This work discusses the transition in the politics and economics of irrigation farming in the Jos area of
Plateau state, Nigeria. Examining the former and latter constructions of ownership, use, commerce and
authority of land and products of obtained from it. The advent of commercial dry season farming called
“fadama” or “lambu” in the Plateau area around the 1980’s produced a new group of temporary migrants.
Itinerant farmers from the far north, who took advantage of the deserted mining ponds in and around Jos,
the capital of Plateau state in Central Nigeria. This development saw the periodical use by the mainly
Hausa farmers from the far north, of land in the dry season, slowly building a community in consonance
with a few settled Fulani. A new landlord-tenant relationship emerged, which saw the “tenants” relating
well with their hosts, the autochthonous “land owners” who initially were quite oblivious of this new
mode of irrigation, This relationship lasted until the 1990’s when skirmishes and emerging interests of the
autochthons groups brought conflict between the two groups.