An impact and performance evaluation of smallholder participation in tree planting, Nigeria

Abstract

Smallholder participation in afforestation in Nigeria is justified by increasing wood supply deficit from the natural forests, budgetary constraints on plantation establishment by government, high rates of forest depletion and desertification. The data collected for this study were derived through a multistage sampling procedure from farmers in Kaduna, Kano, Sokoto, Bendel and Ogun States. The sources of data were forestry records, measurement of standing timber in farms and interviews with farmers. The choice of trees among farmers was influenced by superior biological characteristics of exotics over indigenous species in terms of yield and adaptability to different soils and ecological zones and favoured by socio-cultural factors affecting land use: land tenure, cropping systems and follow periods. The number of trees per hectare was few: 400 for Gmelina and Teak and 600 for Eucalyptus as against 1760 and 1200 trees, respectively, in monospecific plantations in public lands. Nevertheless, tree planting may transform the farming system through individual ownership of land, longer fallow periods and shorter cropping periods: the prerequisites for environmental stability. While tree farming met some domestic requirements for wood, it formed an additional source of income. The financial analysis depicts agroforestry as a desirable land use. The net present worth and internal rate of return per hectare were, respectively, ▪6516 and 15% for Gmelina; ▪5509 and 12% for Teak; and ▪3958 and 34% for Eucalyptus. The conclusion is reached that smallholder participation in tree planting seems to meet the objectives of government aimed at mobilizing the populace for tree planting on private lands to improve the environment and economic wellbeing of the rural farmers.