Analysis of current trends in the distribution patterns of ruminant livestock in tropical Africa

This paper attempts to demonstrate the importance of livestock in African Agriculture through an analysis of the major factors affecting livestock density and species composition. In the zonal analysis, the general distribution patterns have been summarised by subdividing the continent into five agro-ecological zones and into four broad geographical regions (west, east, southern and central) following the approach of Jahnke (1982). The livestock population data from his study were given by species and agro-ecological zones for each country, together with estimates of the rural population density based on FAO statistics for the period 1979 to 1981. In the second part of this paper, more recent changes in livestock distribution patterns are examined in order to verify some of the hypotheses formulated and to identify the causes