Staple Food and Livestock Production among the Yoruba of the Colonial Nigeria: The Ekiti Experience

Abstract

Traditionally, the Ekiti were known for the production of yam, cocoyam, plantain, cassava and other root crops which people were forced to produce, particularly as a result of the draught of the 1920s. With migrants workers from the East and Middle Belt particularly, Ekiti people were able to produce more than enough food that made them self-reliant. They were also good in livestock production with purely traditional methods. Such livestock included goats, sheep, dogs, fowls, among others. In fact, livestock production was the preoccupation of both men and women and it solely depended on traditional methods because people were not receptive to some innovations brought by modernity. Staple food and livestock production were the economic backbone of the people before the era of cocoa boom.