Page:Niger Delta Ecosystems- the ERA Handbook, 1998.djvu/138

The Resources of the Niger Delta: Agriculture restoration in the fallow period because land is rapidly re-colonised by forest species (including micro-fauna) from the surrounding secondary and primary forest so that leached nutrients are brought back to the surface by deep rooting trees, to be maintained by rapidly developing humus (the basic chemical building blocks of which are carbon, brought into the system by photosynthesis). Moreover, the very fact that the farms are mere islands in a sea of healthy vegetation checks the tendency of soil exposed and damaged by farming (i.e. because of the decline in humus content) to be eroded by rain, and the worst that can happen is that soil is removed to neighbouring land where healthy vegetation holds it, and it is not lost to the ecosystem.

Thus shifting agriculture in pre-modern times can be honestly described as agroforestry.

Compound and Homestead Farming in Ogoni

Compound farming, around houses in the village of Botam (Tai Local Government) studied by PNI/ERA in 1993/94, benefits from household manure which is often quite deliberate: refuse being piled around yams and plantains. A soil profile through a compound garden showed nearly a metre of black humus-rich soil above a well structured sandy-loam (this was on the edge of the Botem-Tai village square - an area that may have been a compound for 80 to 90 years). Also there are many clumps of plantains in villages that stand high above the general ground level on heaps of humus rich soil.

A feature of Botem-Tai, typical of compound agriculture, is the Loos (pronounced as in hello). A Loo is a homestead built away from the village by someone who is exploiting a resource: he may be a palm-wine tapper, a farmer, a hunter, a fisherman, a canoe builder or a sawyer. Typically Loos are sited beside rivers, isolated from the village and sometimes cut off in the wet season (the original settlements in the district may have started as loos). 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. This points to a possible way of increasing agricultural production on small bits of land while at the same time increasing tree cover and improving soil conditions.

Tree crops in compounds include: Oil Palm, Coconut Palm, Raffia Palm, Mango, Breadfruit, Jackfruit, Citrus, African Pear (Dacryodes edulis), Avocado, Cashew, Papaya, Cocoa, Guava, Plantain, Banana, Kola Nut, Bush Mango (Irvingia gabonensis), and Bush Pepper (?). Other crops include: Pineapple, Alligator Pepper (related to the gingers and cardamoms in the Zingiber family), Yams, Cocoyams, Mammy Yams, Cassava, Cow Pea, Pepper (Capsicum), Garden Egg, Bitter leaf, Hibiscus, Lemon Grass, Sweet Potato and Fluted Pumpkin. Livestock include goats, chickens and ducks. A typical compound is less than 1000 m² and may have 10 people living in it.

Mixed Plantations Around Ilesha

Although this is not in the Niger Delta, it is a good example of what is going on throughout the LEM ecozones of Nigeria. Typical of the Ilesha region are the mixed Kola (Cola nitida and C. acuminota) and Cocoa plantations, which give good returns to their owners. 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 136