Nick Ashton-Jones, with Oronto Douglas and Susi Arnott

“ Farmers do find ways to survive and in doing so often find sustainable solutions which can be seen throughout the LEM ecozone. For a start, the bleak Chromalina/Cassava/Oil Palm landscape generally represents land far away from home so that much farmer energy is wasted in walking to and from the farm. Land nearer home is often more thoughtfully cultivated and thus more productive, while compound gardening is often very productive and diverse, producing good soil conditions. Urban and urban-fringe agriculture is similar in many ways to near home and compound farming in rural areas. ”

“ RICE - Orysa sativa: a type of grass grown for its grains which tolerates wet conditions to an extent where it grows well in flooded conditions so long as the flowers (which produce the grains) remain above water level. High yields are obtained because the floodwater restricts the development of competing weeds. It is the most common food crop in the world and will become increasingly important in the Niger Delta. ”

“ With proper planning there is room for all and for the maintenance of the ecological integrity of the ecozone. However ignorance about relationship of the marine fishing industry to the mangroves, and the immediate need for food over the longer term considerations of forestry, mean that in the next century, there is a good chance of rice and fish-farming destroying the mangrove forests of the Niger Delta. ”

“ Nonetheless, Chromalina seems to impede the spread of the grass weed Imperata cylindrica, a notorious Southeast Asian weed which is devastating to soil fertility and which is already apparent in Nigeria: Chromalina may be the lesser of two evils.
This change, from a fertile and biodiverse landscape to one of low biodiversity and declining fertility can be very sudden. It happens as human population densities in a given area pass a critical point, so that older people can truly remember better and easier times, and do not know what has hit them. ”

“ By clearing large areas of forest, even depleted or degraded forest, and replacing it with monoculture, a range of ecological problems arise including damage to hydrological and fish breeding systems, loss of species habitat and biodiversity, and crop susceptibility to pests. ”

“ Small plantations of rubber and oil palm trees are common throughout the ecozone and are appropriate because they maintain soil conditions and generally contain a wider biodiversity than is found on arable land.
While large scale industrial farming may have a part to play, it is not the answer to problem, because such farming, particularly in the tropics, often leads to accelerated soil degradation which is hidden by high yielding (but often disease susceptible) hybrids and large inputs of fertiliser. ”

“ The agricultural problem of the LEM ecozone is a problem of declining soil conditions under an increasing pressure to produce more food, as a result of a rapidly expanding population. Within the foreseeable future, rural population densities in parts of the LEM ecozone will exceed 1000 persons per square kilometre. Generally this rapid population growth manifests itself in increased food production arising from extending agricultural land at the expense of forest rather than by raising productivity. ”

“ Income equity is maintained and rural incomes enhanced. Management is better and yields are higher because the farmer has an income incentive to be efficient. Even under the most adverse conditions of civil disorder small farmers continue to produce, whereas large plantations crumble. A mosaic of small farms growing mixed crops, interspersed with forests in various conditions which is the result of well managed small farmer agriculture, does not present the same sort of ecological problems arising from large scale plantation agriculture. ”

“ However if the marine fishing resources continue to decline then the situation could change.
Large scale arable farming does not seem to be at all practicable, and if the barrier island communities have to depend on the land for a living the answer to survival is twofold:
agriculture on the sand ridges as agroforestry techniques based on cultured forests; and agriculture on the swampy troughs as agroforestry techniques based on a combination of cultured forests, loo-type agriculture, paddy-rice (already a little at the East side of Akassa) and fish farming. ”

“ The high demand for oil palm products up to 1960 was probably the greatest incentive that the Akassa people had ever had for changing their environment, but this was mitigated by the fact that the palm was growing naturally and because Akassa is not suitable for large-scale plantation agriculture. The present pattern of land-use is less intensive, now that people have returned to fishing, than it was in the 1950s. ”

“ Even the immediate yield benefits of alley cropping may not be considered worth the extra labour involved, particularly if the hedgerow plant does not yield a useful crop.
For this reason, as has been said, farmers are more likely to spend time working on land near home. This is by no means always the case particularly where tree crops have been planted, but it is most often the case because land far away from home requires an expenditure of energy just to get there. ”

“ Thus soil is a valid way of defining ecozones and, in any given place, just as the soil indicates what the climax vegetation would be under natural conditions, so it also indicates agricultural potential. ”

“ With the advent of viable society in the Sand-Barrier Islands of the Niger Delta, at least 5000 years ago, the natural ecosystem of Akassa began to be substantially altered: the very accessibility of the Niger Delta estuaries and their abundance of fish would have made them especially attractive to human activity. ”

“ Although Kola and Cocoa are the primary trees, many others are found according to soil conditions, some of which are of major importance including Oil Palm, Coconut Palm, Orange, Plantain, Banana, Breadfruit, and Mango. In addition certain forest trees are retained for their timber value, such as Afrara and Iroko. Many shrubs and herbaceous crops are associated with the plantation, of which a variety of Yams seems to be the most important, planted as single tubers where the soil is considered to be especially rich. ”

“ In South-eastern Nigeria, land could be categorised in three ways: compound land, near fields and distant fields. While compound land is controlled and used by individual households, the use of near and distant fields is to a varying degree controlled by extended families and by community level decisions. Because these lands are reallocated for use after every fallow cycle, the same person or family may not get the same plot every time. Under such conditions there may be little incentive to adopt alley farming. ”

“ Each ecozone has different agricultural potentials and problems. Inevitably the Niger Delta will be, and with proper planning it has the ability to be, a major producer of food, especially fish, rice and palm oil. ”

“ Generally the people who exploit the ecozone live on the fringes of the Fresh-Water or Barrier Island ecozones. Even Nembe, one of the largest towns associated with the ecozone, is on the edge of the ecozone. ”

“ Local People lose access to forest products including wild oil palm, raffia, timber and a range of NTFPs. Thus they lose income. Employment opportunities are usually realised by non-indigenous people who come into the area, creating local discontent and social friction, which is exacerbated by a new elite of management staff (usually non-indigenous) who appear to be reaping all the financial benefits of the project. ”

“ Proper economic CBA, including social and environmental CBA, is essential to ensure that the conflicts between the various agricultural and fishing needs are resolved, in order to optimise sustainable food production and income equity. ”

“ From an environmental point of view loos are interesting because the occupant is essentially an agro-forester inasmuch as he is farming in an intensive sustainable manner with a mixture of trees and perennial and annual crops, on a very small piece of land. ”

“ Moreover agricultural potential is extended in the Fresh-water ecozone and sub-ecozones because the areas are very well suited to growing Rice.
But, farming is not easy in the Niger Delta where farmers are caught between the devil of the waterlogged Inceptisol Aquept soils and the deep blue sea of the sandy Udic Oxisol soils. Making the most of these soils requires a great deal of skill. ”

“ The current system ensures that the small farmer does not have access to cheap fertiliser. Even if the fertiliser market was liberalised, many farmers would not be able to afford it, especially women and where transport is expensive.
Human Energy Limitations
Farmers cannot afford to waste energy on anything which does not show an obvious and fairly immediate return, which is a major reason why exotic agroforestry technologies, which have long term benefits, are not taken up. ”

“ However, recently, the modern population has grown so fast and so suddenly that traditional systems have been unable to adapt fast enough, with the result that there are indications in parts of the LEM ecozones of Nigeria of a collapse of agricultural systems altogether. ”

“ There is no doubt that rice and oil palm are the key to the future agricultural productivity of the Niger Delta. Improved strains of rice already yield over 4000 kg of milled rice per hectare in Cameroon, compared with something in the order of less than 500 kg/ha around Anyama. Paddy-Rice culture is described in more detail in the following section on agriculture in the Brackish-Water ecozone. ”

“ Thus the soils and climate are ideal for deep-rooting tree crops which repair soil by tapping deeper nutrients and recycling them as humus. Moreover, Local People are acutely aware of the agricultural problem that they face. The answers, of course, have already been discovered by Local People in the Compound and Loo farming (see the box below) where a remarkable variety of crops are found in very small areas. ”

“ Very rarely is sufficient capital accumulated to allow for resources to be used for investing in the future, and it is interesting to note that farmers who plant tree crops tend to be old or young, having no families to worry about ”

“ Section 5, however, for convenience, a summary is given here:-
13.1.3 AGRICULTURE IN THE NIGER DELTA IS CHARACTERISED BY LIMITED DRY LAND AND SANDY SOILS: FARMING IS NOT EASY.
Before we go any further, it must be stressed that outside the LEM ecozone of the Niger Delta, land that is naturally dry all year is found only on the ridges of the sand-barrier islands, on the levees of the Fresh-Water ecozone, and on reclaimed land. This limits areas available for dry-land agriculture (for instance for growing Cassava, Yams, Plantains and Bananas) . ”

“ Extensive small-farmer paddy-rice farming.
Rice provides a good and equitable rural income. In most respects paddy-rice farming appears to be sustainable because annual flooding brings in nutrients, but it has all the potential problems of monoculture and rice rust (a fungus similar to wheat rust) on a small farm near Anyama. ”

“ The latter include timber, bush-meat, rattan palm, and a wide variety of fruit and herbs.
Nigerian farmers respond well to market demand so that urban markets are always well supplied with agricultural produce. Generally farmers rely on family labour and do not have access to fertilisers. They depend on fallow periods to restore fertility or on clearing new agricultural land from forest. All their energy is expended upon production for immediate consumption or sale for necessary cash: surpluses cannot be stored because storage technology is limited. ”

“ Nonetheless, farmers make the most of planting annual crops during the dry-season on the margins of seasonal lakes, swamps and flood plains, and also on the deposits of alluvium exposed when the rivers are low. ”

“ For instance if the polders of the rain-fed system are not breached in the dry season the soils rapidly become highly acid and sterile. Not a serious problem on small scattered farms, but a disaster if large 'anti-salt' barriers are built, as in Guinea Bissau, to serve many rice farms, and subsequently mismanaged. ”

“ PLANTAINS AND BANANAS - Musa spp: botanically the same plant although some types are more suitable for Plantains and others for Bananas. They are treelike herbs, the 'stem' actually being made up of a sheath of leaves which produces a single flower that becomes the bunch of fruit. Plantains are unripe and cooked as vegetables while Bananas are ripe and eaten as fruit. ”

“ The overall solution is an improvement in soil conditions as the foundation of improved agricultural productivity. This is sustainably achieved by raising humus and biomass levels, through increased tree and shrub cover. ”