Beyond the Harvest: The Spiritual and Strategic Wisdom of Ibibio Farmers
Before tractors and fertilisers, Ibibio farmers listened to the land. They practised shifting cultivation, intercropped to reduce risk, and reared livestock alongside crops. They offered sacrifices to deities of fertility and used firewood ash to protect their crops. Their farming wasn’t just practical; it was sacred. But today, much of this wisdom remains oral and undocumented. This article explores the spiritual and strategic depth of Ibibio farming traditions. Read on, and share what your elders taught you, before the knowledge disappears.
As one of the earliest inhabitants of Southern Nigeria, the Ibibio and sub-ethnic groups are not only a coastal people with interests in fishing. The majority of Ibibios exist inland, meaning that beyond being fishermen, we are also farmers. Our agricultural landscape is dominated by a variety of practices and traditional farming methods that have survived for thousands of years. Like in ancient civilisations, these farming methods and practices have spiritual dimensions, which include ritual performances and sacrifices to deities to ensure improved crop yield. Ancient Egyptians and Mesopotamians offered sacrifices to Osiris and Tammuz, gods of fertility, to ensure divine agricultural favour. While modern Ibibios are majorly Christians, traditionally religious Ibibio farmers continue to appease deities of the land to secure improved crop yield. Regardless, they also used ecological wisdom to navigate the challenges of farming through strategic practices.
To this day, our farmers continue to practise nsïke ntọ (shifting cultivation), which involves clearing and burning a dense piece of land and cultivating it, only to abandon it after some years to clear and cultivate another dense land. This practice offers an opportunity for lands to fallow for some years and regain critical nutrients. These nutrients enable Ibibio farmers to maintain improved crop yield and sustain the nutritional capability of farmlands. Regardless, it can lead to gradual deforestation if the fallow periods are too brief.
Another agricultural practice practised by our farmers is the nwaak ntọ (intercropping or mixed cropping). This practice involves the planting of different types of crops simultaneously on one piece of land, enabling Ibibio farmers to mitigate the failure of losing entire crops to pests or diseases. Hence, an Ibibio farmer who plants maize, cocoyam, yam, cassava, and plantain would still have some yields to harvest if all his maize and cassava plants are lost to diseases. However, it is important to admit that this method is most suitable for subsistence farming and can be difficult within a mechanised agricultural setting.
Ibibio farmers also practise ndọn̄ọ ntọ (mixed farming), which is characterised by the planting of crops like oil palm, cassava, and yam in addition to the rearing of livestock such as goats, cattle, and birds (hen, turkey). The importance of this practice is that it diversifies the income channels of the average Ibibio farmer. Additionally, the livestock provides compost manure for farmlands, while livestock like goats and cattle are easier to rear by feeding them with fodder from bushes. Despite these advantages, the mixed Ibibio farmer will need a reasonable capital and additional hands to make up for the complex management process of crops and livestock.
The practice of nsïke ntọ, nwaak ntọ, and ndọn̄ọ ntọ all connect back to land ownership because an Ibibio farmer would need land to practise any kind of farming. Land is an important factor within the Ibibio agricultural system, hence the reason why it is called Eka Abasi (mother earth). Land ownership is classified into community- and kinship-based land ownerships. This pattern of land ownership means that the cultivation of land was usually undertaken by communal labour groups, age grades, and family members (for land owned by families). However, this system of land ownership often led to conflicts between community and family members. These conflicts led to the third classification, private land ownership and ntọ nwọ (land renting system). This kind of ownership means that land is owned individually, while units of the land are rented to willing farmers seasonally (ntọ nwọ).