A preliminary survey on the use of animal power in agricultural operationsin Adamawa state, Nigeria

The study was conducted in Adamawa state, north-eastern Nigeria. One hundre d and twenty-six farmers who used animal power for agricultural operations were interviewed. All the farmers used bulls for draught work. Ninety-six p er cent of the farmers owned only one pair of bulls, while 4% had two pairs . Only ridging, weeding and transportation were undertaken using bulls. Abo ut 81% of the farmers used their draught animals for ridging, 18% for weedi ng, and 1% used them for transport. Ridging and weeding were carried out us ing the same implement, the mouldboard ridger. About 60% of these were fact ory-made, while the rest were made by local artisans. Carts were manufactur ed locally from wood. Working periods of draught animals ranged from four t o six hours daily, and three to five months annually, with most farmers (71 %) covering 0.6-1 ha/day. The area cultivated by individual farmers in each cropping season varied between two and six hectares. Draught animal owners derived income from renting them out to other farmers at a rate of N500 to N1000 per hectare. There were no complaints about the care and management of draught animals by farmers. The study suggests the need to look into the possibility of diversifying animal power utilization in the state.