2026-04-17T11:27:27Zhttps://recercat.cat/oai/request

oai:recercat.cat:10230/586672025-12-18T01:08:10Zcom_2072_6col_2072_452952

00925njm 22002777a 4500 dc Biagetti, Stefano author Ruiz-Giralt, Abel author Madella, Marco author Magzoub, Mongeda Khalid author Meresa, Yemane author Gebreselassie, Mulubrhan Haile author Veesar, Ghulam Mohiuddin author Abro, Tasleem Alam author Chandio, Amin author Lancelotti, Carla author 2024-01-11T11:59:21Z 2024-01-11T11:59:21Z 2021 Includes supplemental materials for the online appendix. Drylands cover more than 40% of the earth’s land surface, are found on all continents, and are home to 30% of the world’s population. Due to water scarcity, they are generally considered unsuitable for lasting human settlement. While pastoralism has been reconceptualized recently as a rational, efficient, and sustainable way to live in drylands, agriculture without irrigation is generally considered unfeasible in hyper-arid and arid drylands. This article presents data collected in ethnographic interviews in dryland areas in three countries, Sudan, Pakistan, and Ethiopia, to document and understand the cultivation practices of pearl millet, finger millet, and sorghum in drylands. Contrary to general trends favoring adoption of more water-intensive crops, our results show that farming without irrigation represents a viable strategy even where rainfall is considered insufficient. We argue that it is important to recognize the sustainability and value of dryland agricultural systems, past, present, and future. This research is supported by RAINDROPS with funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme (ERC-Stg-2017) under grant agreement 759800. Drylands Ethnoarchaeology Rainfed cultivation Resilience Traditional ecological knowledge Pearl millet Finger millet Sorghum No rain, no grain? Ethnoarchaeology of sorghum and millet cultivation in dryland environments of Sudan, Pakistan, and Ethiopia