Introduction In northern Nigeria, a crop-livestock interaction has prevailed, based on exchange relations between segregated producer groups (McIntire et al. 1992). Mobility of pastoral livestock forms an integral part of that system and pastoral movement to particular sites occurs regularly. Main determinants for pastoralists' choice of trekking routes are access rights to water and rangeland, and whether access to crop residues is given at affordable costs. Over time, institutional arrangements have evolved that ensure movement and help resolve conflicts between farmers and pastoralists. This crop-livestock interaction is being replaced by a more integrated system, where crop and livestock production are found on one farm. Increasing population pressure is one factor driving this transition. As observed in closely settled zones in northern Nigeria (Mortimore et al. 1990), farm size, household size and livestock numbers per household decline as population growth and the related land pressure increase. Cropping intensity and labour input increase and the livestock and crop systems become more integrated. Livestock is more often kept in confinement rather than free grazing on natural range, depending increasingly on labour-intensive cut-and-carry feeding systems of crop residues, grass and browse. Production is oriented towards manure, draught force and milk (Mortimore et al. 1990: Mortimore and Adams 1998). Due to limited resources, farmers may run into problems of maintaining soil fertility with the manure of their own livestock only. Competition over natural resources increases with their increasing privatisation. As a result, crop residues are becoming an asset for herders and farmers. Despite this, the system is still characterised by property regimes in which resource ownership, management and use rights vary in space and time. The study presents results from a case study in a close-settled zone in northwest Nigeria, where high land pressure has changed the competition over resources, and the terms of trade between farmers and pastoralists. The Study Site Dundaye District is located in Wamakko Local Government Area of Sokoto State (13[degrees] to 13[degrees] 15' N; 40 to 50 2' E). The area is located within the northern Sudan savanna vegetation zone. Annual rainfall varies around 647 [+ or -] 96 mm (1990-1996). Farmers are engaged mainly in crop production and keep livestock as a secondary enterprise. Land pressure is high, resulting in small land holdings per household and limited grazing resources such as natural range or fallow land in the vicinity of the villages. The region belongs to the intensively cultivated Sokoto close settled zone (CSZ), where the average land-holding of a farming unit ranged from 2.3 to 4.3 ha in the 1960s (Goddard et al. 1971). At the same time, household size was between 3.7 to 5.1 persons (Hill 1972). Since then, population growth, limited 'free' land, and individualised tenure systems have resulted in a subdivision of holdings by inheritance. Like in the Kano close-settled zone which has been settled for centuries (Mortimore et al. 1990), the tree density on fields in Dundaye District is higher than in areas cultivated more recently such as within the Zamfara Reserve (Kueppers 1998). Methods Structured interviews were conducted with 42 randomly selected farmers from ten villages within Dundaye District in 1995 and 1996. Besides data on household structure and livestock holding and management, information was collected on the mode of invitation to the herders by the farmers, the duration of camping on the field, the mode of payment and amount paid by the farmers for the manure. Other information included the cost of other production inputs such as labour usage and expenditure on chemical fertiliser. Information on yields of major crops and crop by-products in the subsequent harvest was also obtained from the farmers. Indicative for the Sokoto close-settled zone, eight crop residue traders at Sokoto urban markets gave information on the development of staple food and legume hay prices between 1993 and 1998 (Kyiogwom, 1999). …
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Jul 25, 2024
Kamal Muhammad Sani + 6
Open Access