TheImprovement ofTropical and Subtropical Rangelands

Case Study 13
Improving Nigeria's Animal Feed
Resources: Pastoralists and Scientists
Cooperate in Fodder Bank Research
BY SIMON CRATER
Research on fodder banks in Nigeria's Middle Belt has reached a
crucial stage as scientists on the Subhumid Zone Programme of the
International Livestock Centre for Mrica (ICLA) confront pastoralists'
adoption problems.*
The pastoralists have mixed feelings about their fodder banks.
They say the 4-hectare fields of Strlostlnthes are an expensive investment
and too small to meet the supplementary feed requirements
of all their animals. Yet those who have them are retaining and
occasionally expanding them, and the number offodder banks in the
region continues to rise.
More than 70 fodder banks have now been established in Nigeria.
During the early stages of the research, establishment costs were
borne by ILeA, but now the pastoralists themselves are shouldering
the burden. To help them, Nigeria's National Livestock Project Unit
is extending credit for fencing, seeds, and fertilizer.
The scientists and pastoralists face complex problems at almost
every stage of the establishment and management of the banks.
*This cue study is baaed on an article in the ILeA newsletter 4(4):1-2,
which borrowed extensively from the reHarch results preHnted at the Second
ILeA/NAPRI Symposium on Liv.toc:k Production in the Subhumid Zone of
Nigeria, Kaduna, October 30-November 2, 1984.
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