Challenges of Agroforestry Farmers with Herdsmen in Ekiti State, Nigeria

Abstract

Changes in climatic conditions, soil degradation and the destructive actions of herders on agroforestry farmers’ crops are some of the myriad challenges threatening rural people’s livelihoods. This study was carried out to evaluate the effects of open cattle grazing on the activities of agroforestry farmers in Ekiti State. A multistage random sampling technique was used for sampling the respondents in the study area. One hundred and twenty pre-tested questionnaires were administered to respondents for collection of data. Information obtained from the study revealed that the majority of the respondents are married (80.8 %), male (80 %). The study revealed that 32.5 % of the respondents are above 50 years old with 40 % operating farm size of 1-5 hectares acquired through inheritance (83.3 %). Crops such as cassava, maize, yam and cocoyam are popularly grown in the study area. Provision of food (29.4 %) and income generation (25.2%) are the major contributions of agroforestry to respondents’ livelihood in the study area, while browsing (27.7 %), trampling (26.2 %) and uprooting (26.2 %) were the major damages caused by herders’ cattle to farmers' crops. Verbal warning (46.2 %) was the major measure adopted by the respondents to control herdsmen incursion into their farm while registration of herdsmen with the government ranked first (1^st) among the suggested strategies to control herders’ activities. It was recommended that anti-grazing offices should be established in every local government for prompt report of any possible attack from the herdsmen.