The land of West Africa consists of contrasting kinds of physical environment. The forest environment differs from the savanna environment, a mountainous area from a flat lowland area, riverine area from one away from a river, an area with predominantly sandy soils from one with predominantly loamy soils. Each kind of physical environment presents a peculiar set of problems or challenges which must be solved if people are to survive on the land. A farmer, for example, should take the physical characteristics of the land into serious consideration and devise suitable methods to ensure that he gets good results. He would probably perish or live a very simple and miserable…