Sauri, Kenya
Dertu, Kenya
Koraro, Ethiopia
Pampaida, Nigeria
Ikaram, Nigeria
Bonsaaso, Ghana
Mayange, Rwanda
Mwandama, Malawi
Potou, Senegal
Tiby, Mali
Toya, Mali
Mbola, Tanzania
Ruhiira, Uganda
Pampaida, Nigeria
Pampaida: 1 Millennium Village | 5,000 residents
Overview - Millennium Villages Highlights - Village Characteristics
OVERVIEW
Pampaida is located in the northern Nigerian state of Kaduna. The community is comprised of 28 settlements with an estimated population of 5,000 residents. Villagers' livelihoods are mainly based on pastoralism and small-scale agriculture. Pampaida represents the agroforestry parkland system, characterized by crops and trees with a strong presence of livestock.
The community is predominantly made up of Hausa's and Fulanis. The Hausas are mainly farmers while the Fulanis are cattle raisers. Sixty percent of the population is Muslim and the rest is Christian. Both groups have co-existed peacefully for over a century.
Villagers practice a mixed cropping system, growing cereals (millet, tomatoes, onions, sorghum and maize) and raising cattle in the upland, rainfed areas. During the rainy season (June – September) the rivers spill over the banks, creating low-lying seasonally flooded areas which the villagers use to grow rice. Despite these methods, there is a yearly food shortage in Pampaida, which ranges from three months of hunger in a good year to five months of hunger in a drought year. Drought is frequent in this area, occurring every three to four years.
Pampaida lacks the basic infrastructure that is critical to development. The nearest market is about 15 km away. No source of electricity exists except for a few private generators. Firewood is the main source of energy which is becoming very scarce due to the high depletion rate of the vegetation.
MILLENNIUM VILLAGE HIGHLIGHTS
AGRICULTURE: Increase crop yields and decrease hunger
By planting with basic inputs such as fertilizer and improved seed, the villagers witnessed a quadrupling of their maize crop in 2006, the year in which interventions began. The average harvest size increased from 0.75 ton/ha to 3.5 ton/ha.
Farmers have also learned better storing, marketing and production techniques. The project was also able to help send 10 youths to the Leventis Foundation Nigeria Agricultural School (LFNAS) who are interested in learning forestry, crop production, livestock production, honey bee farming, small scale processing, home economics and farm management.
EDUCATION: Increase enrollment and improve quality
The project, in partnership with the villagers and the State Universal Basic Education Board (SUBEB), built two bocks of four classrooms to provide space for hundreds of children who are not in school. In addition, the project helped launch an education campaign that promoted sending children to school.
The results have been outstanding—800 children who have never been to school have since enrolled, representing an increase of 30 percent.
INFRASTRUCTURE HIGHLIGHTS
Key advancements in infrastructure have been made in Pamapaida, including the following:
* 10 boreholes have been constructed
* A local clinic been built
* A storage house for grain has been constructed
* The government has begun construction on a road which will lead 10 km into Pampaida
* Electrical poles are being erected to connect the community to the electricity grid
* A village vehicle has been purchased
VILLAGE CHARACTERISTICS
AGRICULTURE
Pampaida has been subjected to mass desertification and other forms of land degradation caused and accelerated by a range of interconnected factors: acute and wide-spread poverty, predisposition to frequent droughts, low and highly unpredictable rainfall patterns, very high temperatures, and pressure from human and livestock populations. Low soil nutrient levels (mainly nitrogen and phosphorus) and loss of organic matter are some of the most critical natural resource management problems facing the community.
EDUCATION
There are three primary schools in Pampaida but only one serves the full range of grades 1-6. All classrooms lack chairs, desks, textbooks, utensils and latrines.
HEALTH
There is a clinic 10 km away from the village, accessible only by an uneven dirt road. Bicycles and motorbikes are the means for transporting patients. This clinic has no drugs, beds, or skilled staff. Statistics are nonexistent. No doctor has visited the clinic in the last five years. There is a nurse and three attendants, but the clinic is rarely visited because of the poor quality of its services.
INFRASTRUCTURE
There is acute shortage of water starting from December till the onset of the raining season in late April/early May. During this period of shortage, children and women travel a distance of 1 km in search of water. Even though Pampaida is surrounded a network of streams and rivers, the run off is very fast and the water dries up immediately after the rains. The geomorphology does not support surface water because of its rocky nature.
