Nigeria’s varied agro-ecological regions and soil types make for diverse opportunities in the production of crops and livestock across the country. These regional differentiations in agro- productive traditions have come with it, certain threats in recent times due to increased climatic and ecological pressure. This is more so, with high reliance of the agricultural systems on traditional tools and methods. Although technological innovation is known to improve the practice of agriculture globally, its introduction in Nigeria’s agricultural system has been far below with subsistence farming practices taking the dominant share of activities in the sector (Enete and Amusa, 2010). Under such circumstance, small scale traditional farming systems remains the dominant form of agricultural practice across the country, leaving the majority of the farmers operating at risk of climatic perturbations and uncertainties.
Given the traditional techniques as against the modern ranch system of livestock production that has become popular elsewhere, nomadic pastoral farmers faced one of the greatest direct impacts of climate change in the agricultural sector. Migration and increasing competition for grass and water as heightened by drought and sahelization poses a threat to existing resources, forcing more reliance on migration into new terrains, thus making conflicts inevitable. As Adekunle and Adisa (2010: 2) notes, conflicts arising from herders’ search for resources such as water, forage and land in host communities have remained a “most important”
problem faced by Fulani Herdsmen in the course of tending their herd. This has brought about enmity between them and the host community mostly arable crop farmers.
134 4.5.1 Nigeria’s Migrant Fulani Herdsmen
Pastoral farming is a major component of the agriculture sector in Sub-Saharan Africa servicing the region’s high demand for livestock products. In Nigeria, pastoral herdsmen occupy an important position as the sector remains largely dominated by traditional Fulani nomadic herders. Population increase also implies increased demand for livestock products and trade booms for herders despite environmental pressures in the arid regions where pastoral farming contribute a major share of agriculture. Highlighting the significance of pastoral farming in the sub-Saharan Africa region, Majekodunmi et al. (2014) noted that there were about 120 million pastoral herdsmen globally. Of this number, about 50 million were to be found in sub-Saharan Africa, representing about 12% of the population in rural areas.
Similarly, Nzeh (2015) noted that the Nigerian livestock production sub-sector account for about 25% of Central and Western Africa’s entire livestock holding. This figure makes Nigeria the leading producer of livestock in the sub-region with an estimated over 16 million herds of cattle ahead of Niger Republic’s 8.7 million, Mali’s 8.2 million, and Chad’s 7 million herds. The sector in Nigeria also provides employment for a significant number of herders in the country. It noted for example, that “between 85% and 90% of Nigeria’s locally produced livestock are grown by over 8 million migrant herders and farmers, majority of whom are of Peul ethnicity although other groups are also herders (Shuwa Arabs, Koyam, Kanuri, Kanembou, Touareg, etc.)” (Nzeh, 2015: 22).
There is also substantial cross-border movement in the Fulani livestock rearing trade, although the actual figures of the inflow of herds have been difficult to assess. According to Nzeh (2015), Nigeria’s cattle market has significant inflow from Niger, Mali, and Chad, with regular cross-border movement of herders and cattle during the yearly migration circles with Nigeria accounting for 50% of beef consumption in the ECOWAS region, and importing over 25% of this to meet the need of the population that is also fast increasing. At the national level, the sector adds about 5% to national GDP as a fragment of agriculture which in general, contributes 35% of GDP according to the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN 2013).
The Fulani pastoral farming ethnic group, the primary pastoral group numbers about 15.3 million, and are mostly found in the arid and semi-arid northern parts of the country. They are closely associated with peasant cattle herding. According to Azuwike and Enwerem (2010:
3), “cattle production has been a preoccupation of the Fulani tribe of northern Nigeria for
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centuries”. The south on the other hand, has often offered two attractions to the herders: as a refuge for the cattle herders during the scarcity seasons and as a cattle market for the pastoralists. According to Lambrecht (1976: 26), they are a socially conservative people who, despite their migratory nature, “integrate neither socially nor politically with other ethnic groups”.
As a historically migrant people, relationship between Fulani herders and their farming southern hosts were originally a symbiotic one. During their temporary stops around villages, they provide organic manure to the farmers from cow dung in addition to rich protein from their beef and dairy products. On the other hand, nomads also depended on farm produce from farmers for food (Ofem and Inyang, 2014). In spite of the potentials for complementarities in herder-host community relations, Nzeh (2015) explained that apart from the barriers of language and culture which isolate nomads from their hosts,74 “the audacity with which they shepherd their flocks to graze on available vegetation on their route often attracts protests from communities” (p. 21). This situation, he notes further, creates unhealthy rivalry that often leads to violence. Nzeh describes the typical Fulani herding practice and lifestyle and notes that:
By their culture, tradition and occupation, they have not remained an itinerant race who owned lands nor had any permanent abode. In fact, they cared less about land ownership because they are always on the move. They simply lived with their cattle wherever there was abundance of fodder and absence of tse-tse-fly, the blood sucking insect that once threatened the existence of their flocks. The nomads used to embark on seasonal migrations from the North to the South but this movement has become an all season’s affair. The reason has been that over-grazing in the far north has given way to desertification and the normal alternating wet and dry seasons have metamorphosed into some unusual weather conditions now known as climate change (Nzeh, 2015: 21).
The lifestyle of the Fulani herders is significantly impacted by climate change in the long- run, and in the short-term, by yearly seasonal changes. Traditionally, the seasonal period of grass scarcity in arid northern regions usually implies more difficult access to feed for the herd during the dry season. This forces the herdsmen into a protective movement to down south which usually retains higher wetness and vegetation at such times. Highlighting the
74 The migratory nature of Fulani lifestyle means that there is little sustained interaction with other peoples.
This also means that few are able to learn their language and communicate with them as obtains between other tribes where languages have been learned to enhance intertribal relations.
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pressure for migration caused by changes in the climate of herder communities, Aderinoye- Abdulwahab and Adefalu (2012: 4) explain that “climate change such as dessert encroachment makes grazing difficult. As most animal grazing is carried out in dry lands, pastoralists and their families are usually affected by harsh weather conditions such as droughts which have serious ecological and economic effects on rangelands”.
The attraction of a permanent stay had often been prevented by the presence of tsetse fly in the wetter southern areas, particularly during the rainy season. This often makes a return migration to the north inevitable at the onset of the heavy wet season of the south. In recent times however, the nature of the transhumance have changed (Majekodunmi et al., 2014).
Azuwike and Enwerem (2010) observe an increasingly longer stay in the south by the Fulani herders of northern Nigeria who have increasingly turned sedentary thereby putting pressure on natural resources of the local host communities as they compete for access to resources such as water and lands. The social effect of their protracted stay, especially in farming host communities, with intense hostilities, and sometimes, deadly conflicts arising. Many reasons are tipped to have influenced this change, including possible improved adjustment of cattle to the ecologies of the southern region aided by improved vaccination against infection by tsetse. This adjustment however, has been informed by push factors in the northern region.
Majekodunmi et al (2014) justifies that migration of herders pointing out that “the ability of pastoralists to fulfil their role as food producers is directly dependent on the viability of their livelihoods and the factors affecting their livelihood strategies”, a factor itself dependent upon access to constant supply of necessary feeding and water for the cattle and the herders.
4.5.2 Fulbe Fulani Migrants
Fulani ethnic and sub-ethnic groups share similar plurality as other groups in Nigeria although they have a relatively smaller population. Studies often identify variations such as the Fulbe, the Kanuri-related groups, the Shuwa, the Yedina and the Uled Suleiman (Odo and Chilaka, 2012). Among these groups, the Fulbe group also known as Fulani are the most populous and widespread, having expanded eastward from the Gambia River over the last millennium. Their entry into the area of modern day Nigeria may date as far back as the fourteenth century (ibid). The Fulani, pressured by declines in the availability of grazing resources and the decline of former wetlands which served as grazing areas, have been forced southward (Blench et al. 2003).
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As a result of forced Fulani movement, pastoral migration has been at the centre of herder- farmer conflict in Nigeria in recent years. Blench (2003) explains that the wave of migration among Fulani herders started since the beginning of the twentieth century, and was a remarkable departure from long years of their confinement of to the edges of the Sahara desert. This change in the pattern of habitation has increasingly brought them into unfriendly contacts with previously unknown cultures, productive systems, and peoples. The result is repeated incidence of misunderstandings and conflict. Odo and Chilaka (2012) attribute the migration of the Fulbe/Fulani population from the desert region to effects of climatic changes and drought in areas hitherto made up of wetlands.
Pull factors also play significant role in influencing migration. Odoh and Chilaka (2012) identified ecological, religious, and cultural reasons as top among factors which account Fulani movement into the south-western parts of Nigeria. One of these—ecology, according to them, is the derived savannah climatic regime of parts of the south-west which loops southwards nearly reaching the coastal areas of Benin and Togolese republics, thus creating a relatively open land conducive to cattle grazing. Another relates to their vulnerability to theft and cattle rustling. This also explains the easy militarisation of the Fulani herder in terms of acquiring weapons (Awogbade 1983: 8-10).
Although movement is almost in all cases, a character of nomadic herdsmen, there are identifiable variations in the nature, length, and season of movements. Two forms of movements are often noted in the literature: the sedentary settlers, and the continuous transhumance or seasonal migration. While the former establish fairly isolated but more environmentally integrating settlement, adapting their herds to the ecology of the host trends of changing weather systems in Nigeria. According to Majekodunmi et al. (2014), some of the reasons for migration by herdsmen include:
1. Drought and scarcity of feed during the dry season compelling a search for adequate supply of pasture and water
2. Restrictive activities of indigenous farmers and conflicts with farmers arising from encroachment on crops
3. The need to avoid farmers' crops
4. Increasing population of herders and cattle grazing in a particular area 5. Resistance from indigenous populations
6. The need to avoid the tsetse fly-prone wet seasons that often result in death of cattle.
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