70年代以降のナイジェリア農村における農業経営の変化

エビヤ村の事例を通して

抄録

The Nigerian economy has experienced uncommon up-and-down during last decades; “oil-boom” in 1970s and “oil-doom” in 1980s. This sharp fluctuations in economy had very strong influence even in rural society. This paper aims to show current agricultural production system which has experienced rapid economic change since 1970. Field survey was carried out in 1989 at an Igbira village called Ebiya which is located about 20km east of Okene, Kwara state.
At the field survey, the authors laid stress on two points. One is about agricultural production system which was done by questionnaire, and the other is about land use pattern for which the authors had measured the whole farm land of two households. The results of field survey can be summarized as follows.
1) Various crops, both root crops and cereals, are cultivated in Ebiya village, however, cassava has become the most important crop as a cash crop.
2) For land clearance and weeding, farmers are employing agricultural labor. On the contrary, traditional mutual-help-type of work has only little importance in farming.
3) Cultivated land of the two households are about 1.8 ha in extent, which are not so large even compared with the case of southern Nigeria. In both households, househeads and their sons play important role in farming.
4) There are various type of cropping, namely, cropping patterns range from single cropping to four crops combination. But cassava is planted in the largest area. The percentage of area planted cassava to total cultivated land today seems to be much higher than that of 1960s.
5) Basic pattern of annual agricultural work has not changed too much. Planting starts at the beginning of rainy season and harvesting work is done at the end of rainy season for almost all crops. However, the case of cassava is peculiar one. It is planted and harvested in various seasons.
Agricultural production system and cultivation system in Ebiya village can be considered to have experienced great change under the “oil-boom” in 1970s. That is to say, increased outflow of young labor from villages caused heavy dependence on employed labor in agricultural work. And increase in cultivation of cassava means that farmers have a tendency to adopt labor-extensive farming. As a result of it, cultivation system has also changed. These trends which have been strengthened in 1970s seem to continue even by the end of 1980s.