Crop farming was found to be the primary occupation
of the people as 81-94% of the respondents
were engaged in crop-livestock farming. Mode average
of households’ farm size was 0.8 ha which
ranged between 0.4 and 4.9 ha. Farmers engaged in
mixed farming principally for diversification against
possible risks and to maximize profit. Animal traction
was not recorded possibly because of the rainforest
location with strong-rooted trees and shrubs.
Cultivation was with human labour using hoes and
cutlasses. The main crops grown were maize and
cassava. In addition to cultivating food crops, some
also planted cash crops like cocoa, oil palm, colanuts.
Commonly raised animals were goats, sheep and
chicken. Mean livestock number per household is
presented in Table 1. Livestock numbers were low
and ranged from one to four goats and one to three
sheep per household. Most households kept more
goats than sheep. Level of input from farmers for
livestock production was low and according to Ademosun
(1988) little attention is paid to adequate
feeding and health of the animals. The study showed
that a variety of household wastes and crop residues
were available (Tables 2 and 3). Earlier reports by
Alhassan (1986) and Scar (1987) indicated similar
findings for the Northern States of Nigeria. The
common residues were those from cassava, maize,
sorghum, rice, yam, and cowpea. These were used to
varying extents but, in some cases, burnt or left
unutilized on the field (Table 2). Seventy percent of
the cassava tuber peels were used as livestock feed.
Very little effort was made to carry stovers of maize,
rice and sorghum for animal feeding due to the
distance between farms and homestead. However,
maize and sorghum stovers play a major part in
ruminant feeding in the North (Alhassan et al., 1983;
Alhassan, 1986). About 40% of the respondents used