Occupation

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Last update 03-06-2020) 

The main occupation of the people of the area is farming food crops such as yams, maize, cassava ground-nuts, beans rice pepper and tomatoes are produced. By the people
The soil of the area is reasonably fertile and there is enough land for  Practice of shifting cultivation. Yams and maize and cultivated on newly-cleared ground each year. The same land is sometimes planted with yams in the following year, with groundnuts and beans as the main subsidiary crops. It is then allowed to remain fallow for a period. The normal rotation is yams in the first year with corn and cassava in the second.

Yams are planted in the dry season in late December and in the unforested areas the yam heaps are capped with dry grass, apparently to retain moisture A second planting takes place after the first rains in April and May There are thus two harvest periods, the first about July and the second about November Two crop of maize are grown and reaped between the yam harvests. Peas, beans, groundnuts, and other subsidiary crops are grown by the women. In the drier areas, approximately north of a through Auchi, guinea-corn becomes a significant crop.

Oil-palms do well, the preparation of oil and the marketing of kernels is carried on everywhere. a considerable number of Yoruba, Benin, and Urhobo people engaged in the collection, preparation, and marketing of palm-products.

Other tree crops include kola, locust bean, and dica-nut. Cocoa seems not to have been grown on any scale before about 1935. Considerable amounts are now produced in all parts of the area where the subsoil is literate rather the Benin sand

Livestock. Dwarf cattle, which, are immune from the tsetse fly, pasture near the settlements but are used only for meat are not very common nowadays .Goats, sheep, and fowls are ubiquitous Domestic guinea-fowl and the Muscovy duck thrive, particularly in the drier part
Fishing is a prominent occupation of the inhabitants of Weppa-Wanno ,South of Uneme and Ekperi clans who live on the bank of River Niger. Fishing is carried out in streams and rivers

A few of the people also engage in hunting as a subsidiary occupation.

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