ABSTRACT
The study was conducted in Kaduna State with the objective of investigating the Farmer- herder conflicts and rural security: a case study of Kaduna North community in Kaduna State. Three (3) local government areas were purposively selected from the 3 senatorial zones. This was followed by the selection of 21 crop farmers and 21 cattle herders from each of the 3 local government areas through snowball sampling to obtain a sample size of 126 respondents. Data were gathered with the aid of structured interview schedules; however, Focus Group Discussion (FGD) was also conducted with separate groups of herders and farmers. Descriptive statistics (mean, frequency counts, percentages) were used to describe the personal characteristics of crop farmers and cattle herders, identify the types of conflict resolution mechanisms employed by these institutions and determine the causes of the conflict as well as examine the institutions involved in the management and resolution of the conflict and logistic regression analysis was used to examine the factors responsible for the cause of conflict in the study area. Results from the findings indicate that 75% of the cattle herders had no formal education implying that formal education level is very low. Crop damage by cattle (3.165, P<0.01), encroachment of cattle routes (2.175, P<0.01), inadequate grazing reserves (3.444, P<0.01), lack of access to water points (2.737, P<0.05), pollution of water points (3.022, P<0.05), indiscriminate bush burning (1.512, P<0.05), cattle rustling (1.485, P<0.05), land tenure system (1.621, P<0.05), and changes in climate conditions (1.507, P<0.05), were the causes of the conflict. Traditional rulers and Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN) through amicable resolution were found to be 100% effective in handling farmer-herder conflict in the study area. It was recommended that, mass campaign for formal education should be intensified in both communities; involvement of indigenous resource user groups in policies; survey, demarcation, beaconing and gazetting of the government owned grazing reserves and cattle routes; amending the existing land use policy; and sedentarizing some of the herders.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
One major problem confronting world peace today is the manifestation of conflicts in different dimensions across the globe. From Europe to America, Africa to Asia, conflicts are common phenomena (Marshall and Gurr, 2005 in Jeong, 2008). Conflict has been defined in different ways by different scholars. For instance, Ekong (2003) defined conflict as that form of social interaction in which the actors seek to obtain scarce reward by eliminating or weakening their contenders. Folger et al. (2009) defined conflict as the interaction of interdependent people who perceive incompatible goals and interference from each other in achieving thosegoals. Gyong (2007) defined conflict as the struggle for dominance or control of one person or group by the other in such a way as to subjugate or even eliminate the opponent.
Nigeria has experienced and is still experiencing conflicts of grave proportions among several ethnic and religious communities across the states. These conflicts significantly vary in dimension, process and the groups involved. It was observed by Momale (2003) that, while some conflicts arise between same resource user group such as between one farming community and another, others occur between different user groups such as between herders and farmers or between foresters and farmers. Adisa (2012) observed that the farmers-herdsmen conflict has remained the most preponderant resource-use conflict in Nigeria.
According to Abbas (2009) a study of major sources of conflicts between the Fulani pastoralists (to be used interchangeably with “herders” or “herdsmen”) and farmers shows that land related issues, especially on grazing fields, account for the highest percentage of the conflicts. In other words, struggles over the control of economically viable lands cause more tensions and violent conflicts among communities.
Social and economic factors continue to provoke violent conflicts among the Fulani pastoralists and farmers. The intensity and variations of the conflicts largely depend on the nature and type of the user groups where the pastoralists graze. These conflicts have constituted serious threats to the means of survival and livelihoods of both the farmers and pastoralists and what both groups are tenaciously protecting. The conflicts (though provocative) over access rights to farmland and cattle routes (labi), have become ubiquitous and seems to have defied solutions (Abbas, 2009). However, Coser (2000) has noted that, the inevitability of conflict in the claim for scarce resource is considered here as the bane for struggles over the inestimable value for land and its resource, with the claim for ownership and the claim for its position as a common resource. Nevertheless, the complex land use system that has changed markedly overtime has culminated in the present day tension and conflicts between Fulani herdsmen and host communities.
1.2 Problem Statement
Historical tensions between Nigeria's pastoralist Fulani and settled indigenous farmers have intensified in recent years, with dwindling natural resources and land availability greatly contributing to the ongoing, escalating conflict in the country (Okello et al., 2014.).
Berger (2003) considered that, pastures, woody vegetation, water resources and land are taken as a common property resource. The increasing number of reports of violence at this occupational boundary makes understanding herder-farmer conflicts an urgent task. We need to know not just why friction begins, but also why and how, as some conflicts unfold they articulate with religious, ethnic, and political conditions (Morizt, 2010).
Competition-driven conflicts between arable crop farmers and cattle herdsmen have become common occurrences in many parts of Nigeria (Ingawa et al., 1999). The competition between these two agricultural land user-groups has often times turned into serious overt and covert hostilities and social friction in many parts of Nigeria (Adisa, 2012). Cases of herders-farmers conflicts are widespread in recent times. Nweze (2005) also stated that, many farmers and herders have lost their lives and herds while others have experienced dwindling productivity in their herds. In most of these encounters, citizens are regularly killed and the destruction or loss of property leaves an already endangered populace even poorer. The frequency and scale of these communal conflicts have become alarming (Leadership Newspaper, May 17, 2011).
The dimension of militancy in the conflicts is associated with the advent of theaggressive Udawa and Bokoloji pastoralists which further led to the emergence andintroduction of guns and other sophisticated weapons in the conflicts as well as the use of mobile phones, accompanied with banditry. All these have produced adverse consequences in the destruction of villages, settlements, crops, irrigation facilities, human and animal lives. The incidence of serious cases of conflicts for survival between pastoralists and farmers also led to loss of lives and destruction of properties with the emergence of insecurity due to the continuous desire for vengeance by the parties involved (Pyramid Trust, July 17, 2009).
The rate of the incessant conflicts between Fulani herdsmen and farmers made the Local, States and the Federal Government of Nigeria to employ different mechanisms in order to end the menace. For instance, the Federal Government of Nigeria has commenced the construction of grazing reserves, and has clearly delineated stock routes covering 1,000,000 hectares in Jangere village of Kaduna State (NAN in Daily Trust, September 22, 2009).
According to 2009 official report of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and WaterResources, Nigeria has officially demarcated 4125 grazing reserves or routes. Out of thisnumber, only one third is put in use, whereas 270 grazing reserves have been put intocultivation. In order to curb farmers-pastoralists‟ clashes, the federal government inSeptember 2009 carried out demarcation of a grazing route running through the central statesof Nasarawa, Benue and Plateau. Other grazing routes also marked out and demarcated werestarted across Kaduna and Bauchi States, spanning across Abuja. Further grazing routes were also demarcated from Sokoto in the Northwest to Oyo State in the Southwest as well as another 2,000km grazing route from Adamawa State in the Northeast to Calabar in the Niger Delta (IRIN,2009).All these were done to strengthen the relationship between the two groups, but the relationship keeps on degenerating.
The question not yet answered is why have all these efforts and resources not produced the desired result? What is clear to all, however, is that something fundamental is amiss. Could it be the defective public policy, in some cases, the lack of policy or the failure of the Fulani to avail themselves to modernization (Iro, 2000).
Similarly, Tonah (2006) opined that, farmer-herder differences are not only seen as resource conflict but are also sometimes represented as ethnic conflict involving the two groups. Since herder and farmer groups have very different values, customs, physical and cultural characteristics, disputes between them are frequently characterized as ethnic conflict. The task here is to examine some of the factors responsible for the conflicts and also examine the roles played by institutions in managing the conflicts between crop farmers and cattle herders in Kaduna State.
The study therefore provided answers to the following questions:
i. What are the socio-economic characteristics of crop farmers and cattle herders in Kaduna State?
ii. What are the factors responsible for the conflict between crop farmers and herders in the State?
iii. Which institutions are involved in resolving conflict between farmers and herders in the study area?
iv What are the types of conflict resolution mechanisms employed by these institutions?
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The broad objective of the study was to analyse the causes of farmer-herder conflicts and the roles played by institutions towards the resolution of the conflicts in Kaduna State.
The specific objectives of the study were to:
i. describe the socio-economic characteristics of the respondents in the study areas;
ii. examine the factors responsible for the conflict between crop farmers and cattle herders in the State;
iii. examine the institutions involved in the management and resolution of the conflict between farmers and Fulani herders in the study area, and
iv. identify and describe the types of conflict resolution mechanisms employed by these institutions.
1.4 Hypothesis of the Study
i. There is no significant factors responsible for the conflict between crop farmers and cattle herders.
1.5 Justification of the Study
The increasing number of reports of violence at this occupational boundary makes understanding herders-farmers conflict an urgent task. We need to know not just why friction begins, but also why and how, as some conflicts unfold they articulate with religious, ethnic, and political conditions (Morizt, 2010).
In addition, there is the need to comprehend how the „farmers and herders‟ on the one hand and the „community and the state‟ on the other have viewed such conflicting issues and the strategies put in place to ameliorate or even resolve them. Until the sources of such conflicts are clearly identified, understood, managed and resolved, such incidences will continue to show their ugly heads at the slightest provocation (Abbas, 2009). Conflict between farmers and herders could be reduced or averted when Government policies are clearly formulated and implementation framework aimed at setting a guiding principle on future cooperation between the two warring groups is established.
The study examined the perception of the two different groups on land usage and access to natural resources which were basically the main cause of the conflict, so as to enable further understanding of the issue from the viewpoint of the conflict actors. It, therefore, provides a sort of communication platform that will enable bottom-up flow of information from the grassroots to the general public and the policy making unit of the government.
Although scholars such as, Abubakar (2012), Kehinde (2011), Ofuoku and Isife (2009) and Adebayo and Olaniyi (2008), have written on land resource conflict and considerable research has been devoted to farmer-herder conflict in particular, the most recent security challenges that leads to the escalation of violence of different dimension across the country, has prompted the need for a fresh investigation. This will complement the efforts of the other researchers. This being the case, it is hoped that the study has provided the Government, Non-governmental organizations and the general public with relevant and up-to-date information on causes of farmer-herder conflict and efforts of various institutions towards the resolutions of conflicts between them. It has also provided the required information on the current status of farmer-herder conflict as well as helps contribute to the existing literature on global conflicts with specific emphasis on land resource use conflicts. Finally, the best ways to improve the relationship between these important groups form the concern of this study.
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