玉米在非洲的引种与推广

On Introduction and Spread of Corn in Africa

玉米是非洲最重要的粮食作物,种植面积和产量居非洲粮食作物之首。16世纪初到17世纪中叶,玉米由阿拉伯人和西欧人从海路和陆路多路径引入非洲各地。此后推广的进程不尽相同,这主要受当地气候环境、食物的多样性,以及奴隶贸易、钻石的发现、种植园经济的建立等自然和社会经济因素的制约。在玉米的推广过程中,人们食用的品种从多样走向相对单一,马齿型白玉米成为非洲人主要的食用品种。以玉米为代表的美洲作物的引种和推广,极大地改变了非洲农业的种植结构和居民的饮食结构,增强了近代非洲部落王国的实力,减缓了奴隶贸易中非洲人口的衰退,对非洲的历史和现实产生了极其深远的影响,被非洲史学家称为一次'农业革命'。

Corn is the most important food crop in Africa,and its planting area and yield rank first among African food crops.From the early 16th century to the mid-17th century,corn was introduced to various parts of Africa by Arabs and western Europeans by sea and land.After that,the process of promotion was different,which was mainly influenced by natural and socio-economic factors such as local climate and environment,diversity of food,the slave trade,the discovery of diamonds,and the establishment of the plantation economy.In the spreading of corn,the corn variety consumed by people moved from diverse to relatively single,and the dent white corn became the main breed consumed by Africans.The introduction and spread of American crops represented by corn in Africa greatly changed the farming structure of African agriculture and the diet structure of its residents,enhanced the strength of the modern African tribal kingdom,and slowed the decline of African population in the slave trade.That had a profound impact on the history and reality of Africa,which is called an'agricultural revolution'by African historians.