Renewing Herds through Livestock Trades: Changes in Cattle Keeping under Population Pressure in the Mbozi Plateau, Tanzania

Abstract

In the semi-arid areas of Africa and surrounding areas, livestock have brought various benefits to agricultural people. However, population growth has caused land use competition between crop fields and livestock pastures. This paper argues how this competition was mitigated by the Nyiha farmers in the Mbozi Plateau, Tanzania. By the end of the 1970s crop fields covered almost all the area, except seasonal wetlands, and farmers’ cattle herd size shrank. The cultural significance that the cattle carried for social interactions diminished, such as for bridewealth, but cattle for draft power remains essential in agriculture. Gradually the farmers shifted to raising smaller herds in which bulls and oxen comprised the majority, which in turn brought difficulty for renewing the herds. However, transactions with cattle traders provided a solution: the farmers could obtain young cattle from traders in exchange for old bulls and oxen to be consumed as meat. This way, the farmers have sustained their agricultural system that depends largely on cattle draft power under the dense population pressure.