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Strategies For Involving Rural Farmers In Agricultural Biodiversity Conservation In Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria
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species and ecosystem upon which human survival depend are still poorly
known.d. Conservation activities by most organization s have had to
focus too narrowly.Journal of Agriculture and Veterinary Sciences Volume
2, December 2010105e. Institutions assigned responsibility for creating
awareness on the need forconservation among rural farmers has lacked
sufficient resources to do the job.On insufficient value being given to
agro-resources in the national and private developmentobjectives,
McNeely et al pointed out that maintaining a nation’s agro-agricultural
diversity isintegral to maintaining its agricultural wealth, but the
importance of species and ecosystem isseldom sufficiently considered in
the formulation of national development policies. Ruralfarmers do not
consciously consider the value of species and ecosystems in their
farmpractices. Development tends to emphasize short-term exploitation to
earn income or foreignexchange rather than long-term sustainable
utilization of agricultural resources. Farmersfocused on their expressed
immediate needs and tend to seek relatively short-term returnson their
investments. Uncontrolled use of agricultural resources by farmers
contributes tospecie extinction and loss of agricultural biodiversity.
McNeely et al also pointed out thatmost conservation efforts made by the
farmers have addressed a small species such asruminants, monogastrics,
poultry, major species of plants or certain tree species. Farmerslack
ability conserve if the conservation efforts are poorly paid. Besides,
those responsible forcreating awareness opportunities for advancement,
lack specialized training and have lowprestige, lack sufficient
equipment and managerial capacity. These ultimately affect
theconservation efforts of the rural farmers.Shepherd (2002) blames the
poor conservation disposition of the rural farmers on tenure andland use
changes. He noted that one of the facts which emerge of recent in the
conservationcircle is the tremendous paucity of formal forester
knowledge about the conservation offorest-based agro-resources. Set
against this knowledge, one finds the imposition ofEuropean concept of
property and land tenure, with disastrous effect. The most importantgap
was the failure to understand the Swidden fallowing system which had
used thelandscape sustainably for some years now. swidden fallowing is
coming to an end and moremarginal lands are farmed with accompanying
destruction of bush areas. Each householdhead now tries to spread his
bets by sowing over as wide and varied an area as possible withthe
result that conservation practices such as manuring, intensive sowing
and weeding,planned fallowing and water conservation, have been replaced
by quick easy farming(Thompson, Feeny, and Oakerson, 2006).Indirectly
related to this is the land use changes relating to economic change and
the loss ofauthority of elders in the traditional farming community.
Thompson el al (2006) noted thatthe introduction of plantation crops
such as oil palm, cocoa and rubber as major economiccrops has a negative
effect on other many areas with attendant loss of agro-ecosystem
andagrobiodiversity. He also said that in some local communities the
authorities of the clanelders who were originally solely responsible for
livestock and agro-resource management, isbeing eroded by modern
education for the young and the promulgation of Land Use Acts bythe
government. Pointing out the effect of this on conservation effort, he
said that, theStrategies for Involving Rural Farmers in Agricultural
BiodiversityConservation in Akwa Ibom State, NigeriaCamilus Bassey
Ben106weakened position of the elders makes the conservation of
agro-resources through theinstitution of sacred groves no longer
tenable.Another factor which has tremendous adverse influence on the
ability of the rural farmer’sconservation is unattended population
growth. Nigerian Environmental Study/Action Team(NEST), (2001) rightly
argued that a finite world can support only a finite population. Under
agiven socio-economic system and technology, there is an upper limit to
the number of peoplewhich land area can support. As long as the number
of people is below this critical value theirdemand for agricultural
land, grazing land and food at least in theory can be met without
theenvironment being degraded or destroyed by population pressure,
However, if the criticalpopulation density is exceeded, these human
demands translate into excessive pressure onthe land and agro-resource,
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