The origins of yam cultivation Introduction

The origins and the beginnings of the cultivation of food crops are generally obscure, although in most cases, clear botanical evidence exists as to the continent of origin. The botanical by the presence of wild and cultivated varieties through almost the whole of the humid and sub-humid tropics; and the archaeological by the inability, at present, of field-workers to recover direct evidence of yam cultivation. The yams present one of the most difficult and interesting cases for study. In many of the cultivated forms, centuries of vegetative propagation has so reduced the sexual fertility of the plant that flowering is rare, and fertile seed is hardly ever set. Wild yams are harvested by hunter/gatherers and domesticated yams are cultivated in Africa, Asia and South America. Cultivated yams are grown from Guinea to Kenya and from Angola to Uganda, but their importance varies greatly.

Geography · Agriculture and Rural Development Research

• Yam Cultivation and Socio-Ecological Ideas in Aouan Society, Ivory Coast

  Open Access•Hans Van Den Breemer•Sociologia Ruralis•1989

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