Impact of Damage on Rice crop by the Red-billed Quelea (Quelea quelea) on the Livelihood of Farmers in Hadejia-Nguru Wetlands of Northern Nigeria

Abstract

The Hadejia-Nguru wetlands supports a population of over 1.5 million people who relies on the basin for their livelihoods through farming, fishing and cattle rearing. One of the challenges facing farmers in the basin is the incidence of Red-billed quelea which destroy rice fields and other grains such as millet and corn. Quelea is a type of African weaver bird which is granivous and migratory and moves in large flocks and cause a lot of destruction to rice farmers.  A single flock can number up to a million birds and a single bird can consume an average of 18 grams of grain per day. A flock of two million birds can eat up to 50 tons of grain per day. This causes rural hardship and difficulty to rural farmers culminating in hunger and famine in some cases. This paper highlights the impact of rice damage by Red-billed Quelea on the livelihood of farmers in the study area. Using Multi stage sampling 11 villages were selected from the study area and using stratified and random sampling 411 farmers and fishermen were selected from the villages based on their populations. Questions asked includes demographic information, information on Red-billed Quelea, Typha latifolia, Rice farming and damage on rice crop by birds. Result of the interview showed that majority of the inhabitants of the wetland are farmers occupying 90.51 % and 9.49% are fishermen.  About 90.51% of the population are married with only 9.49% as singles. 74.21% responded that pests are the major problem of the farmers and 25.79% responded that drought and flooding are the major problem. Result also showed that birds are the major pest with 86.86% response and 10.70% responded that insects are the major pest,2.44% responded that rodents are the major pest.  94.89% responded that Red billed Quelea is the most damaging pest and 5.11% responded that other bird species account for the damage. The damaging stage of Quelea is the milking stage as responded by 91.97% and8.03% responded that the damage occurs during panicle initiation stage.