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Abstract:
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"This work discusses the transition in the politics and economics of irrigation farming in the Jos area of Plateau state, Nigeria. Examining the former and latter constructions of ownership, use, commerce and authority of land and products of obtained from it. The advent of commercial dry season farming called 'fadama' or 'lambu' in the Plateau area around the 1980's produced a new group of temporary migrants. Itinerant farmers from the far north, who took advantage of the deserted mining ponds in and around Jos, the capital of Plateau state in Central Nigeria. This development saw the periodical use by the mainly Hausa farmers from the far north, of land in the dry season, slowly building a community in consonance with a few settled Fulani. The Fulani's are generally known to be nomads, but in recent years, many have settled mainly in the outskirts of the metropolis or in villages all over the north. A new landlord-tenant relationship emerged, which saw the 'tenants' relating well with their hosts, the autochthonous 'land owners' who initially were quite oblivious of this new mode of irrigation, This relationship lasted until the 1990's when skirmishes and emerging interests of the autochthons groups brought conflict between the two groups."
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