John Tyman's Cultures in Context Series EGYPT and the SAHARA www.johntyman.com/sahara |
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5.3 Cropping : 378-395 |
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John Tyman's Cultures in Context Series EGYPT and the SAHARA www.johntyman.com/sahara |
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5.3 Cropping : 378-395 |
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| .378. Whatever its source, though, the water is distributed throughout all or part of the oasis by a network of channels and measuring devices. (Siwa) |
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| .379. Most ditches are not lined; so10% of the water typically is lost by seepage before it reaches the roots of the palms. (Siwa) |
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| .380. Without irrigation, though, dates could never be grown in the Sahara. They are favoured by the hot summer and the dry atmosphere, but to grow well a mature palm really needs one third of a litre of water every minute. (Ditch in grove near Touggourt) |
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| .381. In rare instances water is found so close to the surface that the roots of the palms can reach it unaided; but everywhere else they must be irrigated. The water is apportioned according to the number of date palms owned, and the width of the openings in the sluice gates varies accordingly. (El Golea, where they are 180,000 palms) |
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| .382. To save space and water in some oases, only one male date palm is allowed to survive for every ten females. This makes artificial fertilization necessary. The men cut the heavy flowers from the male palms and climb the female trees to shake pollen over the female flowers. This is called "marrying the palms". And, since it is seen as interfering with the work of Allah in creation, his help is invoked by prayers chanted throughout the pollination process. (Male flower: courtesy jeanbradbury at 1.bp.blogspot) |
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| .383. It is 5 or 6 years before a new date palm bears any fruit at all, and it won't come into full production till it is between 40 and 80 years old! But when properly irrigated -- every four days in winter and every second day in summer -- a single tree can yield between 60 and 100 kilograms of dates a year. (Courtesy Stan Shebs at: Wikipedia) |
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| .384. In the Central Sahara, though, yields may be as low as 10 or 20 kilograms: and since a typical family there owns between 30 and 100 trees, they may be unable to satisfy even their own requirements -- since each adult typically consumes between 180 and 210 kilograms of dates each year. (El Oued) |
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| .385. Every second year each palm must be manured. A deep hole will be dug around its roots then and filled with ten to twenty camel-loads of dung ... traditionally purchased from nomads. (Healthy immature fruit courtesy Wikipedia) |
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| .386. There are many different types of dates and 20 or 30 varieties are grown in some oases. They differ in shape, colour, size, texture, gloss, sugar content and keeping qualities: and they also ripen at different times. (In market at Biskra) |
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| .387. In addition to providing fruit -- eaten fresh or dried, raw or cooked, or used in the distillation of strong drink ("aragi") -- date palms have other uses. Their stones can be ground up and fed to camels, fibres from the leaves can be twisted into rope, and the trunks of dead trees are used to support the roofs of houses. (Courtesy Wikimedia) |
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| .388. In addition, the leaves of date palms can be burnt as fuel, woven into fences, or stuck into the sand to break the force of the winds and slow the progress of advancing sand dunes. (South of Hassi Messouda) |
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| .389. The palms also shade the crops that are grown beneath them, for nowhere can dates alone sustain the population: other crops are needed, especially cereals. (Ghardaia) |
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| .390. Couscous, their staple food, is made from coarsely ground wheat, barley, millet or sorghum mixed with vegetables. On feast days a little mutton or camel meat may be added. (Grains and pulses in the market at Biskra) |
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| .391. Wheat and barley are grown in winter when less of the precious water is lost by evaporation. After the dates have been harvested, the soil in the gardens is turned over with a short mattock ... since the individual plots are too small for a plough to be used. (Seedbeds prepared beneath palms at Djanet) |
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| .392. Farmyard manures and domestic waste, including ash from cooking fires, are then worked into the soil (and sometimes today artificial fertilizers). The seed is broadcast by hand, harvested with a sickle, and threshed with a flail or with the help of donkeys (in a yard) driven round in a circle to tread out the grain. (Vegetable gardens at recently developed oasis -- Bir Wahed) |
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| .393. Once the winter crops have been harvested a summer crop may be sown -- millet, sorghum or maize -- if there is enough water -- and vegetables like tomatoes, melons, pumpkins, red peppers and mint for making tea. Beans, peas, onions, lettuces, cabbages and such like are grown in the cooler winter season. (In small oasis south of Hassi Messouda) |
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| .394. Most oases will also have a few fruit trees -- sometimes olives but more often figs, oranges, peaches, apricots, pomegranates, almonds and (in some places) bananas. (Bir Wahed) |
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| .395. Most towns and villages also have goats, but opinions are divided concerning their real value. For some they are testimony to the wisdom of Allah who created such a wonderful machine to turn degraded pastures and refuse into good milk. Others consider them a menace, believing that the processes of desertification -- and the advance of the desert southwards across the Sahel -- will continue till they are removed. (Goats at the Biskra dump) |
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