Pampaida, Nigeria
Pampaida: 1 Millennium Village | 5,000 residents

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.

Village Characteristics by Sector

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.

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.

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.

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.

Intervention Highlights