geography dating back to 11,000 BCE has had a profound influence on growth
and development since the sixteenth century. Diamond notes that only twelve
plant species account for 80 per cent of the modern world’s annual tonnage of
all crops. These are wheat, corn, rice, barley, sorghum, pulse soyabean, pota-
toes, manioc, sweet potato, sugarcane, sugarbeet and the fruit banana. About
32 of the world’s 56 largest seed grasses were historically concentrated in the
‘fertile crescent’ of the Middle East. California and South Africa have only one
large grass seed each and Australia none (Diamond, 1998:139). In the wild
these crops were already edible, gave high yields, were easily grown by sowing
or planting, easily stored and self-pollinating. The earliest domesticated crops
evolved from these wild ancestors. The goat, sheep, pig and cow were domes-
ticated earliest in the regions of their wild ancestors; 13 of the ancient 14
breeds were found only in Eurasia and seven in South-west Asia. In
Mesoamerica the only two domesticable animals were the turkey and dog
which have a lower meat yield than those in the ‘fertile crescent’. South
America has only one (the llama/alpaca) and North America, Australia, and
Sub-Saharan Africa none.
Diamond argues that geography affected the diffusion of crops and livestock.
Food production spread rapidly along the Eurasian east–west axis from South-
west Asia, west to Europe and Egypt and east to the Indus valley (modern
Pakistan) and from the Philippines further east to Polynesia. This pattern of
diffusion was relatively easy. Locations on the same latitude share day length,
seasonal variations and, to a lesser extent, diseases, temperature, rainfall and
habitats. Germination, growth and disease resistance of plants are adapted to
these features of the climate and most ‘fertile crescent’ crops grow well from
France to Japan. Once we look south the story becomes very different. The
spread of domestic animals into Sub-Saharan Africa was stopped or slowed by
climate and disease, especially by the trypanosome disease carried by the tsetse
fly. Similar examples of slow diffusion include the slow pace of crop exchange
between Pakistan’s Indus Valley and South India, food production from South
Geography and Economic Resources 237Box 11.2 Troublesome trains in UgandaA good case study is that of the transport inefficiencies that impose significant
costs on exporters from Uganda. These arise from the long and slow railway link
from Kampala (Uganda) to Mombasa (Kenya) and inefficiencies at the
Mombasa port. The Kampala–Mombasa route should take one week though
often takes up to two months. This makes it difficult for exporters to book space
on ships and departure times are often missed so goods may remain in port for
long periods. Exporters are often forced to rely instead on roads, despite the high
cost and increased risk of theft. The combined effect of these problems was esti-
mated to impose an implicit tax on exports of 48 per cent in 1994. While the
costs imposed by taxes on trade had been virtually eliminated, transport costs
imposed a significant burden on exporters (Milner et al.,2000).