On the Ground
The traditional cultivation of wild melon varieties to feed and water animals during the dry season has proven to be economically sound and environmentally sustainable.
The practice is an example of mutual benefit and cooperation between settled agropastoral communities and mobile transhumant pastoralists.
Although the practice of cultivating local melon varieties to feed animals appears to be currently thriving, it might become endangered in the future because of the introduction of mechanization of crop farming as well as the increasing cultivation of hybrid melons that have brought new pests and diseases.
