%0 Journal Article
%T Small-scale Farmer¡¯s Perception on the Impact of Grazing Livestock Animals on Crop Production in Abuja, Nigeria
%A Ajah Julius
%J Trends in Agricultural Economics
%D 2012
%I 
%X The production of crops and livestock animals in Nigeria is not mutually exclusive hence a study was conducted to determine small-scale crop farmers¡¯ perception of the impact of grazing livestock animals like cattle, goat, sheep and domestic fowls on crop production in Abuja, Nigeria. A multi-stage technique was adopted for sample selection while semi-structured questionnaires were used for data collection. A total of 384 small-scale crop farmers were randomly interviewed in four agricultural zones-central, eastern, northern and western. Data were analyzed using two-way factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA) and mean separation was done at 5% probability level. Results revealed that there was significant difference (p<0.01) in the perceived impact of the grazing livestock animals on crop production. The mean responses indicated that the impact of cattle (2.67a) on crop production was perceived to be serious and it was significantly higher than the impacts of goat (1.92b), sheep (1.78c) and domestic fowls (1.28d). The implication of this is that cattle were the most destructive livestock animals while domestic fowls were the least. At the zonal level, result revealed that the crop farmers in the eastern and western agricultural zones of Abuja felt the impacts of the grazing animals more than crop farmers in the other two zones. Based on the results, the paper recommended that government should map out grazing routes and/or educate and encourage the livestock farmers to adopt intensive system of management to minimize clashes and the damages that occur.
%K impact of grazing
%K livestock animals
%K small-scale farmers
%K Crop farmers
%K pastoral-farmer conflict
%U http://docsdrive.com/pdfs/ansinet/tae/2012/115-123.pdf