Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0263/02632.txt

Text File | 1991-06-25 | 25KB | 399 lines

$Unique_ID{COW02632}
$Pretitle{357}
$Title{Nigeria
Chapter 3B.   Crops}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Robert Rinehart}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{tons
1970s
forest
government
irrigation
nigeria
percent
production
area
cattle}
$Date{1981}
$Log{Figure 16.*0263201.scf
}
Country:     Nigeria
Book:        Nigeria, A Country Study
Author:      Robert Rinehart
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1981

Chapter 3B.   Crops

     Nigeria's climate permits the raising of a wide variety of crops. These
vary in different parts of the country in a pattern that emerged in earlier
centuries as some crops were found better suited to particular local
conditions. The amount of rainfall and the length of the rainy season have a
direct bearing on the production pattern. Both factors decrease from south to
north, resulting in a number of distinct ecological zones that are found not
only in Nigeria but in all of West Africa (see Climate, ch. 2; see fig. 16).
In the south the moist forest zone and derived savanna generally have
abundant rainfall and relatively short dry seasons. Root crops-including
cassava, yams, cocoyams (taro), and sweet potatoes-are the main staples of the
area. Tree crops-cocoa, oil palm, and rubber-are the area's principal
commercial crops. Cocoa is grown mostly in the southwestern sector, and oil
palms predominate in the southeast but are numerous also in the central
sector. Major rubber stands are located in the central sector.

     The northern third of the country lies mostly in the Sudan savanna, and
the northeast is in the more arid Sahel zone. The entire region has a long dry
season that varies from five to seven months during which less than
twenty-five millimeters of rain are received. The principal staples are
millet, a drought-resistant variety of sorghum known in West Africa as guinea
corn, and cowpeas. Some maize is also cultivated, as is rice in suitable
lowland areas. The north's chief commercial crops have been cotton and
groundnuts.

     Between the arid northern zone and the moist south lies an area of Guinea
savanna (frequently divided into southern and northern parts on the basis of
rainfall). Sometimes referred to as the Middle Belt (see Glossary), the area
produces a mixture of crops including such staples as yams, sorghum, millet,
cassava, cowpeas, and maize; rice is also an important crop in some parts. The
belt's southern edge represents approximately the lower limit of the northern
grain-dominated economy. Its northern edge marks roughly the limit of the
south's root crop economy. The most significant commercial crop of the Middle
Belt is sesame (known in Nigeria as benniseed).

     Grains are eaten by most Nigerians, but consumption and production of
guinea corn and millet were more heavily concentrated in the savanna areas of
the north. In 1980 both cereals far exceeded other domestic grains in general
use and accounted for about 80 percent of total grain production (see table 5,
Appendix). Maize production in the derived savanna zone of the south benefited
from the heavier rainfall that frequently permitted two crops a year. Wheat
was of only minor importance as a domestic crop and because of climatic
factors was grown only in the north. During the 1970s the demand for wheat
flour for bread rose dramatically, especially in the urban centers. It was
estimated that over 1 million tons of unmilled wheat and roughly 200,000 tons
of flour were imported in 1980. The demand for rice has also increased
tremendously. A red grain rice has been grown for many centuries, but only in
small amounts. White rice, introduced about the beginning of the 1900s, has
become the preferred variety and along with bread constitutes a significant
item in the present-day Nigerian diet. Conditions for growing rice in Nigeria
are far better than those for growing wheat, and rice production has risen
rapidly from under 500,000 tons in 1972 to an estimated 1,030,000 tons in
1980.

[See Figure 16.: Ecological Zones and Principal Food and Commercial Crops]

     Cocoa, cotton, groundnuts, oil palm tree products, and rubber were the
principal export crops in the early 1970s. A major change took place during
the decade, however, and by 1981 cocoa was the only one of major importance.
Introduced from Fernando Po (Equatorial Guinea) in the late 1870s and planted
commercially from around 1890, cocoa was the foreign trade mainstay (along
with groundnuts) until the mid-1960s when petroleum surpassed it in value as
an export commodity. In 1981 the cocoa industry was faced with the problem of
replacing aging stock, the result of a long period of low prices in the 1960s
when almost no new plantings were made. The World Bank has assisted the
government in replanting programs, and producer prices were increased
substantially in the late 1970s and again in 1981, which presumably renewed
farmer interest (many farms had been abandoned in the 1970s). The estimated
output of about 170,000 tons in the 1979-80 crop year kept Nigeria in third
place among world cocoa producers, after Ivory Coast and Ghana.

     Groundnuts, which were a major export item until the early 1970s, are
grown mostly by small-scale northern farmers who cultivated an average of
between four-fifths of a hectare and somewhat over 1.5 hectares. At the
beginning of the decade Nigeria was the world's largest exporter of
groundnuts. The severe Sahel drought of 1972-74, however, caused great damage
to crops, which were further devastated by a viral disease in 1975. In early
1974 the government banned exports of groundnuts and groundnut oil, a
proscription that remained in effect in 1981. Estimates of output in the late
1970s varied greatly, but there reportedly were adequate quantities of
groundnut products available in local markets in the north.

     The two other significant agricultural export commodities in the early
1980s were rubber and palm kernels. Nigeria is Africa's second largest rubber
producer, after Liberia. Its annual output averaged about 62,000 tons between
1972 and 1978. In the mid-1970s about 182,000 hectares in the central sector
of the south had stands of rubber trees. Some 100,000 smallholders cultivated
almost 98 percent of the area on farms ranging from about one-half to four
hectares. The remaining area was occupied by plantations, which produced about
a fifth of the rubber crop. Rubber trees were indigenous to the area, but in
1913 a higher producing Brazilian variety was introduced and has since
replaced the native tree. Exports were over 34,000 tons in 1979. Producer
prices were raised substantially in FY 1979-80.

     Oil palms are found throughout the rain forest belt of West Africa. In
Nigeria they are particularly dense in the area north of the Niger delta known
as the Oil Palm Bush. In 1965 (before the civil war) oil palm production
reached an estimated 574,000 tons and exports totaled 150,000 tons. During the
war, exports virtually ceased and some damage to trees occurred. In the
mid-1970s production still averaged about 500,000 tons a year, but exports had
dropped markedly to some 35,000 tons as the remainder was consumed locally.
Production from wild trees, harvested largely by individuals, has stagnated,
but smallholder planting of improved stock under joint government-World Bank
projects was expected to result in increased yields in the 1980s.

Irrigation

     Elemental irrigation schemes were used by traditional cultivators in
various parts of the country long before the colonial period. They included
seasonally inundated depressions in upland areas of the south and some parts
of the Middle Belt that received heavy rainfall, shallow swamps, and
seasonally flooded riverine land (known in Nigeria as fadama). In the north
shadoof irrigation was also employed along rivers; some use was made of wells.
At the end of the 1950s smallholders were believed to be using such methods on
perhaps 120,000 hectares. The advantages of increasing crops through local
irrigation appear to have resulte