BARO

town and river port, Niger State, west central Nigeria, on the Niger River, 400 mi (650 km) from the sea. Lying at the end of a 111-mi rail branch that joins the main Nigerian railway system at Minna, it also has road connections to Agaie and Bida. Originally a small village of the Nupe people, it was selected by the British as Nigeria's link between rail and river transport; its solid bankrare along the Lower Nigercould be used for loading river craft with Northern Nigeria's cotton crop. Although the 350-mi BaroKano railway was completed in 1911, it was shortly eclipsed in importance by the railroad from Kano through Minna to Lagos that crossed the Niger at Jebba, 150 mi upstream. From July to March, however, Baro is still used to ship peanuts (groundnuts) and cotton downstream to the Niger Delta ports of Burutu and Warri. Most of the town's local trade is in sorghum, yams, rice, millet, fish, palm oil, shea nuts, peanuts (groundnuts), and cotton. Swamp rice is cultivated commercially both by farmers in the vicinity and at the government's irrigated rice projects at Loguma (10 mi northwest) and Badeggi (35 mi northwest). Pop. (1972 est.) 5,148.