Introduction: The key to domestication.
The buffalo is the "work partner" in China's agrarian society, and the farmers not only take care of the buffalo as a household animal, but also save a lot of effort in the heavy field work, and become the most effective helper of the farmers.
The buffalo has good patience and strength, and it is a must for cultivated land, and only to ensure that they are well fed can play the greatest role.
And buffaloes are also very obedient, they do what their owners drive them, even animals have the most basic obedient laws.
But why is the domestication of the agricultural buffalo in China, but not in Africa?
What are the different agricultural development models between China and Africa, which can domesticate buffaloes?
The importance of domesticated buffalo in China's agricultural development.
The Chinese buffalo is also very large, and it is not inferior to the African buffalo, but China is not called the "wild buffalo" like Africa, and there is no saying that the buffalo is not easy to domesticate.
The buffalo in China has long been a domestic animal, not only as a helper to the farmer, but also as the "family" of the owner's family, and the buffalo has been used for other purposes.
Buffalo are not only the farmer's work partner, but also the "family", and they are also most likely domesticated domestic animals.
We call the buffalo that has been bred and domesticated by humans domestic animals, and the wild buffalo wild buffalo.
Comparing domestic animals with wild buffaloes, it can be found that Chinese buffaloes have a docile personality and are one of the most obedient animals, while African wild buffaloes are aggressive, tend to live in groups, and are not afraid of predators, and individuals who have not experienced domestication must be very fierce.
Chinese buffaloes, like wild buffaloes, like to be in groups, but the domesticated buffaloes have a docile temperament, even if they are not a little noisy when plowing the fields, the farmers drive them, and the herds of buffaloes will obediently circle around the plow, and can easily complete the cultivation of a piece of land.
If it is a wild buffalo in Africa, it will definitely gather in herds, but their noise will be very loud, and the most tragic thing is that the tools used to plow the land may be trampled by the herd, or the people who are hit by the herd may be injured or even killed.
Unless it is a wild buffalo that has been domesticated and disciplined, people are afraid to approach the herd.
Africa's wild buffaloes are so hot-tempered that they can cooperate with each other to protect the entire herd in times of danger.
Such an individual, which is very difficult to train, is simply intolerable in China's agricultural development model.
Taking the wild buffalo in Africa as a comparison, the Chinese buffalo has a high degree of domestication in people's impressions.
This is directly related to the improvement of China's agricultural productivity.
In China, the buffalo is mainly distributed in some vast places of rice fields in the south, the difficulty of cultivating the rice field is higher than that of the dry land in the north, the cultivation in the paddy field not only to avoid drowning the plant, but also to avoid the buffalo slipping and causing injury, and the buffalo is afraid of water, does not like to work in the water, among the world's major farming animals, the work of the buffalo is the most difficult.
But only the buffalo is the most obedient, hard-working, and after being trained, they are able to complete the double cropping of crops in the north, and even the seasonal cultivation of rice in the rice fields of the south.
This is irreplaceable in the world, and the domestication of buffaloes has laid the foundation for the improvement of China's agricultural productivity, and has developed different agricultural production characteristics for the mainland.
We are no longer accustomed to cattle like buffaloes, and animals that can be obedient and do not record work with repetitive work can be used more widely.
The reason why Africans don't train buffaloes.
The wild buffalo, which is native to Africa, is a very difficult animal to domesticate, and the ferocious individual is prone to uncooperative situations, which not only causes losses to crops, but also injures farmers, and injuries and even death can occur.
Africa's wild buffalo is full of treasures, fur can be used for other items, buffalo skeletons can be used as building materials, and buffalo meat can also be eaten by humans.
Even when it cannot be domesticated, farmers can bring some wealth to themselves by hunting wild buffaloes.
However, in consideration of their own safety, it is not necessary to be injured or even killed by wild buffalo by catching wild buffalo, and it is safer to hunt wild buffalo than to kill other animals.
Moreover, the resources that can be brought by a single killing may cause a huge waste compared to other animals, and they cannot supply themselves at all, let alone others.
This is less efficient and less safe than killing other animals, resulting in buffaloes being called cattle by Africans.
There are many people who live in close proximity to each other in various tribes in Africa who live on crops, and these people will kill some animals from their own tribes to express their friendship with other tribes, and the buffalo is not the first choice, and Africa's own agricultural development model makes the domestication of the buffalo no longer necessary.
Africa's arid climate makes it difficult for many herbivores to survive, and most of agriculture is irrigated by water.
The arid climate of North Africa determines that Africa's agricultural development is not as good as China's, and there is no need for laborers such as buffalo to help them better complete agricultural production.
The arid climate of Africa is not suitable for the ecological habits of the buffalo, which is afraid of heat and loves water, and as a herbivore in the dry land, the living environment of the buffalo is very unsuitable for the arid environmental conditions of Africa.
Therefore, even if you want to domesticate the buffalo, the natural conditions in Africa do not allow it.
Compared with the wild buffalo in Africa, the water buffalo in Asia is much less difficult to domesticate, which not only happens to adapt to China's agricultural development, but has always been the right-hand man of farmers.
The success of domesticating the buffalo has also given China a huge advantage in agricultural development.
The domestication conditions of the buffalo are not too harsh, and the premise of domestication is that there is survival value, even if the acclimation conditions of the buffalo are very suitable in China, domestication is not only for its domestication value.
If there is no survival value, even if it can be domesticated, no one will domesticate, so the domestication of buffalo is closely related to the local ecological environment and social structure, rather than the performance of domestication ability.
Wisdom for Agricultural Development in Africa.
There are many reasons why Africans do not domesticate buffaloes, but this is not to say that Africans do not understand the benefits of domesticating buffaloes, nor that Africans do not have the conditions to domesticate buffaloes.
The act of imprisoning wild animals will not change the living habits of wild boars themselves, nor will it change China's agricultural development model.
Other livestock animals in Africa are very common if they are not domesticated by wild water fertilizer.
Domesticated animals like camels and alpacas are also very common in many parts of Africa.
Animals such as sheep and goats are herbivores, and the difficulty of domestication is not too high, and the domestication will not affect the survival habits of the sheep themselves, and at the same time enrich the income of farmers.
The domestication of camels in Africa has allowed people in desert areas to survive in the desert.
This shows that Africans are well aware of the benefits of domesticating animals.
It also shows that Africans are not stupid, and when there are good conditions for domestication, they can domesticate animals that are conducive to survival.
But when the living conditions are not suitable for domesticated buffaloes, or domesticated buffaloes do not have good living conditions, Africans also have their own wisdom for agricultural development.
In many parts of Africa, domesticated animals are not easy to transport due to poor road conditions, and the tools that can give full play to the effectiveness of animals are the most effective, and the developed agricultural model is the most suitable for the local environment.
Africans rely on local water sources to irrigate their farmland, and they follow the laws of nature in their agricultural development, and they also respect the natural environment very much, and they do not have the conditions to domesticate the buffalo, but this non-domestication has also allowed them to develop a different wisdom.
Africa's agricultural development has its own benefits, and Africans' respect for agriculture is the best environmental protection.
During the season of abundant rainfall, they sow seeds on a large scale, and at the same time, they harvest according to the laws of nature.
They don't need to rotate crops like in China, and they can better protect the growth of crops every year.
Africans don't grow many crops, but they are good and cheap, and at the same time, they don't need buffaloes to work in the fields, and self-sufficiency is the best way to live, and Africans can do that.
epilogue
There are many reasons why the agricultural development of China and Africa is completely different, but there is no distinction between superior and inferior, each of them is protecting its own environment, respecting the laws of nature, and both are relying on agricultural development to improve their own survival.
China was able to domesticate buffalo because China has ecological conditions suitable for buffalo domestication, and although Africa also has conditions suitable for buffalo domestication, the survival needs make Africans choose other agricultural development models, so that the domestication of buffalo becomes redundant.
There are many reasons why buffaloes are not domesticated in Africa, and acquired conditions are more important than prerequisites.
Perhaps in the future, the situation in Africa will change and the domesticated value of the buffalo will be reassessed.