ISSN 2348-1218 (print) International Journal of Interdisciplinary Research and Innovations ISSN 2348-1226 (online) Vol. 10, Issue 4, pp: (1-11), Month: October 2022 - December 2022, Available at: www.researchpublish.com
Response of Local Communities to Open Cattle Grazing in Niger Delta, Nigeria Francis, Emmanuel1, Adesope, O. Martins2, Obute, C. Gordian3 1
Institute of Natural Resources, Environment and Sustainable Development, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Nigeria 2
Department of Agricultural Economics and Extension, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Nigeria 3
Department of Plant Science and Biotechnology, University of Port Harcourt, Port Harcourt, Nigeria ORCID ID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9192-8458 DOI: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.7162171
Published Date: 08-October-2022
Abstract: The study examined the response of local communities to open cattle grazing in Niger-Delta, Nigeria. The research was conducted in three study areas namely Rivers, Abia and Imo State. Surveys were used to incorporate the views of the respondents. Data were statistically analysed using IBM SPSS Statistics and simple descriptive statistical tools. Results from the study shows that the majority (64.77%) of the study participants were males with 35.23% females making up for 298 participants that undertook the survey. 32.21% participants were within the age grade of 26-35 years which constituted the majority. Over 50% of the respondents that participated in the survey had obtained at least a tertiary education. Majority (48.99%) of the participants were engaged in one form of business/ or trade. Responses showed that herders activities (87.9%) were noticed in all study areas and land fertility (96.3%) is the most affected by open cattle grazing. Major causes of open cattle grazing were identified to be illiteracy (48.9%), followed by beliefs (44.6%). About 62.1% of the respondents reacted that the do not foresee continuous open cattle grazing in the future. Ranching and building of kaals were recommended to arrest the herders-farmer crisis in Nigeria. Keywords: Open Cattle Grazing, Local Communities, Response, Niger-Delta.
1. INTRODUCTION Cattle and other livestock graze more than a quarter of the planet’s total land surface, making livestock grazing the most ubiquitous human activity on earth in land area used (Steinfeld et al., 2006, Robinson et al., 2014). In some regions of the world, overgrazing has indeed reduced the density and biomass of plant and animal species, reduced biodiversity, and altered ecological succession, nutrient cycles, and landscape heterogeneity (Kauffman and Pyke, 2001). Livestock grazing in natural ecosystems also results in changes in vegetation structure and composition (Stern et al., 2002). For instance, changes in vegetation composition from palatable grasses and sedges to less palatable forbs resulting from heavy grazing have been reported in northwest China (Sun et al., 2011), Libya (Zatout, 2014), North America (Bakker et al., 2003; Koerner and Collins, 2014), South Africa (Koerner and Collins, 2014) and Argentina (Cingolani et al., 2013). It has been observed that response of plant species richness varies according to grazing intensity. For example, in grassland ecosystem, Deng et al. (2014) reported that plant species richness increased with decreasing grazing intensity. The author observed the highest plant species richness at light and moderate grazing intensities. Random grazing patterns can lead to spatial heterogeneity in light availability, soil nutrient availability and vegetation community dynamics. This can reduce plant competition for environmental resources because the vegetation exists in patches (Bakker et al., 2003). A number of studies have found that open grazing can sometimes have positive effects on wildlife. In contrast to intensive crop production agriculture, grazing lands are also considered critical to conservation because they provide vital habitat for
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