Outcome Analysis Report – Nigeria – July 2014

The five livelihood zones are primarily agricultural supporting a wide variety of rain-fed crops suited to drylands areas including millet, sorghum, maize, rice, cowpeas, groundnuts, sesame, cotton as well as (increasingly) soybeans. Rain-fed agriculture is carried out during the single rainy season which runs from April/May to October. The peak months of rainfall are June to August. In the dry season, food crops and market vegetables are grown on low lying river flood plains (i.e., fadama) either through irrigation or flood retreat agriculture. The main period of harvest is from September to November. The dry-season harvest is March. In all five zones, livestock production supplements agriculture.

The Northwest region accommodates two wide belts of dominant staple cereals, millet and sorghum, that grade into each other via varying mixes. The other common associated cash crops that further distinguish the local economy are cowpeas, which are grown in surplus; groundnuts; cotton; and sesame. The NW Millet, Cowpeas and Groundnuts LZ (MCG) and the NW Sorghum, Cowpeas and Groundnuts LZ (SCG) are a very general mix of food and cash crops, with associated husbandry of sheep, goats, and cattle. These areas are at the heart of the groundnut cultivation for which northern Nigeria used to be particularly known. The longstanding cash crops of the NW Cotton, Groundnuts, and Mixed Cereals LZ (CGC) are groundnuts, cotton and soya beans. Rain-fed crops are sorghum, millet, rice and maize.