The Effect of Shade on Initial Growth, Development and Occurrences of Leaf Diseases on Wild Indigenous Fruit Trees

Abstract

In rural areas of Botswana there are two needs facing the people living there. Firstly, there is the need to generate food and household security, and secondly, the need to combat the increasing environmental degradation around villages and settlements. Botswana is a semiarid to arid country with annual rainfall as low as 250 mm in some areas. Drought is a regular occurrence. Two-thirds of the country is covered by the deep Kalahari sands, and is almost completely absent of surface water. The majority of the population lives in the eastern part of the country, where conditions are not as harsh as the central and western areas.