Analysis of Nomadic Herdsmen and Crop Farmers’ Conflict in Rural Communities of North-Central Zone, Nigeria

Abstract

This study was carried out to analyze the effect of nomadic herdsmen and farmers' conflict in rural communities of North Central, Nigeria. Six research questions were asked and answered in this study. Also, six null hypotheses were formulated and tested at a 0.05 level of significance. A descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The sample size of this study was 400 made up of 250 registered farmers, 120 nomadic herdsmen, and 30 agricultural extension agents, all from North Central, Nigeria. A multistage sampling technique was used during the sampling procedure. The questionnaire items were face validated by five experts. The internal consistency of the questionnaire items was determined using the Cronbach alpha coefficient. A coefficient of 0.87 and 0.97 was obtained for part 2 section A-F of the questionnaire items. Mean and standard deviation was used to answer the research questions while Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was used to test the null hypotheses. The findings on hypotheses revealed that there was a significant difference in the mean ratings of the responses of nomadic herdsmen, crop farmers, and agricultural extension agents in North Central, Nigeria. The results of Scheffe’s and Tukey's HSD Tests indicated that all three comparisons between the nomadic herdsmen, crop farmers, and extension agents had statistically significant mean differences. It was recommended among others that as an interim remedy for peace, grazing lands should be clearly and legally acquired and demarcated in rural communities where fallow lands are surplus and fallow for cattle grazing.