(a) Describe the characteristics of the tropical grassland vegetation (b) Outline the economic values of...

Explanation

(a) The characteristics of the tropical grass land vegetation include:

(i) Dry season lasts for 6-7 months

(ii) Tall trees reaching 2m dominate the vegetation

(iii) Scattered trees mainly in the river valley called savanna parkland

(iv) Around the equator the trees are bigger and more common than grasses called savanna woodland

(v) Towards the desert with less rainfall there are few trees with short grasses called savanna scrub. Some of the trees here e.g acacia, baobab, etc are deciducus (i.e shod the it leaves during the dry season)

(b) The economic values of this vegetation type to the inhabitants of the region include:

(i) Livestock farming (e.g cattle rearing) is the most important occupation E.g Hausa - Fulani cattle rearers, Massai of Kenya etc. are known to be heavily involved in livestock farming.

(ii) Grain cultivation: Some elements 3f grains such as millets, sorghum and maize are widely cultivated. Groundnut and cotton can also be cultivated

(ii:) Game reserves. Most of these grasslands serve as game reserves e.g National Park of South Africa and Yankari Same Reserves are centres of attraction for tourism.