Goats help power the engine of recovery for women in northeastern Nigeria
The Kanyi (a local name for a Sahel breed of goat), has long been the preferred breed among women herders of the Lake Chad Basin. However, due to a nine-year long insurgency, goat ownership in northeastern Nigeria has declined significantly.
© FAO
As part of a mission to invigorate goat herding among cash-strapped and food-insecure women, FAO is distributing more than 57 000 Kanyi goats to about 14 500 families in 2018, with a particular focus on internally displaced women, residents of host communities and women who have recently returned to their original communities.
“FAO’s livestock programme is geared to helping women to better access economic opportunities and begin the recovery process,” said Suffyan Koroma, FAO Representative in Nigeria.
For Falmata Sabsuwa, for example, the goats will enable her to buy shoes for her children and pay their school fees. Her family has been living in the Government Science Secondary School (GSSS) camp for Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) for the last two months, after moving from the nearby General Hospital IDP Camp. “I wanted to start keeping animals again,” said Fatima. “But I didn’t know where I would find the first naira to buy even one.” This is the first time Fatima has had an opportunity to re-start her herd. “It will bring a very good profit for me and my family.”
About 40 000 goats have already been distributed to 10 100 households across IDP camps and host communities in Adamawa, Borno and Yobe States. The animals will help boost the production of milk, consumed traditionally by children and lactating women. And, once the herds are established, they will also provide meat for domestic consumption and marketing.
Buluma Shettima, whose entire village of 60 people recently moved to the GSSS IDP Camp, referred to the initiative as “gult maro mowonjimba,” a Kanuri expression meaning “too good to be described by words.”
“The goats are helping our people to start over,” Buluma added.