An Ethno-archaeological Survey of Subsistence Agriculture Among Qua’anpan

Hill Settlements in Southern Jos Plateau, Nigeria

By

Na’ankwat Yola Kwapnoe

Department of Archaeology and Heritage Studies

University of Jos.
Email: [email protected]
Phone No: +2347068150891

Abstract
Early agricultural practices are a defining factor for early human settlements around
the world. Today, many agricultural/farming communities dominate Africa but the
history of their success as agriculturists is not documented in order to trace the
foundation upon which this is built and to further develop it. Presently, most farming
activities in Qua’anpan, located on the southern edge of the Jos Plateau, is done on
plain frontier lands on the Benue trough. However, this paper seeks to discuss early
indigenous agricultural practices among the inhabitants of the hill settlements
(homeland) of present day Qua’anpan, particularly the pan people because this
formed the foundation for the large scale and mostly commercial agriculture that is
practiced today among the people. This includes their system of crop farming, animal
domestication, types of crops produced and other subsistence practices such as
storage practices and the continuity of such.Using surface archaeological and
ethnographic data, this work reveals subsistence agricultural practices that were
developed traditionally by the peopleand still sustained centuries later. It is hoped that
the knowledge of traditional agriculture among the Pan which involves
commercialization born from food sufficiency can be adopted to solve some of Africa’s
food problems and bring about development in health and education.
Keywords: Pan, Subsistence, agriculture, ethno-archaeology, Jos Plateau, food
sufficiency