Impact of Herdsmen Insurgencies on Food Stuff Supply and Sustainability in Nigeria.

Impact of Herdsmen Insurgencies on Food Stuff Supply and Sustainability in Nigeria.

Asaju Joel Ayodeji¹, Usman Abdullahi Saheed², Ewiolo Sonnie Agbons^3
1School of Transport and Logistics, Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos, Nigeria.
²Post Graduate Student, School of Transport and Logistics, Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos, Nigeria.
³Ex- Post Graduate Student, School of Transport and Logistics, Lagos State University, Ojo, Lagos, Nigeria.

DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.47772/IJRISS.2023.7721

Received: 04 May 2023; Accepted: 19 June 2023; Published: 17 July 2023

ABSTRACT

The study examined the impacts of herdsmen insurgencies on food stuff supply and sustainability in Nigeria. The specific objectives are to: (i) investigate the major cause(s) of herdsmen attack on farmers in some parts of the country; (ii) examine the extent to which herdsmen attack affects the farmers, market women, individual and the economy of the country, (iii) examine the major factors responsible for herdsmen /farmers conflicts and (iv) investigate the extent in which the impart of herdsmen/farmers conflicts affects farmer’s savings. The methodology was through direct participation, structured questionnaire and focus group discussion. Those that were interviewed include: farmers, drivers, market women and individual through purposive sampling technique. A total of 300 copies of questionnaire were administered but 285 were found usable for this study. The analyses were both descriptive and inferential. Findings show that causes of herdsmen/farmers conflict have 35.8% (0.358) explanation on food supply and sustainability in Nigeria. The f-statistic value 20.772 with p-value 0.000 implied that crop damage by cattle encroachment; pollution of water points by cattle; domineering nature of the herdsmen; poor government policies; cattle rustling; affects food supply in Nigeria. The study however recommended that Governments should promulgate legislations outlawing open grazing of cattle while encouraging herders to establish ranches for their cattle, Government should also fish out the herdsmen sponsors who procure them with guns and other ammunitions to be carrying about and prosecute them and finally, State governments should designate some areas as grazing fields for the nomadic herdsmen and make them pay tax to the state, whilst warning that any crime involving a Fulani herdsman would attract severe penalties. This will drastically curb their excesses

Keywords: farmers, foodstuff, herdsmen, Insurgency and sustainability

INTRODUCTION

Herder and farmer conflicts in Nigeria are ethnoreligious disputes over land resources across Nigeria between mostly Muslim Fulani herders and mostly Christian non-Fulani farmers. They have been especially prominent in the Middle Belt (North Central) since the return of democracy in 1999. More recently, it has deteriorated into attacks on farmers by Fulani herdsmen and also vice versa.

Attacks have also taken place in the northwest Nigeria against farmers who are mainly Hausa. While the conflict has underlying economic and environmental reasons, it has also acquired religious and ethnic dimensions. Thousands of people have died since these attacks began. Sedentary farming rural communities are often target of attacks because of their vulnerability. There are fears that this conflict will spread to other West African countries but this has often been downplayed by governments in the region. Attacks on herders have also led them to retaliating by attacking other communities.

The conflict has been labeled genocide of Christians by numerous publications because farmers-herders conflict in Nigeria has ethnic and religious dimensions. The pastoralist herders who mostly live in the north are called “Fulani” people. Fulani’s are considered as settlers by other ethnicities in Nigeria, as they started to move to this region from other parts of Western Africa around fifteenth century. Fulani people founded an Islamic Caliphate in today’s northern Nigeria and after that they became politically more effective in the region (Gulsah 2020).

Although Nigeria chiefly is known for its oil and gas production, agriculture employs about 70 percent of its labour force. Small-holders in the country’s centre and south harvest most of the country’s tuber and vegetable crops while pastoralists in the north raise most of its grains and livestock. Over 90 percent of pastoralists reportedly are Fulani, a large ethnic group straddling several West and Central African countries. Pastoralists own approximately 90 percent of the national herd, estimated at 19.5 million cattle, about 975,000 donkeys, 28,000 camels, 72.5 million goats and 41.3 million sheep.

Several farmlands have been destroyed, many farmers have lost their lives, some others have fled their farmlands and could not attend to their crops due to the scare of the terror herdsmen who go about attacking farmers and destroying farmlands. Initially, these protracted violent conflicts had predominantly occurred in the middle belt states of Taraba, Benue, Kaduna, Plateau, Nassarawa, and Adamawa. As well as situated along the trough of Benue River, this possesses fertile soil and lush vegetation for farming and grazing. However, recent reports have indicated that the clashes have spread to other parts of the country including states in the North and Southern regions such as Zamfara, Rivers, Ekiti, Enugu, Ogun, and Bayelsa among others.

Since the Fourth Nigerian Republic’s founding in 1999, farmer-herder violence has killed more than 19,000 people and displaced hundreds of thousands more. It followed a trend in the increase of farmer-herder conflicts throughout much of the western Sahel, due to an expansion of agriculturist population and cultivated land at the expense of pasturelands; deteriorating environmental conditions, desertification and soil degradation, population growth, breakdown in traditional conflict resolution mechanisms of land and water disputes; and proliferation of small arms and crime in rural areas. Insecurity and violence have led many populations to create self-defense forces and ethnic and tribal militias, which have engaged in further violence. The majority of farmer-herder clashes have occurred between Muslim Fulani herdsmen and Christian farmers, exacerbating ethnoreligious hostilities. Due to the constant clashes between the herdsmen and farmers, the president in 2019 proposed to create Rural Grazing Area (RUGA) settlements but his proposal was met with fierce criticism.

Although ranching, where cattle are kept in enclosed parcels of land, has frequently been proposed as a solution to the crisis, this has proven to be highly unfeasible in Nigeria due to poor infrastructure (with unstable supplies of electricity, water, and fuel) and difficulties with acquisition and legal ownership of land. Land grabbing and cattle rustling are also potential difficulties that ranchers would have to deal with. Ranchers would also be unable to compete with nomadic herders with zero land-related costs. There are several impacts of these farmers/ herdsmen crisis on individual, market men and women, and the government in general.

Okoro (2018) affirmed that the conflict is believed to have existed since the beginning of agriculture and either increased or decreased in intensity or frequency depending on economic, environmental and other factors (Aliyu, 2015). Idowu (2017) submits that the violence between herdsmen and farmers has displaced more than 100,000 people in Benue and Enugu States and left them under the care of relatives or in makeshift Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) camps while many are still struggling to rebuild their lives. The Global Terrorism Index (GTI) recently placed the Nigeria’s Fulani herdsmen as the world’s fourth deadliest militant group for having accounted for about 1,229 deaths in 2014.

According to Dirisu, Y. 2021, Nigeria has lost no fewer than 8, 343 persons to farmers-herders conflict since 2005 when the whole killing became a serious concern. In the year 2021, No fewer than 20 Tiv farmers were reportedly killed and 5,000 others displaced in Lafia, Obi, and Awe Local Government Areas of Nasarawa State following an invasion of 12 communities by gunmen suspected to be Fulani herdsmen (Collins, S.L. 2021). Fulani terrorists on Wednesday, March 9, 2022 had a gruesome massacre of Tiv farmers in the Guma local Government Area of the state. The latest attack, which claimed several lives, took place at Ye village, along Daudu-Gbajimba road in Guma in Benue State (Itodo, Y. 2022). Also in April 2022, gunmen believed to be Fulani herdsmen, attacked three communities in two local government areas of Benue State and killed about 20 persons (Babajide J. 2022). This attack is not limited to just one state but about six other states in Nigeria. According to Ogunnaike J. (2022),more than five persons have were killed in a crisis that erupted between farmers and herdsmen in Idofa area of Imeko-Afon Local Government Area of Ogun State. For all these reasons, the study wants to examine the major causes of these conflicts and the impacts it would have on foodstuff supply chain in the country.

STUDY AREA

Figure 1 showing the states where herdsmen/farmers conflicts are more pronounced

Source: online

Nigeria officially referred to as the Federal Republic of Nigeria is a federal state in West Africa. It borders Cameroon and Chad to the East, Benin to the west, and Niger to the north. It also has a coast in the south that lies on the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean. Nigeria is made up of 36 cities and the Federal Capital Territory, where Abuja, the capital city is situated.

Nigeria has an arable land area of 34 million hectares: 6.5 million hectares for permanent crops, and 30.3 million hectares on meadows and pastures. Agriculture accounts for over 20 percent of Nigeria’s GDP. Agricultural activities provide livelihood for many Nigerians, whereas the wealth generated by oil reaches a restricted share of the population. Among households, the most common crops in Nigeria are maize and cassava, which are grown by almost 50 percent of households. In addition, other widespread crops are Guinea corn, yam, beans, and millets.

The population of Nigeria is growing at very high rates and the food demand is rising accordingly. Indeed, the Nigerian population is forecast to reach over 400 million people by 2050 (Amnesty International 2018). As a result, the food production rate is expected to rise to meet the demand of the growing population. Over the past years, it is worrisome that the local food production has not matched the population of the country. But more worrisome is the violent conflicts between nomadic herders (see plates 1 and 2 ) from northern Nigeria and sedentary agrarian communities in the central and southern zones which have escalated in recent years and are spreading southward, threatening the country’s agricultural production and food security

Plates 1 and 2 showing some Fulani herdsmen in the forest

Source: online 2022

STUDY OBJECTIVES

3.1 General Objective

The general objective of the study is to examine the impact of herdsmen insurgencies on food stuff supply and sustainability in Nigeria.

3.2. Specific Objectives

The specific objectives are to: (i) investigate the major cause(s) of herdsmen attack on farmers in some parts of the country; (ii) examine the extent to which herdsmen attack affects the farmers, market women, individual and the economy of the country, (iii) examine the major factors responsible for herdsmen /farmers conflicts and (iv) investigate the extent in which the impart of herdsmen/farmers conflicts affect farmer’s savings.

THEORITICAL BACKGROUND

4.1 Frustration Aggression Theory

This study is anchored on the theory of Frustration Aggression Theory (FAT) also known as the ‘frustration aggression displacement theory’, FAT is a theory of aggression proposed by scholars like John Dollard, Neal Miller, Leonard Doob, Orval Mowrer and Robert Sears in 1939 and further developed by Neal Miller in 1941and Leonard Berkowitz in 1961. The theory says that aggression is the result of blocking, or frustrating, a person’s efforts to attain a goal (Friedman Schustack, 2014). When first formulated, the hypothesis stated that frustration always precedes aggression, and aggression is the sure consequence of frustration. Two years later, however, Millerand Sears re-formulated the hypothesis to suggest that while frustration creates a need to respond, some form of aggression is one possible outcome. Therefore, the re-formulated hypothesis stated that while frustration prompts a behavior that may or may not be aggressive, any aggressive behavior is the result of frustration, making frustration not sufficient, but a necessary condition for aggression (Zillmann Dolf, 1979).

Nicholson (1992) perceived conflict as an activity which takes place when conscious beings (individuals and groups) wish to carryout mutually inconsistent acts concerning their wants, needs or obligations. In this case, the farmer has the right to plant his crops on his land while the herdsmen also desire to feed their cows on the weed around the farm land. In the process, crops meant to be harvested are being damaged.

According to Olu Adeyemi (2017) in Okoro (2018), a number of other variables influence the use of violence as well, for example the culture, the society, and the political environment. The culture must at least accept, if not approve, violent action as a means to an end. Violence is also more likely if the current leadership and/or the socioeconomic/political system are seen as unresponsive. This theory is however relevant to this study as it involves two parties whose path must cross on daily basis.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Impact of Herdsmen Farmer Conflicts on Food Security

Herdsmen-farmers conflict is an impediment to food security. The displacement of farmers from the affected communities has drastically reduced agricultural production. This has been amply demonstrated by relative shortage of farm produce in the rural and urban markets of central Nigeria (Chukwuma, 2016). This is evidenced in the tremendous price hike of food commodities across the county.

About 90% of the rural population is involved in activities related to the crop subsector which provides the bulk of agricultural income. However, the current herdsmen-farmers imbroglio has continued to deny many farmers access to their farmlands. Many community members deserting their farmlands and already cultivated crops in fear of being attacked by the herdsmen. Many have abandoned their farming activities which are their means of livelihood and relocated to other places, while some have been displaced and conformed in some IDPs camps (Okoro 2018)

According to the study carried out by Babagana, Madaki, Ibrahim, Adamu and Gujja (2019) in Yobe state, frequent occurrence of Fulani herdsmen and farmers clashes have become a common phenomenon especially in areas with considerable populations of the Fulani cattle rearers. A study of constraints to cassava production in Kwara State by Vanthooft et al., (2005), found out that over 90% of the interviewed farmers indicated that their greatest problem in cassava production is cattle rearers encroachment of their farms. On their own part too, the Fulani cattle herdsmen have also identified conflicts arising from land use as the major problem they face in their occupation. Babagana et.al 2019 has also documented increasing conflict-induced frustrations experienced by these two groups within and outside Nigeria resulting into farmers being jobless, food shortages everywhere, available ones are expensive, increase in armed robbery, increase in rural urban migration.

Furthermore, Gulseh (2020) in her study on farmers /herders conflicts in Nigeria, concluded that population growth, climate change, desertification, oil boom, industrialization, ineffective security personnel, impunity etc. are some of the most important reasons for the ongoing clashes.

However, Mawoli and Adamu (2020) in their paper “Solutions to Herders-Farmers Conflict in Nigeria suggested that ranches should be created and leased to herders as a mark of non-ownership of land in order to address the fear of land usurpation in the long-run. In addition, the ranches proposed by the Federal Government of Nigeria should be piloted in some affected states to be able to appraise its real potentials rather than totally rejecting it without subjecting it to any form of experimentation.

METHODOLOGY

Survey research design was adopted for the study. Primary (Questionnaire, Direct Observation and Focal Group Discussion) source of data was used. A total of three hundred (300) copies of questionnaire were administered purposively to respondents which consists of farmers, market women, drivers and individual of which two hundred and eighty five (285) were returned and used for the research.

The questionnaire was divided into three segments of demographic information of the respondents, causes of herdsmen and farmers attack and focal group discussion on the extent of the effects of the attack. 5 points Likert scale rating was used to rate response options which are Strongly Agree (SA), Agree (A), Undecided (UD), Disagree (D), and Strongly Disagree (SD).

Inferential Statistic (Stepwise Regression) was used for objective 1 while Focal Group Discussion was used for objective 2.

Some identified Causes of Herdsmen Farmers Conflicts from literatures

1. Decline in grass land
2. Insufficient Rainfall
3. Crop damage by cattle encroachment
4. Cattle rustling
5. Disregard for local traditional authorities
6. Inter personal dispute
7. Pollution of Water points by cattle
8. Using diabolical method to eliminate cattle
9. Poor government policies
10. Incidence of desertification
11. Domineering nature of the herdsmen
12. Killing of stray cattle
13. Revenge on reprisal attack
14. Violent habit

Food supply and sustainability

15. High prices of food stuff
16. Low production of food
17. Inadequate food stuff
18. Constant food supply
19. Adequate storage facilities
20. Reduction in farmers income

ANALYSIS, INTERPRETATION AND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS

Table 7.1.1 Economic Background of Respondents

Source: Authors fieldwork (2022)

Table 7.1.1 showed the gender of the respondents. It showed that 54.7% of those interviewed were female which account for the majority of the respondents. This indicates that there are more market women than their men counterpart in the market and more women comes to the market to either buy or sell. Also due to the nature of the research, more women are willing to give audience to our interview.

Table 7.1.2 Marital Status of Respondents

Source: Authors fieldwork (2022)

Table 7.1.2 showed the marital status of the respondents. From the table, the verse majority are married which consist of 61.1% of the total respondents while 30.5% are single. The outcome can be linked to the facts that there are more married men and women in the market either for buying or selling than younger ones who often visits the market as the occasion permits.

Table 7.1.3 Age of Respondents

Source: Authors fieldwork (2022)

Table 7.1.3clearly showed the age group of the respondents. From the table, majority of the respondents (36.8%) falls between the ages of 31-34 years while 24.2% are between 21-30 years.

This implies that most of the respondents fall between the ages of economically viable members of the society. Hence would be appropriate for the subject matter.

Table 7.1.4 Educational Background of Respondents

Source: Authors fieldwork (2022)

Table 7.1.4 showed the educational background of the respondents. From the table the verse majority of the respondents about 83.2% do not have tertiary education. They majorly have primary, secondary and vocational education which is of course needed for trading. However, about 16.8% of the respondents are graduates and do not need much assistance on how to fill the questionnaire but those with little or no former education were assisted.

Table 7.1.5 Occupation of Respondents

Source: Authors fieldwork (2022)

Table 7.1.5 showed the nature of occupation of respondents in the study area. Market women accounts for about 40% of the respondent, 18.9% are farmers who are very important target to this research work while 13.7% are drivers who are involve in moving foodstuff from the place of production to the market. The students and business men and women are basically those that visit the market for one transaction or the other.

Table 7.2: Reliability and Validity results

Source: Researcher’s Computation, 2022

Cronbach Alpha was used to compute the reliability test and Kasier Meyer Olkin (KMO) measure of sampling adequacy. These tools were employed to see if the items for each variable of the study are consistently answered and if the items really measures what they are meant to measure in achieving the objective of the study. The results showed that causes of herdsmen/farmers conflict have reliability value of 0.749 with validity value of 0.647 and food supply has reliability value of 0.716 with validity value of 0.640. As noted by Field (2009), reliability values and validity values that is above 0.70 and 0.60 respectively is considered to be good for further analysis

7.3 Stepwise Regression

The study adopts stepwise regression to screen out variables that do not cause crises between farmers/herdsmen. To measure the contribution of each of the variable to the variation in the possible cause of farmers/herdsmen conflicts, the data were subjected to the stepwise multiple regression analysis. The dependent variable (Y) is represented by the percentage of those who agreed that conflicts between herders and farmers can lead to high price of foodstuff from the questionnaire, while the independent variables are the 14 factors identified in the literatures. The result of the stepwise regression analysis selected six of the fourteen independent variables. In all together, the six variables explained about 74.4% of the total variation in the causes of farmers/herders conflicts at the 5% level of significance. The six variables are Poor Government Policies, Crop damaged by cattle encroachment, Incidence of desertification, Revenge on reprisal attack, Cattle Rustling, Domineering nature of herdsmen

The remaining constraints are not statistically significant in the explanation in the variance of the cause of farmers/herders conflicts and so were excluded from the analysis. The multiple regression equation generated from the analysis is represented as:

Y = 1.000 – .395×9 + .663×2 -.500×10-.349×13- .093×4 +.198×6

RES= 74.4

Table 7.3

Source: Researcher’s Computation, 2022

Table 7.4: Regression analysis for food supply and herdsmen/farmers conflict

Dependent Variable: Food Supply

Source: Researcher’s Computation, 2022

Table 7.4 showed the regression results for the causes of herdsmen crises and food supply in Nigeria. The results showed that cattle encroachment on crops has a positive and significant effect on food supply (β = 0.164, p-value= .000). Water pollution by cattle has a negative but significant effect on food supply (β = -0.120, p-value= .015). Domineering nature of herdsmen has a positive and significant effect on food supply

(β = 0.082, p-value= .000). Poor government policies has a positive and significant effect on food supply (β = 0.116, p-value= .000), Cattle rustling has a negative but significant effect on food supply (β = -0.066, p-value= .000), insufficient rainfall has a positive and significant effect on food supply (β = -0.044, p-value= .000); Violent habit of herdsmen has a negative but significant effect on food supply (β = -0.129, p-value= .000) and incidence of desertification has a positive and significant effect on food supply (β = 0.097, p-value= .000)

It is further revealed that causes of herdsmen/farmers conflict have 35.8% (0.358) explanation on food supply and sustainability in Nigeria. The f-statistic value 20.772 with p-value 0.000 implied that crop damage by cattle encroachment; pollution of water points by cattle; domineering nature of the herdsmen; poor government policies; cattle rustling; insufficient rainfall, violent habit of herdsmen and incidence of desertification can affect food supply in Nigeria.

7.4 Focus Group Discussion (Fgd) With Market Leaders At Mile 12 International Market.

This section elucidates the extent to which herdsmen attack affects the farmers, market women, individuals and the economy.

7.4.1 Causes of the Herdsmen/Farmers Conflicts Respondents are Farmers and Market Men/Women Association

According to the former secretary general and present auditor of the market association, Alhaji Abdul “Farmers and herdsmen depend on each other to survive” He said, and the reason for the conflict between the herdsmen and farmers is mainly caused by leadership problems. Also, another factor is greediness of the state government in the aspect of not allocating proper resources to the local government for them to make the environment safe for their wards.

This has led to lack of money to equip local security agencies and also there is no financial capacity to assist the affected parties. Lack of information on some immigrant herdsmen, their history and background has also contributed to the conflict as most of them are not Nigerians

7.4.2 How do you think the problem can be mitigated?

On the issue of mitigating the problem, he suggested that the government should enter into a process of mediation between herdsmen and farmers. Although there could be a conflict of interest on the part of the government but they should call those herdsmen, mediate and negotiate with them. The Police should also be involved in the process of mediation. The herdsmen are mobile and if the soldiers seal off their exit points in moving around different states, mobilize and round them up, they will be forced to drop their guns and surrender.

7.4.3. On how the conflict affect market men and women

The crisis has made food stuff prices to be multiplied and costlier even in the on-seasons where the food stuff production is at its peak and also makes it costliest during the off-seasons where food production is low. It has also affected the inflow of foodstuffs because people are scared to go to farms and harvest their crops from the farm due to the fear of being kidnapped or even killed by the herdsmen.

7.4.4. On whether the farmers usually have shortage of food supply in the market as a result of herdsmen attack

The head of farmers in the mile 12 International market said there are no times where supply is inadequate. In his word, the issue of food scarcity is properly tackled in this market because it is open to various routes in which food can come in (Benin, Cameroon, Ghana and other parts of Africa) so food scarcity is a dead issue in this market. The only time such was experienced was during the situation of “Double Taxation” of the vehicle operations where road blocks were mounted and drivers were asked to pay certain amount before they can cross to other states. This matter has been addressed by the help of the state government during Fashola’s administration by providing Police escort to trucks carrying goods to the Market and then they have to pay the proper dues when they arrive at the market.

7.4.5 What other ways do you think the conflict can be reduced?

Everyone is responsible for everything in this country because the people are the government therefore conflict resolution and control should start from the grassroots through village heads and community leaders. In the 1970s and 80s when Kings and Chiefs were in charge of certain areas, it was easy to tackle the situation of insecurity in any way because of their availability and love for the people they rule over.

The former cattle grazing routes should be re-opened; this is a big problem because grazing areas are now closed so the herdsmen have to look for another alternative which leads to clashes with farmers. The grazing routes should be found and more of them should be created. Adjustment and review of the constitution is also another way the issue of herdsmen can be resolved because proper allocation of authority to Local government Chairman, Kings and Chief to ensure that there is law and order. Now, the State government wants to do everything on their own without carrying other parties (local authorities) along.

7.4.6 Impact of Herdsmen and Farmers Conflicts on Savings

The amount being saved has reduced and is still reducing because products are now expensive.

The price of fuel (diesel) has increased therefore prices of hiring trucks to transport farm produce as increased so we make less profit. Poor roads have also contributed to the problem because whatever transportation cost used in bringing in the foodstuff would determine the final cost of the foodstuff in the market. Also because of the fluctuations’ the worst of it all is sometimes our people are been kidnapped and huge ransom would be use to free them. Some of the pictures taking during the interview session are in plates 3-8.

Plate 3 showing tomatoes/onions section in Mile 12 Market.

Source: Authors fieldwork

Plate 4 showing a fully loaded truck of yam entering Mile 12 Market.

Source: Authors fieldwork

Plate 5 showing the researcher with the Traders

Source: Authors fieldwork

Plate 6 showing the researcher interacting with the market/Farmer executives.

Source: Authors fieldwork

Plate 7 showing one the field assistants interviewing A market woman,

Source: Authors fieldwork

Plate 8 showing an interview session with the vice chairman of the market.

Source: Authors fieldwork.

Plate 9 showing the researcher and the field assistants at the gate of mile 12 International Food market

Source: Authors fieldwork 2022

CONCLUSION AND IMPLICATIONS

Fulani herdsmen and farmers violent conflicts have created humanitarian toll across many communities in Nigeria. Many have died, many displaced and properties in form of crops, animals, houses, vehicles etc. destroyed. Farmers, though, have occasionally been involved in carrying attacks or reprisal attacks against the Fulani herdsmen, have been seen to be mostly at the receiving end of the conflicts. Thus, from the findings it was discovered that the farmers/herdsmen conflicts play significant role in determining the prices of foodstuff in the market as well as being responsible for incessant hike in food stuff prices.

RECOMMENDATIONS

From the outcome of the study, the following recommendations are made:

1. Federal government should engage peace and conflict resolution experts in dealing with issues concerning herdsmen-farmer crises. This will enable effective dialogues, negotiations and of course a win-win resolution, while encouraging early warning mechanism.
2. Government should adopt community policing model to forestall peace in the rural areas as it will enable the police and the community members detect when the herdsmen gain access into the communities to attack residents. For instance, the south west states now established Amotekun (a community police) which has been yielding a viable result
3. Governments should review her constitution by promulgating legislations outlawing open grazing of cattle while encouraging herders to establish ranches for their cattle.
4. Government at all levels should try as much as possible to assist the farmers who most at times at the receiving end of the conflicts to cushion the effect on them by providing them financial assistant
5. Government should ensure that immigrant herdsmen information are collected and stored in the database as many of these herdsmen do not have any means of identification as a Nigerian
6. State governments should designate some areas as grazing fields for the nomadic herdsmen and make them pay tax to the state, whilst warning that any crime involving a Fulani herdsman would attract severe penalties.
7. Government as a matter of urgency should involve the military to seal up the exit points of Fulani herdsmen and battle them because a poor farmer cannot afford an AK 47 riffle to confront this deadly group of people.
8. Government should fish out the herdsmen sponsors who procure them with guns and other ammunitions to be carrying about and prosecute them. This will drastically curb their excesses

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17. Ogunnaike, J. (2022, January 16) Farmers/Herders clash erupts in Ogun, five killed. A Newspaper Published in Vanguard. Retrieved from https://www. facebook.com/sharer/ httpswww.vanguardngr.comfarmers-herders-clash.erupts-in-ogun-five-killed
18. Van’tHooft K, Millar D, Django S (2005) Endogenous Livestock Development Report from a Workshop in Cameroon, Campus Magazine, pp.38-39
19. Zillmann, Dolf (1979). Hostility and Aggression. Hillsdale, N. J.: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. pp. 126–133.

RESEARCH QUESTIONNAIRE

Dear Respondent

I am a staff of the above Institution. I am undertaking a research study on the impacts of herdsmen insurgencies on food stuff supply and sustainability in Nigeria. The research study will remain in the domain of academic environment and will serve the interest of farmers, market women, individual and relevant government agencies.

I therefore solicit your cooperation to fill the questionnaire

Thank you.

 Demographic Information of the Respondents

Please mark (   ) the response that is most accurate.

Section A

1. Gender Male (   )              Female (   )
2. Marital Status Married (   )          Single (   )            Divorced (   ) Separated (  )
3. Educational Background Vocational( )  Primary(  )  Secondary(  ) Tertiary(  )
4. Nature of Occupation: Farmer ( ) market seller (   ) Civil servant  (   )  Driver (  )             student (    ) Businessmen/women (     )
5. Age Group 21-30years ( ) 31-40years (   ) 41- 50 years (   ) 51years&above (   )

Part 2: Questions based on the Objectives of the study

Part 3 FOCUS GROUP DISCUSSION

The extents to which herdsmen attack affect the Farmers, Market women, Individual and the Economy

Focus group discussion guide to Farmers

1. Based on your own observation and memory over the last ten to twenty years, what changes have you noticed in your farming system?
2. What are your major challenges with the herdsmen?
3. How do you think the problem can be mitigated?
4. Do you usually have shortage of foodstuff supply as a result of the herdsmen attack?
5. Do you have any other thing to say about the conflict between herdsmen and farmers?
6. Do you get any assistance or support from government in your state?

Focus group discussion guide to Market Women/Men

1. What are the major challenges faced as a market woman?
2. How does farmers/herdsmen conflicts affects your business?
3. How do you think the problem can be mitigated?
4. What do you think is responsible for the continuous increase in food stuff prices?
5. What in your opinion do you think can be done to stop farmers/herdsmen conflicts in Nigeria?

Focus group discussion guide to Individual

1. What impact do you think the continuous conflicts between the herdsmen and farmers have on your savings?
2. How do you think the problem can be mitigated?
3. Kindly suggest possible ways on how to stop the conflict between herdsmen and farmers?
4. In your opinion, how has the herdsmen insurgency affect the economy of Nigeria?
5. Kindly suggest possible way out to this menace.