agriculture, it is hard to survive in this area because of the lack of enough water.
Cattle holders mostly go from one place to another, trying to find enough grass and water for the animals.
Deserts are bad places to live, since there are no trees, no grass, almost no water.

Animals are good to have in the steppe and savannah, since you can use them for working on the fields. Most work on the fields is done by animals. The farmers mostly use a simple plough. 

To conclude: it is not easy to be a farmer in Africa: soil is not good enough in many places, problems with enough water, not enough food for animals.