Sedentary Pastoralists also Growing Crops:
Pressure State Response Indicators

The encroachment of cultivation onto land traditionally held and grazed by pastoralists has put pastoralists in the position of having to use only increasingly marginal and unproductive land. | Pressure State Response

Besides the cultural damage involved in forcibly settling pastoralists, small scale agriculture or urban unemployment does not necessarily offer a solution to poverty and lack of access to resources. Pastoralists normally exist on land which is too fragile or too climatically variable to be intensively used. Sedentarisation does not necessarily entail any increase in production or enhanced food security; but may have the effect of shifting underemployment, poverty and hunger to other regions. In some areas a growing urban population results in an increased demand for livestock, whilst at the same time the labour force in rural areas decreases, and depopulation of areas suitable for pastoralism decreases their producive value.

Pressure

Pressures result from a combination of factors, including increased human population, increased numbers of livestock and environmental change (degradation). Results of this process include :

- Decline in available pasture land as a result of increased populations, in some cases combined with land degradation
- Increased competition for available pasture land - forcing additional crop cultivation in areas that have low or unreliable rainfall, or are otherwise unsuited for cultivation
- Increased competition for water resources, possibly through an unsustainable use of boreholes for water supply - leading to decreased water tables and drying up of wells and ponds
- Increased competition for access to land suitable for cultivation of crops - resulting in cultivation on marginal land and resource-based conflicts that may exacerbate existing tensions

In addition, failures in or an absence of the land use planning process may also exacerbate the above trends, tending making the situation worse for pastoralist groups:

- Suitable areas for livestock grazing may be separated from areas designed for crop cultivation
- There is sub-optimal use of manure in the pastoral zone
- Shortage of manure in the cropping zone
- Accelerated "soil mining" and soil erosion, particularly in the cropping zone.

Areas suitable for crop cultivation are often at a distance, under control of other social groups or already occupied by crop farmers. As a result (former) pastoralists often settle and grow crops in areas not optimal for crop cultivation: zones with low and irregular rainfall or in areas with poor soil fertility. Poor soil fertility can be compensated by manure from livestock when still enough animals are around, but irregular rainfall can easily result in crop failures.

Pressures can therefore be characterised by:

- Increasing populations in traditionally pastoralist areas
- Changing ratio of livestock numbers per person
- Increasing reliance by pastoralist groups on cultivated crops
- Increased need for additional sources of water, e.g. pressures to construct more boreholes
- Increasing conflict or tension over available resources, especially access to water and access to land suitable for crop cultivation
- Increased conversion of and cultivation on land that is marginal for crops

State

In general former pastoralists grow food crops for home consumption. The areas cultivated are relatively small and the livestock / cropland ratio is still high. Along the boarders of ponds, lakes and rivers they may cultivate local vegetables and tuber crops on protected fields, in some cases even by making use of irrigation.

In response to an increasing demand and competition for water, new water sources are created for people as well as for livestock. However, any permanent water source will stimulate the settling of people and a more intensive exploitation of the surrounding environment, like wood harvesting and crop cultivation. These direct implications are often not fully considered in land use planning and permanent water sources for livestock and pastoralists, are still created in environments with a very limited carrying capacity for human population and with limited potential for crop cultivation.

State can therefore be characterised by:

- Change in population numbers in pastoralist areas
- Change in productivity of livestock systems in pastoralist areas
- Demand by pastoralist groups for increased access to infrastruture and services
- Land use conflicts and tensions

Response

Former pastoralists and pastoralists often belong to the same social groups. Theoretically they can easily arrange an input of manure deposed by herds on transhumance and so maintain soil fertility of cropland. Yields may still vary largely from year to year due to irregular rainfall, but in this way soil fertility is not threatened. They could increase yields if they could settle in areas with a more reliable rainfall and on land with better soil characteristics for crop cultivation. However, more for political than other reasons, current responses and policies are often in the opposite direction:

- creation of permanent water sources in dry areas to keep livestock and (former) pastoralists away from areas designed for crop cultivation.
- creation of fixed service facilities (schools, health centres etc.) in pastoral zones.

The overall environmental, economic and social costs of such policies can be high:

- locally a severe overexploitation of a fragile tree vegetation in dry zones;
- sub optimal use of available manure
- average low returns from manure in dry zone due to irregular rainfall
- declining yields in cropping zone because of lack of manure;
- missed opportunities to alleviate rural poverty
- more regular income from crop cultivation by (former) pastoralists
- more sustainable crop cultivation in cropping zone

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