Abstract
The broader ecological and social contexts within which livestock husbandry of Sudano-Sahelian West Africa operates have changed significantly over the past thirty years. This study concerns how: (1) these broader trends have affected the quantity and quality of labor investments into livestock herding; and (2) the ecological and animal nutritional implications of observed variation in labor investments into herding. The study was conducted in a 500 km2 area of western Niger using a combination of qualitative interviews of herders and herd managers, household composition surveys, herd composition monitoring, grazing management monitoring and georeferenced vegetation and livestock grazing itinerary data. Statistical analyses were performed using a two-staged approach: (1) analysis of the factors affecting the allocation of labor to herding at the level of the managing household; and (2) analysis of the effect of herd characteristics, season, microgeography and herders’ social position on herders’ effort and the nutritional and ecological impacts of these efforts. The results of these analyses support the conclusion that the changing regional context of livestock husbandry leads to a reduction in labor (quantity and quality) investment or an “extensification” of herding with significant implications for livestock productivity and the environment.
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Notes
For example, there is a long-term distinction between noble FulBe of the town and herding FulBe of the bush within FulBe society. Town FulBe were often large owners of livestock herded for them by FulBe of the bush.
While such cases are increasing, significant knowledge and social network barriers exist for those outside of specialist groups (Grayzel 1990).
While entrustment contracts vary from place to place, they are generally interpreted as revocable gifts (cementing friendship ties etc.) but where the owner retains the right to sell or take back an entrusted animal and the manager retains right to some portion of the milk produced by entrusted animals. Entrustments are generally made for an indefinite period of time and are much more common for cattle than small stock. Livestock loans are most typically made among members of specialist herding groups. A common FulBe term for livestock loan is haba nai which is typically a loan of a young female animal which remains in the manager’s herd through the first one to three births with some portion of the offspring retained in his herd.
The Zerma have also been referred to in the literature as Zarma and Djerma. The FulBe have been referred to as Peul, Peulh, Fulani, and Fula.
Typically, at least two herders are necessary to travel with mobile herds to allow for the necessity of herding and searching for lost animals at the same time. Such labor costs are often reduced through confiding animals to others or merging more than one herd together while on transhumance.
Please note that “distance of the itinerary” is only an estimate calculated by measuring the sum of the distances between the centroids of the succession of land units defining a grazing itinerary. While not the true distance covered while grazing, it is assumed here that the sum of inter-centroid distances is positively correlated with the true distance. Since distance can only be calculated in this way for “complete” itineraries, “incomplete” itineraries were excluded from the regression analysis.
The fact that FAT does not include browse from trees and shrubs may lead to an underestimation of the vegetation available to browsing species like goats.
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Acknowledgements
This research was primarily funded by the International Livestock Research Institute. In addition, Turner received support from the Graduate School of the University of Wisconsin and the Rockefeller Foundation. We thank Amadou Sodja, Oumarou Moumouni, Soumana Amadou, and Amadou Kalilou for assistance in data collection. We are indebted to the farmers and herders of the study area, whose patience and participation greatly improved the quality of the research.
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Turner, M.D., Hiernaux, P. Changing Access to Labor, Pastures, and Knowledge: The Extensification of Grazing Management in Sudano-Sahelian West Africa. Hum Ecol 36, 59–80 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-007-9149-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10745-007-9149-y