Farming Practices and Desertification in the Sudan-Sahel Region: A Case Study of Zamfara State, Nigeria

Desertification in the Sudan Sahel has, repeatedly, been reported to be a serious environmental condition afflicting the peoples of the region. Farming has also, repeatedly, been fingered among the causal agents. Incidentally, farming is the main stay of the people. The encroaching desertification has severely affected their livelihood with calls been made for a review of their farming practices. But empirical evidence is required to conclusively establish that the desertification expansion which has resulted in poor farm results, hunger, poverty and death was indeed brought about by farm practices in place. Therefore, to ameliorate the sufferings of the people, it is necessary to, empirically, determine to what extent farming practices contributed to desertification and what could be done about it. Zamfara state, which shares the same environmental, religious and, to a large extent cultural characteristics, was randomly picked from among Nigeria’s eleven front line states for the study. Applying Taro Yamen’s formula, 500 farmers on whom were administered structured questionnaire, were selected for the exercise. Using SPSS, regression analyses were applied to test the hypothesis: “there is no significant relationship between desertification and farming practices in the area.” At p = 0.046, the regression analysis revealed that farming practices have significant effect on the desertification process. We, therefore, concluded that farming practices aggravated desertification. To reverse the situation, recommendations were made. Keywords: Desertification, Climate Change, Farm Practices, Sudan Sahel, Nigeria, Zamfara State DOI: 10.7176/JEES/13-9-02 Publication date: November 30 th 2023