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 Printable version |
Change of practices by settling transhumant Mbororo farmers in Northern Cameroon |
Cahiers Agricultures. Volume 19, Number 1, 60-7, janvier-février 2010, Étude originale
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 Résumé
Texte intégral
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Author(s) : Liba’a Natali Kossoumna, Patrick Dugué, Emmanuel Torquebiau |
Summary : In Northern Cameroon, human population growth leads to increased competition for the same natural resources between nomadic livestock breeders (pastoralists) and crop farmers. While decision-makers would prefer pastoralists to settle and give up nomadism and transhumance, what is observed is a partial settling process with permanent dwellings and crop fields but with the persistence of seasonal practices of transhumance for a large part of the animals. The main reason behind this semi-settlement process is of both a social and economic nature: Pastoralists villages are given an official status by the authorities, thus engendering requests for public infrastructures such as schools and boreholes as well as claims for tenure rights. Seasonal transhumance for part of the herds renders possible sustainable temporal and spatial use of fodder resources and solves land availability problems. From the economic point of view, this situation opens market opportunities for pastoralists. Cereal and milk yields are good and the access to local markets contributes to the good performance of those semi-settled production systems. Transhumance is a key factor in their sustainability and is conditioned by the availability of grazing lands beyond settling areas. |
Keywords : animal resources, natural resources and environment |
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