Prospects for the Development of Cattle Production on Mixed Farms in the Pastoral Zone of Nigeria: A Summary

Abstract

The paper is based on the results of a survey conducted by the author in 1976/77 among forty-five households in the Azawak region of Niger. The sample covered three populations: Haussa farmers and traders, Tuareg traders and wage laborers, and semi-nomadic Tuareg. Focusing on the latter group, a linear programming model of grain and livestock production is formulated. the analysis suggests that with the constraints imposed by consumption requiarements and labor availability, semi-nomadic Tuareg are currently producing at optimal or near-optimal levels, as determined by value-maximizing behavior. Sensitivity analyses indicate that marginal changes in technologies and prices will have only a minor impact on the desirability of cattle production and are unlikely to reduce the area planted to grain. Structural reforms in grain markets and property law are required to induce a shift into cattle production by any of the populations covered by the survey.