Causes, Preventive Strategies and Impacts of Conflicts between Crop Farmers and Herders on Agricultural Production in Adamawa State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study assessed impact of conflicts between farmers and herders on agricultural production in Adamawa state, Nigeria. Three specific objectives, three research questions and three null hypotheses guided the study. A survey research design was adopted for this study. The area of the study was Adamawa state, located in North East zone of Nigeria. The population of this study was 136,347 respondents comprising of 230 community leaders, 94,937 crop farmers and 41,180 cattle herders. Purposive sampling technique was used to select 48 community leaders, 260 crop farmers and 76 Herders, making a total sample of 384 respondents selected to participate in the study. The instrument used for data collection was a 30-item researchers’ developed structured questionnaire tagged: Farmers Herders Conflicts Structured Questionnaire (FHCSQ); face validated by three experts, field tried using 20 farmers, 20 herders and 4 community leaders outside of the areas of the study; Cronbach Alpha gave a reliability coefficient of 0.92. The FHCSQ was administered to the respondents by the researchers, assisted by two assistants who interpreted the questionnaire items to the farmers and herdsmen in Hausa and Fulfulde Languages for those who cannot read and write and also helped them in ticking the right options as chosen by the respondents. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer research questions 1 to 3; Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to test the hypotheses at 0.05 levels of significance. The results showed that conflicts between farmers and herders had impact on agricultural productivity: causes (overall mean = 3.67), effects on livelihoods (overall mean 3.89) and preventive measures (overall mean = 4.25). There was significant difference in the mean responses of farmers, herders and community leaders on the factors causing farmers’ and herders’ conflicts (p = 0.004 ≤ 0.05), but no significant differences in their responses about its impact on livelihoods (p = 0.053 > 0.05) and ways of preventing (p = 0.378 > 0.05) it in Adamawa State. It was recommended among others that farmers and herders should adhere to their boundaries, discourage land tenure system and bush burning, plant trees to cushion the effects of climate change in the state; Cattle tracks and grazing reserves should be maintained, create new ones to cater for increasing herds and legislations controlling open grazing should be enforced.