Plateau State
Plateau State is the twelfth-largest Nigerian state. It is in the centre of the country includes a range of hills surrounding the Jos Plateau, its capital, and the entire plateau itself.
Plateau State is described as "The Home of Peace and To ...
. Yelwa is the capital and largest city of the Yauri Emirate. Yelwa has a population of 8,000 , a majority of whom are HausaMuslims.
Yelwa is the market center and trade hub of the Yauri Emirate. Besides trade, its economy centers around agriculture. Major export crops include onions, rice, and cotton, although Yelwa also produces considerable amounts of
sorghum
''Sorghum'' () is a genus of about 25 species of flowering plants in the grass family (Poaceae). Some of these species are grown as cereals for human consumption and some in pastures for animals. One species is grown for grain, while many othe ...
,
millet
Millets () are a highly varied group of small-seeded grasses, widely grown around the world as cereal crops or grains for fodder and human food. Most species generally referred to as millets belong to the tribe Paniceae, but some millets al ...
sugarcane
Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with ...
,
shea nut
''Vitellaria paradoxa'' (formerly ''Butyrospermum parkii''), commonly known as shea tree, shi tree (), or vitellaria, is a tree of the family Sapotaceae. It is the only species in the genus ''Vitellaria'',tobacco,
kola nut
The term kola nut usually refers to the seeds of certain species of plant of the genus ''Cola'', placed formerly in the cocoa family Sterculiaceae and now usually subsumed in the mallow family Malvaceae (as subfamily Sterculioideae). These cola ...
s, peppers, beans, fish, cattle, and guinea fowl. Most farmers (79.2 percent) in the Yelwa area are
subsistence farmer
Subsistence agriculture occurs when farmers grow food crops to meet the needs of themselves and their families on smallholdings. Subsistence agriculturalists target farm output for survival and for mostly local requirements, with little or no su ...
s, and most rent the land they farm or are
sharecropper
Sharecropping is a legal arrangement with regard to agricultural land in which a landowner allows a tenant to use the land in return for a share of the crops produced on that land.
Sharecropping has a long history and there are a wide range ...
s.
History
Yelwa has been the capital of the Yauri Emirate since 1888, when the capital was moved there from
Bin Yauri
Bin Yauri is a town in the large North-Western state of Kebbi, Nigeria. It is about 8 km to the east from River Niger which feeds the famous Kainji Reservoir and 270 km south of Sokoto State.
Kebbi State
{{Kebbi-geo-stub ...
following a civil war. In 1896, the Royal Niger Company established a trading post in Yauri. The town was occupied by the British in 1901.
Part of Yelwa was permanently flooded by the creation of the Kainji Dam in 1986. Almost half of the residents of Yauri, including many in Yelwa, were displaced by the construction of the Kainji Dam, which has had detrimental effects on agriculture in the area.
A massacreoccurred in 2004.
On 16 February 2018, a Martian crater was named after Yelwa.