* Based on papers presented by A T Malumfashi and M B Ajakaiye, as well as the papers which contributed to the previous chapters. Discussion in this area was led by S Sandford and summarized by D J Pratt and S Nuru.
Grazing reserves and development blocks: A case study from Nigeria
Development requirements
Land-use and land-tenure systems in the subhumid zone are currently going through a period of rapid and far-reaching change. This situation has partly been induced by different types of government intervention, most notable in the form of tsetse eradication and the demarcation of grazing reserves, but it is much more the result of spontaneous development and change. The subhumid zone has long been a relatively empty belt between much more densely populated areas to the north and south. De Leeuw estimates that the subhumid zone could support a population density on the order of four people per km2 based only on extensive cattle production, while the population density in the Sudanian zone to the north and the forest belt to the south is approximately 80 times this level. It is obvious that the future development of the zone will be influenced largely by increased immigration from these more populous areas and the present form of extensive land use will not be maintained.
Most of the people migrating into the subhumid zone are farmers, and well over half of the land is generally considered suitable for arable farming. All this arable land is expected to come under cultivation within the next 30 years in Nigeria and within 40 to 45 years in the other countries of the zone. Spontaneous settlement under increasing population pressure without adequate government planning and control is likely to lead to the 'shifting cultivation trap'. Initially all goes well, with farmers cultivating parcels of land for two or three years until fertility falls, when new land is cleared, leaving the former cultivated fields to lie fallow for an extended period. While this lasts, it constitutes a viable production system, but as population increases, the fallow periods decrease until pressure on the land reaches a point where cultivation becomes continuous without any fallow period at all. Land tenure then becomes fixed under the control of individual farm households whose holdings seldom exceeding five ha. At this point, it is very difficult to initiate a mixed farming system with properly integrated crop and livestock production, designated to maintain fertility by rotational grazing and cropping and the use of farmyard manure. Ideally, for mixed farming with adequate feed for livestock, holdings of at least 15 ha are required.
Incursion by farmers also has major implications for the future of extensive livestock production in the zone. The increasing occupation of arable land by sedentary farmers has already disrupted traditional pastoralists' transhumance patterns in many areas. The result is that livestock production is pushed back into areas unsuitable for agriculture or combined with crop production in various types of sedentary mixed farming systems.
It is inevitable that mobile pastoralism, as it now exists in the subhumid zone, will progressively decline. The process of sedentarization has already been underway for some time among the Fulani in Nigeria. Baxter (1976) and many other authorities suggest that most pastoralists would settle willingly if a sedentary life could be achieved without detriment to their stock and their subsistence needs. On the other hand, it appears that full sedentarization will he preceded in most areas by a protracted period of semi-sedentary livestock production. Many of the pastoralists already maintain a 'home base' at the northern end of their transhumant circuit where some family members remain throughout the year and where in many cases some cultivation is practiced. A strategy towards more intensive production in the subhumid zone could begin with efforts to encourage these semi-sedentary pastoralists to transfer their home base and the associated cropping activity to the higher rainfall areas. Their best interests in the future are generally seen to lie in the direction of at least partial settlement, with formalized land tenure rights and closer linkages with government development agencies. Possibilities for intensified production also exist in the form of smallholder breeding and fattening enterprises, large-scale ranches, commercial feedlots, improved dairying and mixed farming enterprises.
At least one observer (Frantz, 1975) has noted the modifying effect of recent demographic, economic, political and legal changes on traditional pastoralism in Nigeria. Frantz has directed attention to the need for further demarcation of grazing and farming areas, migration controls, improvements in marketing, range management and commercial ranching. He has predicted that land rights will become increasingly formalized, with continued incorporation of pastoralists into the national economic and political system. In his view, the future of pastoral groups in Nigeria will be problematic unless permanent local groupings are formed and systems of individual or corporate land tenure developed.
In planning the overall development of the subhumid zone, government agencies need to pursue a variety of objectives concurrently. From the ecological point of view, development planners must think in terms of maintaining the long-term productivity of entire countries, rather than considering the various ecological zones in isolation. The economic objectives of an intensified livestock production programme include the provision of an improved standard of living for traditional livestock producers and an increased supply of meat and milk to the population as a whole. The equity implications of development activities must also be taken into account. Care should be taken to identify the poorer members of the pastoralist community and to assure that their interests are not neglected. In traditional pastoralist societies, the stronger, wealthier community members tend to look after the weaker, but reliance cannot be placed entirely on these safeguards when initiating a process of far-reaching social and economic change.
Conflicts of interest between different members of a pastoralist society may be exacerbated in the process of development. For example, at present the pastoralist system is geared primarily towards milk production, with meat produced generally as a by-product. Decisions on the consumption and sale of milk are often made by women, while the decision to slaughter or sell an animal is more likely made by a man. For this reason, a shift in emphasis towards meat production might have serious repercussions for pastoralist family life. However, if development is seen as a general increase in livestock productivity through improved management and animal feeding, then the shift in emphasis towards commercial meat production should occur gradually without serious social disruption.
Development planning in the subhumid zone must also never lose sight of the important relationship between the transhumant pastoralists and the settled agricultural communities. Neither the pastoralists nor the farmers are self-sufficient in terms of food production: the pastoralists depend on the farmers for purchased grain to supplement their diets, and the farmers depend on the pastoralists for the animal products necessary to assure them an adequate protein intake. Moreover, a substantial proportion of the fodder provided to grazing animals during the early part of the dry season consists of crop residues available on the farmers' fields after the harvest, while the fertility of these fields is enhanced by the manure left by the passing herds. Already, the availability of chemical fertilizers has disrupted this symbiotic relationship to some extent, and farmers in some areas have even started charging the pastoralists for access to their crop residues. The collection of a cattle head tax (jangali in Nigeria) also affects the relationship between farmer and pastoralist, as a portion of the funds collected is generally allocated to the local settled communities. Some observers in Nigeria have reported that with the recent waiving of this tax the local communities have become less hospitable to the pastoralists in their areas.
With increased population pressure and intensified competition for land, clashes of interest between the traditional pastoralist and agricultural communities are likely to increase. Where such clashes have occurred, it has been the general experience that the pastoralists are pushed into the less productive areas and are generally left behind in the development process. The cattle Fulani in Nigeria, who own at least 90% of the national herd, are a small minority group? constantly displaced by the land requirements of a growing population of cultivators. Pastoralists probably never comprise more than 10% of the population in any of the administrative areas where they occur.
The establishment of commercial ranches or others forms of intensive enterprises may also lead to competition with traditional producers for government attention and development funds. Offtake rates on commercial ranches may be relatively high, but traditional production systems support more people and may have higher ecological efficiency in terms of energy production and conservation.
In the present situation, development planning must be accompanied by a broadly based implementation programme. In addition to protection from trypanosomiasis and the demarcation of grazing reserves, government involvement must include the establishment of animal production support services, equipped with the necessary technical capacity to facilitate the transition from traditional to more intensive - though not necessarily highly intensive -production systems. These would include expanded veterinary services, watering and stock handling facilities, an improved processing and marketing system, and medical, educational and other social services for the livestock producers. The major question is whether such services can be designed and implemented quickly enough to match the pace and scale of spontaneous settlement and intensified land use.
The technical information available in the fields of animal health, nutrition and fodder production is already adequate as a basis for intensified livestock production, but experience is limited concerning how to translate this technical knowledge into viable programmes in the field. There has been a general failure to integrate social and economic aspects with technical improvements. Efforts to improve traditional production should start with a thorough understanding of the practices and perceptions of the pastoralists, as well as their aspirations and production environment. Furthermore, development programmes, once they are underway, should proceed by incremental steps, involving at every stage a two-way exchange between the traditional producers and the planners and technical advisors and a broadly shared responsibility for decision making. The basic premise behind such development efforts is that change in the system is unavoidable. Traditional pastoralists have always responded flexibly to changing circumstances as a matter of necessity; however, with increasing demographic pressure from outside the zone, the rate of change has accelerated substantially and the choice now lies between planned development and haphazard colonization and exploitation of the savanna areas, which could ultimately lead to social, economic and ecological deterioration.
By the early 1960s it was already evident that the pastoralists of the subhumid zone in Nigeria were gradually being pushed out of the more densely populated areas. Some of them were even migrating permanently to the neighbouring countries of Cameroon, Chad and Niger. On the assumption that the pastoralists required five or six ha of rangeland per animal unit to sustain their animals throughout the year, the former Government of Northern Nigeria drew up legislation, reserving areas permanently and solely for grazing. The Minister of Animal and Forest Resources, who introduced the legislation, justified this strategy as follows:
... It will enable my Ministry and the Native' Authorities to create Grazing Reserves so that the grazing rights of cattle-owners can be fully protected by law. This will also help to reduce the friction between cattle-owners and farmers which has in the past led to bloodshed and loss of life. Moreover, it will be possible to carry out pasture improvement work in the legally constituted Grazing Reserves by planting different types of grasses, and permanent supplies of water can be provided. In this way the number of animals that can be kept on the same area of land can be greatly increased. This kind of improvement work cannot he undertaken now because the pastures are open to au and are usually burnt every year for hunting or other purposes to the degradation and detriment of the pastures.Another benefit which the creation of Grazing Reserves will bring is the gradual settlement of the nomads. This will make it possible for their children to be educated, and for them to obtain regular health services. Economic benefits will accrue to them through the regular marketing of their milk and other dairy products. They can even form cooperative societies to market their cattle in properly constituted markets so that they are not cheated by cattle traders who at present offer them very low prices for their cattle. In this way they can get a fair deal which will lead to an improvement in their living standards. This [legislation] will have tremendous effect on the development of our livestock industry and it will do justice to an important hut non-vocal section of our community who in the past have been somewhat neglected.
The legislation was passed in 1965, but since then only a very small area has actually been established as grazing reserves, and, though measures are still needed to hasten the development of pastoralist livestock production, there is now considerable doubt as to whether the establishment of grazing reserves is the most sensible approach. By and large, proposals for pasture improvement have not been carried out, so it is difficult to assess what the potential benefits might he. The social services proposed for the pastoralists have also generally not materialized. At the Symposium an opinion was expressed that the establishment and development costs of the grazing reserves appear to be too high to justify them in economic terms: capital costs have been estimated at US$ 128 per head of cattle grazed, and recurrent costs add about another US$ 69 annually At Nweri Grazing Reserve, these figures were US $ 136 and US$ 46. This means that the total cost of establishing and developing a grazing reserve averages about US $ 32 per ha and that, with a stocking rate of 5 ha per tropical livestock unit (250 kg), the cost of keeping livestock on a grazing reserve comes to US $ 160 per livestock unit. However, the annual productivity of a grazing reserve is estimated at only US$ 32 per unit. To justify these reserves economically (taking into account operating and opportunity costs), a minimum development package must be designed which would cost on the order of US$ 16 per animal unit, i.e. 50% of projected animal productivity.
Since the production potential of most of the subhumid zone will best be served under a system of arable farming, it would not seem to be in the national interest, or in the interest of the pastoralists, to reserve an unreasonably large amount of land permanently and exclusively for grazing. The grazing requirements of the present pastoral herd under an extensive production system have been estimated at 35 million ha in Nigeria, which is about 37% of the land area of the whole country. As population pressure increases in the zone, no government will be able to resist the demands from in-migrating agriculturalists for arable land, and the Fulani themselves are also likely to take up farming to some extent. Wherever pastoralists settle, cropping is likely to become an important part of their production system, and eventually most of the subhumid zone is likely to come under some form of mixed farming, with local land use patterns determined by available resources, regardless of the ethnic or occupational backgrounds of the residents. It has even been suggested that, in a context of mixed farming, former agriculturalists may become more successful livestock producers than former pastoralists: Pullan (1978) has found evidence of this in Nigeria on the Jos plateau.
Furthermore, the permanent establishment of pastoralist herds in grazing reserves may not be the best grazing strategy to take advantage of the fodder resources of the subhumid zone. Some pattern of seasonal migration, though eventually on a reduced scale, is likely to be an appropriate permanent feature of livestock production in the region. In developed countries, such as Australia and the USA, and even in intensively cultivated agricultural areas such as central and southern India, transhumance is still practiced to utilize fodder resources available in different areas at different times of the year. Pastoralists also prefer to graze their animals near villages at least during certain seasons, in order to sell milk and buy grain from the farmers and to graze their animals on crop residues after the harvests. This traditional pattern would mitigate against their willingness to settle on large grazing reserves intended for livestock production only. Possibly grazing 'corridors' might be a better alternative to grazing reserves, to facilitate transhumance as more of the subhumid zone comes under cultivation, with water, grazing and perhaps conserved forage and road transport facilities made available to the livestock producers.
One alternative to grazing reserves already envisaged is the demarcation and planning of development blocks on the basis of mixed land use, embracing existing cultivated land, grazing land which could be brought under cultivation and land which is suited only to grazing. Facilities would be provided, such as health, education and other social services, markets and water, and livestock production would be based on a combination of seasonal grazing, crop residues and pasture leys. The development blocks could be linked with grazing reserves, which would cater for the larger resident or migratory herds and could also provide the basis for commercial ranch development.
For proper land-use planning, surveys are needed to identify the areas most suitable for various activities, from mixed farming to commercial ranching. At least 20 ha plots should be allocated to households for cropping and livestock production. However, with increasing population pressure, the planned development of these areas must proceed more quickly than it has in the past. To avoid unnecessary delays, entire blocks can be put aside for future in-migrants, or parts of blocks can be settled with some space reserved for additional farmers and pastoralists who will come later. The development block should be able to serve as a sufficiently flexible planning model for the gradual intensification of land use, and present grazing reserves could be assimilated into the new system, also accommodating a variety of land uses where appropriate.
Land Allocation
The allocation of land to agricultural and pastoral households must be carried out with care, because the weakest members of the community, such as widows, the elderly and the dispossessed, are likely to be those least able to cope with complicated registration procedures. Especially if the development blocks come to be viewed as successful, the wealthier and more sophisticated households will be likely to take a disproportionately large share of the available land. It may also prove to be more efficient to focus land allocation and development efforts on households or groups which have already shown a propensity to settle.
The specific question must be resolved of how to identify and negotiate with pastoralist groups, if land rights are not to be allocated to pastoralists arbitrarily or solely on an individual basis. It is generally assumed that the allocation of land ownership to pastoralists will encourage better management and eventual settlement, but it is not so easy in any particular situation to determine on what basis land rights should be allocated, both because the social system is complex and because the interests of neighbouring farmers need to be considered.
Once allocated, title deeds can be used as a basis for development loans. Ownership does not have to be allocated on an individual basis in order to attract loans; in Kenya loans have been allocated to pastoralist communities on the basis of title deeds issued to registered groups. Although some types of development might be financed by government grants, it is usually better if capital for development can be raised from local people within an area, rather than relying heavily on outside credit. Rural savings and credit institutions, often not well developed in West Africa, may need to be established for this purpose.
Current land tenure systems vary widely through the subhumid zone. In northern Nigeria, traditional occupancy has been based on land use. Any area which is not currently under cultivation is available for grazing and, similarly, pastoralist camps which have been vacated may be cultivated by farmers the following season. Village chiefs are generally responsible for seeing that the two forms of land use do not clash. When pastoralists settle with their herds, the land they use for grazing is allocated to them after several years, though it may be reallocated if they leave and it is not used for 13 years. This type of land acquisition implies acceptance of the pastoralists by the local sedentary population and the acquiescence of the local chiefs who are traditionally responsible for the disposition of land. In some cases, pastoralists have bought land from local farmers and resold it when they moved away.
Recently, a Federal Land Tenure Decree has provided a common form of land tenure throughout Nigeria. All land is now held in trust by the Federal Government, with control delegated to the State Governments and the Local Government Councils. The potential impact of this legislation on land tenure patterns in the subhumid zone remains to be seen.
In Senegal, traditional land tenure patterns are very complex, to enable pastoralist households to leave family members with parts of the herd scattered over wide areas to avoid disease, maximize grazing resources and protect their territory against outside incursions. More recently, there has been a trend towards at least partial settlement, with some crop production. The Senegalese government has divided the rural areas into local communities represented by elected leaders. A system of land reform has been introduced, whereby all land has been nationalized and then allocated to productive users, and the government is now in the process of demarcating grazing land and allocating it to groups of pastoralists in consultation with the local people. Experience has shown the futility of trying to impose radically different production systems on the local population; for example, an area designated for a major groundnut production scheme 20 years ago has reverted to mixed subsistence farming and livestock production. Efforts are now being made to group people into local communities with a minimum of disruption, with land-use patterns accepted willingly, rather than forced.
Government Services
Once land has been allocated, government agencies should concentrate first on the supply of inputs, strategic infrastructure such as communications and security, and marketing and other social services. Governments have been active in the range areas of several countries in cattle inoculation campaigns, the provision of water supplies and the implementation of tsetse control and eradication programmes. These are more basic and more profitable activities than trying to impose improved land use practices, such as rotational grazing, or to police herd size. Efforts in several African countries to control land use in this way have resulted in failure. However, this is not to say that advice on improved production practices should not be communicated through extension workers and the mass media, and intensified production projects initiated as a demonstration to local producers.
It should be kept in mind that governments have very limited financial and managerial resources: effective development packages should be designed which require a minimum of 'management' or government inputs, and implementation should be transferred to community organizations wherever feasible. The bulk of the resources and effort required for development will have to come from the local people, and development efforts will only be successful if active cooperation is ensured. Two examples of successful livestock development in Africa are relevant: the smallholder dairy sector in Kenya and the use of animal traction for cultivation in parts of francophone West Africa. In both cases, successful development efforts were based on self-sustained community participation with little or no direct input from government.
Pastoralist communities should be organized to manage communal services, such as fencing and water supplies, either through traditional institutions or through the formation of cooperatives with effective but equitable decision-making powers. The best form of community organization needs to be identified in each location, but care must always be taken to avoid a situation where the wealthiest or most sophisticated individuals are making decisions without some form of community control.
Strategies for Increased Cattle Production
In the traditional sector, which accounts for virtually all cattle production in the subhumid zone, the annual yield of weaned calf is probably less than 35 kg per cow and herd offtake rates are rarely over 7 or 8%. There is not likely to be any substantial improvement in productivity as long as calves are produced from unsupplemented cows which are also milked. Either it is necessary to encourage settled pastoralists to engage in dairy-oriented mixed farming based on improved systems of animal feeding which would raise productivity sufficiently to ensure an increased supply of both milk and meat, or pastoralists could be encouraged to pursue intensified forms of livestock production on group or cooperative ranches. The financial aspects of these types of ranching enterprises in Kenya have been described and evaluated by Simpson (1973).
The alternative of regarding the present livestock owners simply as a source of young stock, to be purchased and finished by others, should not be discarded, though this approach seems hardly in the best interests of the pastoralists. In Nigeria north of the subhumid zone, some farming communities have been purchasing immature cattle from pastoralist producers for some time and stall feeding them on crop residues and the lower leaves of cereal plants stripped before harvest. This practice gives the farmers an additional outlet for investment and source of income and provides manure to fertilize their crops. This system also has potential for substantial expansion. Ranches specializing in beef production can be developed on similar tines, with or without the direct participation of the pastoralists
A number of countries in the region have already established such ranches, often as government enterprises. Although these ranches may develop their own breeding herds, they are often largely dependent on purchasing immature cattle raised by traditional producers on economically marginal land which can then be finished on better pastures and supplementary feed. The viability of these ranches depends on a reliable supply of relatively cheap immature cattle, inexpensive sources of supplementary feed and sufficiently high producer prices for meat. Operating costs are usually high, including capital investments, such as fencing, water, buildings and breeding stock, and recurrent costs, such as management and labour fees, the purchase of immatures and supplementary feed and the amortization of capital investment. The supply of immature cattle at a reasonable cost poses a major constraint because traditional producers are usually reluctant to sell young stock in normal years unless the price is high. In the past, there has been considerable movement of trade cattle from the semi-arid zone in the north across national boundaries, but the exporting countries are now beginning to limit this movement of live animals in favour of establishing their own meat export trade. In view of these problems and the economic drawbacks innate in most government-managed ventures, it is doubtful whether government ranches will be able to contribute substantially to national beef production in the foreseeable future.
Feedlots have also been established in several places within the subhumid zone. These are intensive fattening operations where cattle - usually immatures - are kept in close quarters and fed rations rich in energy and protein. The animals are usually sold at the end of a period of 90 to 120 days. Feedlots are normally located near a source of relatively cheap animal feed but, even so, capita'! costs are high, and a dependable supply of suitable animals is essential. Even when all these production requirements are met, market prices and government policies will still determine the viability of any feedlot operation.
Marketing
The livestock marketing systems of West Africa have not been thoroughly documented. Private traders are reluctant to give information on producer prices or profit margins, though the studies which have been carried out suggest that the profits earned by middlemen are reasonable and that private marketing systems are fairly efficient. Nevertheless, livestock producers often believe that they receive low prices for their animals from private traders. On the other hand, government intervention through the creation of livestock marketing boards has generally not been noticeably more successful.
The introduction of intensified production systems will inevitably require improved marketing. In particular, a stratified market, offering higher prices for higher quality meat, would serve to encourage intensified production and an efficient stratified production system, with immatures from the northern areas fattened on ranches or feedlots located in the subhumid zone.
Extension Services
Extension services have been set up in most West African countries, but implementation in the field has been restricted due to the limited resources avail able, the large areas to be covered and the special difficulties involved in reaching migratory producers. Agricultural extension services were initiated in Nigeria in 1921 with the formation of a unified Department of Agriculture, and veterinary services started up in 1924 when the Veterinary Laboratories at Vom began producing hyperimmune rinderpest serum. Animal husbandry extension services were initiated much more recently with the creation of the Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Service (AERLS) in the 1970s, as part of the Institute for Agricultural Research at Zaria. However, comprehensive extension coverage would require a substantially enlarged staff and close cooperation with other government agencies involved in the livestock production sector.
An example of the role of the AERLS is provided by their operations in the Samaru area. A Livestock Assistant was posted to the area, animal health care was offered to the pastoralists through the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine of Ahmadu Bello University, the local water supply was improved and cotton seed was provided as supplementary feed for sale during the dry season. The local Fulani formed a society which raised more than US$ 8 000 a year to pay for supplementary feed, while the AERLS arranged for the purchase of the cotton seed through the Cotton Marketing Board and for transport. The Fulani came freely to the Livestock Assist ant for help and advice, not only for problems connected with their livestock but also concerning the welfare of their families (Yazidu, 1978). The programme eventually experienced setbacks because funds were not available from the Kaduna State Government for the construction of more dams and disputes arose between the pastoralists and the local farmers. It also proved difficult to recruit additional extension staff.
The success of the inoculation campaigns carried out by the animal health services in Nigeria and elsewhere suggests that extension services will he well received by traditional livestock producers if they offer clearly demonstrable benefits. Such services should involve the establishment of demonstration centres, visits by extension staff and effective use of the mass media. Additional extension staff must be recruited and incentives provided to motivate them to work in the rural areas. In addition to more attractive salaries and working conditions, they need adequate transport facilities if they are to visit producers scattered over a wide area. Staff development and training programmes must also be provided and field work must be carefully planned and supervised.
A special issue involved in efforts to reach traditional livestock producers is the head tax on cattle imposed in many West African countries. This tax (jangali) was waived in Nigeria in 1975, where it was argued that the tax hindered the close cooperation of pastoralists with government extension workers. An unexpected effect has keen a worsening of the relationship between village chiefs and the Fulani pastoralists who are no longer seen as contributing to local government expenses. Further study is required to identify ways in which livestock producers can contribute to government revenue on a fair and equitable basis without reducing the supply of marketed meat and milk or discouraging them from taking advantage of extension and other government services.
