ILEIA Newsletter • 1 nº 5 • August 1986
Herders associations
A cooperative development among nomadic herders in Niger
In this newsletter we cannot describe the agricultural problems of the semi-arid regions without mentioning the people who know the art of survival in these ecologically and economically marginal areas. Before me lies a huge book of 840 pages named "Pastoral development in Central Niger" by Jeremy Swift and Angelo Maliki. It describes a development project, the Niger Range and Livestock Project, made for 219,000 people, mainly Twaregs and WoDaaBe nomadic herders, pastoral FulBe and Tamasheq-speaking agropastoralists. Together with Hawsa farmers, they live in a 81,500-km2 project area in the centre of Niger. The project was formulated after the terrible drought of the early 1970's by the government of Niger and the United States' USAID.
In an abstract of' 25 pages that accompanies the main study, Jeremy Swift and Angelo Maliki tell that the two main causes of the failure of Sahelian livestock projects are the following:
1. "Livestock problems have largely been defined by western or local but western-trained, technicians in livestock ministries....." "The considerable body of knowledge accumulated by anthropologists and geographers on the functioning of West African pastoral societies has yet to find a substantial place in problem definition and project design". "They ( these technicians HC) systematically ignored the herdsmen's own considerable technical knowledge, their understanding of what is possible in their environment, and their own clearly articulated and consistent production objectives". "Other trends that are rarely reported in project documents is the fact that since the 1973 drought, there has been an increasing process of proletarianisation in the countryside, which particularly affected herders' families who are in many places being transformed from independent rural producers into cowboys herding other peoples’ animals on land they no longer control".
The cooperative development experiment
After two years of research and detailed discussions with herders about their problems and ideas for future development, the project did the first steps on the way to organize the herders' families in "associations". It was discovered that credit facilities could especially improve the situation. Several possible steps were, therefore, undertaken in cooperation with the associations. In a later stage, the associated herders themselves will have to come with proposals for further improvements of the situation.Organization of the herders' associations
An association is made up of between 15 and 30 families, i.e. from 100-200 persons. It corresponds to cohesive traditional social units, situated somewhere between, on one hand, the extended family and the camp, and on the other hand. the migratory group and lineage segment. The members of an association are usually kin who normally have close pastoral and economic relationships and who live together in the same dry season area, such as a valley or around the same well. and use the area's natural resources in common (membership is voluntary and is open to any family with the unanimous consent of the group's other members). To fight against monopolization of the association by an individual or by a single family, the office holders cannot stay longer than 3 consecutive terms of two years. The main positions in the association are: a president. section heads that are managers of the association's credit programmes. and technical advisors. The last are trained by government services and by the project in aspects such as:- human health
- animal production and health
- literacy
- pasture management
- well construction: maintenance and management
- crafts
Group credit scheme
For the great majority of the poor herders there was no source of credit. The need for additional animal capital is shown by the increasing number of production units, which are “share-herding” animals, entrusted by non-pastoral owners on very disadvantageous terms to the herders. That's why from the beginning of its life, an association is allocated a revolving credit fund of about 6000 us dollars, to encourage productive activities and to increase its own capacity for sustained economic growth. This revolving fund is divided into smaller sums according to the activities the association decide to undertake. The most important activities the first ten associations decided to undertake were as follows:- Cow Calf Herd (or reproductive female) Scheme: This scheme is intended to provide association members with a minimum of working capital to build up herds in ownership to a reasonable level of subsistence. That was necessary because most herders had lost their animals in the drought of the early 1970's and were forced to share herding or migrant labour. To carry out the programme of his section, the section head buys cows, camels or goats at a market. These animals belong to the association and are loaned to the poorest members according to the principle of traditional loans: the offspring are given to another member or sold.
- Growing out programme: In unfavourable situations, poor households are sometimes forced to sell one- or two-year-old animals at low prices and at bad times, in order to buy cereals and other essential goods. This is highly unfavourable for the herders, as in this situation herders carry the full risk of mortality during the first year (30% for cattle) but cannot take advantage of the rapidly increasing value of their animals in the following 3 to 4 years when the risk of mortality is less (5%) and labour costs of herding are low. The section head, responsible for "growing-out", buys these young male animals to provide the poor families with some cash. The cattle are not sold, however, but are distributed for herding among the members of the association.
- Short term credit (between 16-45 US dollars per family): This programme provides small loans to the members. This gives a herder family the chance to delay the sale of an animal for up to about a month in the expectation of better prices. Short term credit also enables women to buy palm fibres to make mats, or leather and ink to make leather goods.
- The Cereal Fund: Poor herder families especially depend on millet in the dry season since they have fewer animals and less milk. But in the dry season, cereal prices are high and animal prices are low. That's why the cereal fund was created, which enables the association to buy cereals in bulk when prices are low, store them under members' control, and sell them to members when they are most needed.
To us it is not clear if the project can be called successful, as the herder association programme is still very recent. Also some changes in project policy were carried through which were reason to rename the project in 'Integrated Livestock Production Project'. In the ODI Pastoral Network Papers 19b, 19c and 21b several comments are given on the project, which are positive as well as negative. In anyway, we think the project has some really promising aspects as it tries to combine 'technical' with social science and it demonstrates the intention to take seriously the traditional organisation and knowledge of the people themselves. Hopefully, the project leaves enough flexibility for the associated herders to formulate their own needs and projects. Of course this project doesn't solve all the problems of the nomadic herders and their surroundings.
But by taking the people's own knowledge and strategies as the basis, probably the project reinforces the creation of adaptive strategies to overcome these problems in which the people themselves are involved. Unfortunately, the project documents do not describe their research methodology, which we regret. But people who would like to have more information, please write to ILEIA, or:
Jeremy Swift
Inst. of Development Studies, Sussex University
Brighton BN1 9RE, United Kingdom
or:
B. Angela Maliki
Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales
54, Boulevard Raspail, 75270 Paris 6, France
or:
Gregory Perrier
Project Elevage Integre
B.P. 85, Tahoua, Niger
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