The Impact of Farmers/Herders Crises on Food and Economic Activities in Nigeria
CHAPTER ONE
Objectives of the Study
The aim of this study is to examine the Impact Of Farmers/Herders Crises On Food And Economic Activities In Nigeria: A Case Study Of Benue State. The overall purpose of the study is to analyze the effect of Fulani herdsmen crisis on food security in the country. Specifically, the objectives of the study include to;
- Assess the causes of the Fulani herdsmen and farmers crisis in the middle belt.
- Evaluate the effect of Fulani herdsmen and farmers crisis on food security in Nigeria
CHAPTER TWO
LITERATURE REVIEW
Conceptual framework
Food Insecurity and Conflicts
Food insecurity and armed conflicts are two major problems that have aroused the attention of international institutions, political analysts, and governments in developing countries. Over several decades, resources have been mobilized to reduce the number of hungry in the world, particularly in developing countries. The 1996 World Food Summit set the ambitious goal of halving to 400 million the number of hungry in the world by the year 2015. In addition, the first of the eight millennium development goals set at the 2000 Millennium Summit was to eradicate poverty and hunger (United Nations (UN), 2005). However, over the past several years, progress has been slow and the number of hungry in the developing countries has increased from 799 million in 19982000 to 815 million 2000 2002, [Food Agricultural Organization (FAO) 2002a, 2004, and 2005). Their paper focuses on why people are food insecure.
The Fula people also known as Fulani in Hausa language, are a mass population widely dispersed and culturally diverse in all of Africa, but most predominant in West Africa. The Fulani’s generally speak the Fula language. A significant number of them are nomadic in nature, herding cattle, goats and sheep across the vast dry grass lands of their environment, keeping isolate from the local farming communities, making them the world’s largest pastoral nomadic group (Eyekpimi, 2016). They are massively spread over many countries, and are found mainly in West Africa and northern parts of Central Africa, but also in Sudan and Egypt. The main Fulani subgroups in Nigeria are: Fulbe Adamawa, Fulbe Mbororo, Fulbe Sokoto, Fulbe Gombe, and the Fulbe Borgu (Eyekpimi, 2016).
Fulani herdsmen
Fulani herdsmen or Fulani pastoralists are nomadic or semi nomadic Fulani herders whose primary occupation is raising livestock. The pure Fulani pastoralist engages in random movement of cattle while the semi nomadic makes transhumance migration and return to their camps or homes. The Fulani herdsmen are largely located in the Sahel and semi-arid parts of west Africa but due to changes in climate patterns many herdsmen have moved further south into the savannah and tropical forest belt of west Africa. The herdsmen are found in countries such as Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Guinea, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire and Cameroon. In Senegal, they inhabit northeastern ferlo and the southeastern part of the country. In many parts of these countries, the fula often constitute a minority group. In Nigeria, the livestock supplied b the herdsmen provide a bulk of the beef consumption in the country.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This chapter takes into consideration the methods of investigation and the justification for using the statistical measure used. The chapter described the following research design, model speculation, variables, data collection, data analysis and also the limitation of the methods used.
Research Design
The paper adopted a survey research, intended to study the relationship between Fulani herdsmen-farmers crisis and food insecurity. Ebenuwa Okoh (2011) citing Kerlinger (1993) stated that survey is a descriptive research method aimed at discovering relative incidences, distribution and of interrelationships of variables. This implies that survey gathers information about variables not individuals; the researcher therefore examines the opinions, attitudes or feelings of individuals about a particular problem. This design is considered most appropriate for the study because survey studies, utilizes questionnaires, observations, tests, and interviews as tools in obtaining information. The data collected are exposed to analysis before relevant conclusions are made. In this study, the opinions of respondents were sought to achieve the purpose of the study The materials were assessed with a view to bringing to the fore the violent clashes between Fulani herdsmen and farmers on resources sustainability and its effects on food security in Nigeria.
Population
This study was conducted in Benue State, one of the 36 states in Nigeria. It is one of the states in the southeast geopolitical zone. The state lies between longitude 5’ 00 and 6’ 45 East and latitude 5’ 00 and 6’30 north. The state has a total land area of 17,440 square kilometers. It consists of 27 local government areas and has an estimated population of 4 million (Benue State Government, 2003). The average rainfall ranges from 190.5 266 cm monthly, while the temperature ranges from 29°C to 34°C with an average of about 30°C ( Benue State Ministry of Agriculture, 2000).
CHAPTER FOUR
DATA PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS
CHAPTER FIVE
SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
Summary of the Work
This study titled The Impact Of Farmers/Herders Crises On Food And Economic Activities In Nigeria. as conducted in three local government areas (that is, Ajili, Gugulin, Beti A, and Beti B) in Benue State was set to assess the causes of the farmer Fulani herdsmen crisis in the middle belt and evaluate the effect of the farmer Fulani herdsmen crisis on food security in the study area. A total of 100 structured questionnaires were administered and 80 were retrieved. In-depth interview were used to support quantitative data.
The study revealed that the major causes of Fulani – Herdsmen and farmers clashes in Nigeria are destruction of crops, harassment of nomads by host youths, disregard for traditional authority, stray cattle, sexual harassment of women by nomads and Indiscriminate bush burning and theft of cattle. This result agrees with the findings of Okereke (2012) and Bello (2013) who listed the causes of the conflict to include theft of cattle, destruction of crops, rape of women, and indiscriminate bush burning. The study also revealed that the major social effect of the Fulani herdsmen crisis are loss of human life, sexual harassment of human life, acquiring of weapons/arms, reduction in quality of social relationship, reduction of social support and high cases of rape. The major economic effect of the Fulani herdsmen crisis are reduction in output and income of farmers/nomads, loss of produce in storage, displacement of farmers, scarcity of agricultural products, loss of house and properties and infrastructural damages. The result agrees with the findings of Nweze (2005) and Bello (2013).
Findings on hypotheses testing revealed in hypothesis 1 that there is a positive effect existing between farmers and Fulani herdsmen clashes on food production in Nigeria. This implies that the farmers and Fulani perception of the causes of Fulani – Herdsmen and farmers clashes in Nigeria were almost the same. The finding agreed with the conclusion of Nweze (2005) who concluded that the farmers’ and Fulani’s’ perception of the causes of Fulani – Herdsmen and farmers clashes in Nigeria are similar. Also finding on hypothesis 2 and 3 revealed that significant differences existed between farmers and Fulani perception of the social effects and economic effects of Fulani – Herdsmen and farmers clashes in Nigeria. The finding agreed with the findings of Ofuoke and Isife (2009) who concluded that significant differences existed between farmers and Fulani perception of the social effects and economic effects of Fulani – Herdsmen and farmers’ clashes in Nigeria.
Conclusion
It is clear that crop farmers and cattle herder’s conflicts in Benue state centered on the cattle owners and crop farmers. The population of both crop farmers and Cattle herders is rapidly increasing but land remains fixed. These causes are seen in terms of competition on land and cattle trespass.
Periodical struggle for scarce resources has degenerated into violent conflicts in benue state between crop farmers and cattle herders. These conflicts have become more intense and destructive. Since most of the cattle herders do not own or possess the rights to land, they therefore depend absolutely on open land to feed their cattle. Government policies on agriculture, especially the all-year fadama farming, are threats to cattle herders’ access to pasture. However, additional farms acquired and encroachments of traditional cattle routes have drastically reduced the grazing space for the livestock to access pasture areas and water points. Furthermore, the use of police and courts to resolve conflicts between cattle herders and crop farmers by government has been ineffective. This has contributed to the frequency of the clashes. All these have instigate insecurity that have encouraged the conflicting parties to take responsibility for their own security and to defend themselves, which is a threat to the sustainability of the federation. Therefore, it is in the interest of the State to end the land encroachment and take concrete steps to address the genuine needs of cattle herders for availability of grazing land, resolve the re-occurring conflicts in the agricultural sector, which currently provides employment to large population of country.
Recommendation
The findings showed that the destruction of crops, harassment of nomads by host youths, disregard for traditional authority, stray cattle, sexual harassment of women by nomads as the major causes of the conflicts. The study, therefore, recommends that Benue state and the country in general should formulate a policy that will reclaim the encroached cattle routes and create more. In addition, water points and open farm land for grazing by the cattle should be separated from that of farmers so as to avoid friction. As loss of properties and lives were revealed as the highest consequences. The study recommends that the religious leaders, traditional leaders, farmers/cattle herders‟ associations should make more efforts in preaching the implications of the conflict on the people and the community in general. All stakeholders can only operate optimally while carrying out their economic activities in a peaceful environment. This will result in the expansion of cropped area and motivate higher cropping intensity and problem free environment. This breeds economic sustainability of land resources use and empowers the farming communities to take responsibility for their own development plan.
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