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EFFECT OF FULANI-HERDSMEN AND FARMERS CRISIS ON FOOD SECURITY

ABSTRACT

Crop farmers and Cattle herders‟ conflicts have remained the most prevailing recourse conflict in Abraka L.G.A, Delta State especially in Abraka L.G.A, Delta state. Social and economic factors continue to inflame violent conflicts. The study objectives were narrowed down to investigating the cause of Fulani herdsmen and farmers conflict and the effect on food security. Both qualitative and quantitative methods of data collections were used. The respondents were drawn using purposive, multi stage and snowball sampling methods in the four selected Villages. Information was elicited using structured questionnaire. The quantitative data collected were subjected to both descriptive (frequency count and percentage) and inferential (T. test) statistical analysis while the qualitative data were analysed in a thematic form. The study concludes that crop farmers and cattle herders’ conflict instigate a loss of livelihoods to both groups and contributes to low agricultural output production. Therefore, it is in the interest of the State to address the genuine needs of the cattle herders for availability of grazing land, resolve the recurring conflicts in the agricultural sector that provides employment to reasonable portion of the country’s population. The study finally recommends that farmers should adopt intensive cultivation by using improved seeds and farm inputs.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1  BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Food insecurity and armed conflict are two major problems that have aroused the attention of international institutions, political analysts, and governments in the country.  Over several decades, resources have been mobilized to reduce the number of hunger in the world, particularly in developing countries.

Nigeria as a nation state is under a severe internal socio-economic and security threat. At a more general level, the threat has special economic, political and environmental dimensions. Each of these dimensions has greatly affected the nation’s stability and can be traced to the Fulani-herdsmen crisis, ethnic militant armies, ethnic and religious conflicts, poverty, insurgency, armed robbery, corruption, economic sabotage and environmental degradation [Damba, 2007].

Farmer-herdsmen conflict has remained the most influential resource-use conflict in Nigeria (Rashid 2012). Fulani and farmers co-existed for a long period but such coexistence has never been without tension because it demands an alternative dispute resolution of rival interests. Conflict can break out suddenly when livestock is poorly controlled and when herds wander on to cultivated fields. This has always had a tendency to occur at critical periods in the annual cycle, particularly during sowing when herds are late in leaving agricultural lands and during harvests, if they return too early. Clashes occur when agricultural activities hinder the movement of herds and cut off their access to water or pastures (Shetima and Usman 2008). 

Agricultural and development experts are unanimous in their predictions that the gains recorded in the agricultural sector of the economy, especially in the area of food production, may suffer a serious setback as a result of the negative effects of terrorist activities on farmers in Delta state and neighboring states. The effects of the sustained Fulani war in the affected localities have led to farmers’ reluctance to go back to their farms even as the current farming season is far gone. In Benue state, for example, women from Guma and Gwer west local governments have stayed away from farms for fear of being killed or raped by the murderers. Several retaliation attacks have continued to occur, which had led to heavy loss human lives and properties recorded on both sides. For example, current intake may be adequate, but food insecurity may still be experienced because of concern over future intake. Alternatively, intake may be inadequate, but only temporarily to protect supplies and prevent future food insecurity (Wolfe and Frongillo, 2001).

Every farming system has a boundary which separates it from the larger system that makes up the environment. Conflicts and violent clashes between farmers and nomadic cattle herders have been a common feature of economic livelihood in West Africa (Tonah, 2006). The boundary represents the limits in the larger system. Farmers regularly compete with nomadic herders for farmland, pastures, water, trees and the use of rangeland in general (Akpaki, 2002). There have been violent clashes between nomadic herdsmen and farmers in several parts of Nigeria for several years. The clashes are occasioned by the destruction of agricultural farms of the farmers by the cattle of the nomadic herdsmen. The upsurge and incessant resource conflicts witnessed as a result of boundary dispute in the tropics have resulted in loss of lives, properties and environmental degradation as also witnessed in some developed countries (Niemella, Young, Alard, Askasibar, Henle, Johnson, Kuttila, Larsson, Matouch, Nowicki, Paiva, Portoghesi, Smulders, Stevenson, Tartes & Watt, 2005). Naturally, nomadic herdsmen by their nature are migrants who leave their traditional abode in search of greener pasture for their flocks. In most cases, their movement is caused by the absence of good and veritable land for their flock to feed on. The environmental degradation is perceived to be contributing enormously to the deterioration in ecosystem services to the environment of various communities. In the recent times, Nigeria has witnessed series of violent communal clashes arising from the activities of the nomadic herdsmen who move about on a daily basis with their cattle in search of water and