Agroforestry Practices And Their Potential Contributions To Soil Fertility And Food Production In Katsina State

ABSTRACT

Unsustainable forest land use practices have resulted in land degradation in

the northern part of Nigeria leading to low crop yield. Agroforestry is a viable

option for reversing dwindling crop yields through proper soil management

practices. There is notably no sufficient published information on the

contributions of agroforestry to food production in Katsina State. The practices

of agroforestry and its potential to slow down the pace of soil degradation and

boost food production in Katsina State was therefore investigated.

Multistage stratified sampling was used to select respondents for the study.

Three Local Government Areas (LGAs) were randomly selected from each of the

agro-ecological zones (Sahel, Sudan and Guinea) of Katsina State. Within each

of the selected LGAs, one community was randomly selected and forty

respondents were randomly sampled from each community. Using structured

questionnaire, information was sought on the socio-economic and demographic

characteristics of respondents, Agroforestry Practices (AP), attitude to AP,

information sources on AP and AP perceived benefits. Chemical characteristics

of soil samples from agroforestry and non-agroforestry plots of respondents in

the three zones were also determined using standard methods. Data were

analysed using descriptive statistics, Chi-square and ANOVA at p = 0.05.

Most of the respondents (96.3%) were married, 82.5% were male and 50.0%

were between 30 and 49 years of age. Their primary occupation was mostly

farming (66.1%) while modal annual farm size was 1 – 2 hectares. Means of

land acquisition was more by inheritance (50.8%) and 33.1% of the

respondents made an annual income of between N30,000.00 – 40,000.00. The

major farm enterprises were food crop production (74.1%), livestock (5.2%),

tree crops (0.6%) and various combinations of these (19.0%). Multipurpose

trees on farmland (79.2±11.1%), windbreaks (50.0±13.3%), woodlots

(49.7±3.9%), improved fallow in shifting cultivation (32.2±26.3%) and home

gardens (24.7±6.9%) were the common AP by the respondents. Benefits of AP to

the respondents included preservation of the environment (98.5%), provision of

fruits and leaves (98.3%), improvement of soil fertility (97.5%), erosion control

(97.5%), improvement of farmers income (95.8%) and provision of fodder

(92.7%). Also, 93.9% of the respondents reported increased yield of arable

crops from a mixed tree and arable crop farm. Majority of the respondents

(70.3%) identified scanty rainfall, land shortage and inadequate labour as

problems while 12.8%, 4.7% and 4.4% respectively identified each of the

problems as limiting AP. Although significant variation was observed in AP in

the zones, sources of information significantly impacted adoption of AP in

Sahel and Sudan but not in Guinea savanna zone. Significant variation was

observed in soil pH, total nitrogen, Mg2+, K+ and Na+ between agro-forestry and

non agro-forestry plots with soil nutrient and organic matter content skewing

in favour of agroforestry plots.

Agroforestry practices enrich the soil with important nutrients and prevent soil

erosion. The adoption of multipurpose trees on farmland in Katsina state will

help in preventing environmental degradation, desertification and enhance food

crop production.