RESOURCE MAPPING OF THE SOKOTO — RIMA BASIN, NIGERIA 
R. A. Bullock (W), P. O. Adeniyi (LJ, |. Adalemo (LJ, P. Howarth (W), 
A. Kesik (W), B. Ajayi (L), A. Omojola (L), P. Pilon (W) 
Universities of Lagos, Nigeria (L), and Waterloo, Canada (W) 
ABSTRACT 
A three-year joint project at the University of Lagos and the University of \/aterloo is being 
funded by the International Development Research Centre in Ottawa. The aim of the project is to 
examine the effects of the construction of dams at Bakolori and Goronyo on the agricultural 
resources of the basin. A major data source for the study is Landsat imagery. Methodologies and 
classifications for monitoring and mapping land cover in the area are being developed. Analysis 
will cover both the wet and the dry seasons. 
The analysis of the imagery will be integrated with a socio-economic study of the Hausa 
perception of the land resource and its associated agricultura! systems. The background and orga- 
nization of the project and the results of the first season's fieldwork are presented in this paper. 
The maps produced both visually and digitally are expected to have immediate value for the 
Sokoto-Rima River Basin Development Authority and for other Federal and State authorities. 
At the same time, they will demonstrate the importance of remo te sensing in areas where maps are 
either unobtainable or are out of date due to major environmental changes. 
BACKGROUND 
Despite the fact that adequate knowledge cf resources is a fundamental requirement for deve- 
lopment planning, Nigeria and many other developing nations are still operating with inadequate 
inventories. Basic data sources such as topographic, geologic and soils maps, which are taken for 
granted in industrialised nations, are either’ not available or are severely dated in many parts of 
Nigeria. Many of the maps which have been published are out of print, and even where topogra- 
phic maps are still in process of compilation, they are based on 1:40,000 scale aerial photography 
acquired in the 1960's. There are no complete sets of medium-scale geological, soils and land-use 
ma ps, and the network of meteorological stations is notoriously sparse. 
Agriculture is a vital component of the resource domain, and has been a key element in the de- 
velopment process in Nigeria. It has been the subject of a number of innovations, such as farm 
settlement schemes, the introduction of mixed farming, new seed varieties and fertilizers, and 
more recently the establishment of large-scale irrigation schemes. Yet many of these projects have 
experienced only limited success for want of proper data on physical, economic and social varia- 
bles, which have in consequence been only weakly integrated into the planning process. Agricul- 
tural agencies have a limited knowledge of even such fundamental issues as the extent of cultivated 
land and its productivity. It is, therefore, hardly surprising to find that institutes responsible for 
particular crops have imperfect knowledge of their extent, location and quality. In such a context, 
it is difficult to identify the spatial structure and organization of land use and even more difficult 
to assess land capability, on which models for planning and management can be based. 
The reasons for this situation are complex, but include the following: 
1. The government has been pre-occupied with sectoral and financial planning to the extent of 
almost total neglect of physical planning (Federal Government of Nigeria, 1975). 
2. Low priority has been assigned to natural resource studies, since the contribution of renew- 
able resources to development is not well understood. 
  
  
  
  
  
      
  
  
   
   
  
  
  
  
  
   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
    
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
   
   
     
   
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