In his weekly column Letter to my Farmers, Babatunde Olarewajo writes about personal experiences and insights on farming, curated through working with smallholder farmers in Africa. In this weeks letter, Babatunde discusses solutions to the Nigerian farmer-herder crisis, which has been escalating and destabilising the region. Last week's letter is available here.
The age long farmer-herder crisis in Nigeria can no longer be overlooked, as it affects the stability of the country. In the last few years, the tension has increased, leading to loss of property, livelihood, and lives. Thus, there is a need to offer a way forward to salvage the situation at hand.
First, we need a national orientation program to sensitise people on new approaches to do business, especially cattle grazing. (It is not sustainable and population explosion is a key factor) This program should target primarily herders and other key stakeholders in the cattle value chain (including cattle owners).
Thirdly, every herder outside the country should be mandated to register and be licensed to graze in Nigeria. As much as I don't support open grazing, it may take up to 20 years to phase this practise out completely. So, the government should put structures in place to register herders (especially foreigners).
Lastly, there is no fit-for-all solution, and every state should come up with a blueprint that will help to curb the tension that has been created. Yes, we need a united country to build a sustainable growth. We need peace to build the agricultural sector and protect the lives of every one to achieve food security.
Yours-in-service
Babatunde
A tractor on a Nigerian crop farm in Kano State.
Milk is stored and delivered in containers such as these.
Agrobiologist and agronomist Henk Breman, who worked in subsahara Africa for many years, on herders and food security in Africa (in French)
First, we need a national orientation program to sensitise people on new approaches to do business, especially cattle grazing. (It is not sustainable and population explosion is a key factor) This program should target primarily herders and other key stakeholders in the cattle value chain (including cattle owners).
We need a united country to build a sustainable growthSecondly, encouraging the establishment of private ranches across the country would really be of great benefit. Government should implement policies that strengthen the cattle value chain, especially establishment of ranches to encourage investors. This can be achieved through tax exemption, subsidies, and import waivers for livestock equipment, amongst others.
Thirdly, every herder outside the country should be mandated to register and be licensed to graze in Nigeria. As much as I don't support open grazing, it may take up to 20 years to phase this practise out completely. So, the government should put structures in place to register herders (especially foreigners).
Lastly, there is no fit-for-all solution, and every state should come up with a blueprint that will help to curb the tension that has been created. Yes, we need a united country to build a sustainable growth. We need peace to build the agricultural sector and protect the lives of every one to achieve food security.
Yours-in-service
Babatunde
Agrobiologist and agronomist Henk Breman, who worked in subsahara Africa for many years, on herders and food security in Africa (in French)
I added a link to the farmer-herder crisis in Babatunde's text. The crisis is in essence a battle between livestock and arable farming in densely populated area's.
I now feel guilty. Henk Breman gave me a beautiful text on the very same relationship I still have to edit in order to publish it on Foodlog or here on AgriFoodNetworks. I added it in the text box with the milk containers in its French version.
I've automatically translated a crucial part of Henk's text (yes, its needs a better edit, but DeepL's did a fairly functional job):
Pastoral peoples can be found on the edges of deserts and the polar region, and high in the mountain landscapes! Mobility is a "conditio sine qua non" because the conditions for vegetation growth are highly variable throughout the year due to the seasons, and over the years due to variable weather conditions.
Some pastoral peoples, nomads, stay (for the most part) in the areas mentioned, others have an annual movement with their livestock between these areas and regions with better growing conditions for vegetation, and therefore with vegetation of lower quality. These are areas where arable farmers exploit natural resources and therefore dominate.
These annual movements are called 'transhumance'. For example high in the mountains in summer, but in winter in the valleys with less extreme cold. Or in the rainy season on steppes on the edge of the desert, but in the dry season on wetter savannahs or - ideally - on flood-free floodplains. The predominantly clayey soils remain sufficiently moist for lush, high-quality vegetation; with each flood, fertile mud is deposited.
At low population densities, the limited overlap between the habitats of arable and livestock farmers is an advantage rather than a problem. During the dry season (or winter), farmers and herders can live side by side and benefit from each other. Herders also use the village well for themselves and their livestock; their herds spend the night on the bare fields, where the cattle deposit manure. During the day, the animals graze further away from the village on natural pastures. Milk is exchanged for grain.
In the case of a growing population, the separation of farmers and herders is lost, a game pastoral people will eventually loose. Three factors play a role in this: a) arable farming feeds many more people in a given area than cattle; b) as a result, during the difficult season and in difficult years, there is less and less space for herders and their herds in the arable region; c) the overexploitation of seasonally favourable pastures in the arable region; d) the overexploitation of the natural pastures in the arable region; e) the overexploitation of the natural pastures in the arable region; f) the overexploitation of the natural pastures in the arable region; and g) the overexploitation of the natural pastures in the arable region in the arable region.
A fascinating sentence in this context, based on a geological study of the ice age and the fluctuation of CO2 in the atmosphere (Why an Ice Age Ends): "Livestock became the dominant herbivore on the planet, but many more wild ruminants roamed the Earth during the last ice age from the much larger expanses of the prairies under cooler and drier conditions. »
The rainy season is long enough to grow cereals and other crops, which live long enough to produce seeds or other foods that are useful to humans.
An area that is suitable for arable farming can feed up to 10 times more arable farmers than pastoralists!
The result is further aggravated by the growth of the pastoral population itself and their herds. In extreme seasons and/or years, pastoralists have no choice but to sell their livestock at low price or die.
Babatunde Olarewaju , thank you. Clear message, again.
Probably Jeroen Elfers of Royal Friesland Campina also has got a vision on how the basic concept “BoerProof - Planetproof” can relate to the activities of RFC in developing the dairy cluster in Nigeria.
Babatunde Olarewajo’s solution for the farmer-herder crisis in Nigeria is rather similar to the solution promoted or applied in many African countries. The heart of the solution is sedentarizing livestock production systems which have been mobile since human remembrance. It is regrettable that policy makers didn’t realize why this “solution” is frustrated by pastoralists: the productivity of the mobile system, the transhumance, is much higher. Sedentary livestock on ranches, in Africa as well as in the USA, Australia etc., leads to an average annual protein production of about 0.3 – 0.5 kg/ha, while the West African transhumance has a production of 0.6 – 3.2 kg/ha (Rangeland productivity and exploitation in the Sahel. H. Breman & C.T. de Wit, 1983. Science 221, p. 1341-1347). A production system can be developed which combines the transhumance with intensifying arable farming as a business in the interest of both farmers and pastoralists. It will lead to a level of animal production about ten times higher than in case of ranching (Collaboration Nord-Sud Sahélienne; integration cultures et élevage comme business. H. Breman, 2012. Actes de la conference “René Dumont revisité et les politiques agricoles africaines).
Henk Breman .Thank you for your contribution and your view. The issue of farmers-herder in Nigeria is beyond co-existence as lives and properties have been lost, as well as trust. Farmers perceived herders as "business men" who should be able to invest in providing fodders for his herds rather than open grazing. Also, the government has not been able to handle the issue as there are many occurrences of destruction of farms (which are not compensated for and insurance does not cover for farms being destroyed by cattle). Thus, the reason for the suggestions in the best interest of the country unity and its reality at the moment.
Thank you for your contribution once again.
This is about human suffering, agribiological facts and laws of nature on the one hand and good governance on the other.
Henk points to the laws of nature and the way people with different interests and (perhaps) insufficient knowledge of those laws striking back. In return, Babatunde points to the Nigerian sedentary arable farmers killing pastoral farmers as a fact. Thát has to stop. And that is something you don't turn around by just saying that nature predicted it would happen.
For those outside of Sub-Saharan Africa who don't fully understand what this is about, read about the Fulani herdsman and Fulani massacres.
Indeed, how to go about this?
Coen mentions Jeroen Elfers from Royal FrieslandCampina. The Dutch dairy cooperative has set up shop in Nigeria ever since the mid 1950's. Now they are expanding with their WAMCO operation. FrieslandCampina integrated Nutricima Limited, a formerly British owned (PZ Cussons International) consumer goods distributor in Nigeria. Mr. Jeroen has set up for FrieslandCampina the Center for Dutch Nigerian Dairy Development (CDNDD). The Center collaborates with Abuja University and Wageningen University to transfer expertise and practices to farmers.
In Europe, we tend to think that well structured ethical ways of setting up industry standards and consumer logo's, will help better than asking government and politics to take care of everything. The private sector could help to avoid the killings, as a Western company is on the ground. But perhaps it's very naive to think that way from an African perspective.
Babatunde Olarewaju, do you think FrieslandCampina could help avoid these massacres along those lines? Henk Breman, do you think it is possible to help the Fulani out creating commercially viable sedentary ways of dairy farming in SSH Africa?