J. Agric. Environ. Sci. Vol. 5 No. 2 (2020) ISSN: 2616-3721 (Online); 2616-3713 (Print)

Publication of College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Bahir Dar University 19

Effects of Conflict between Pastoralist and Crop Farming Communities on Households’

Food Security in Kwara State, Nigeria

ShehuAbdulganiyu SALAU

1*

; Ibrahim Folorunsho AYANDA

1

; Isac Ade AFE

1

and NofiuBabatunde NOFIU

1

College of Agriculture, Kwara State University, Malete, Nigeria

*Corresponding author: abdulganiyu.shehu@kwasu.edu.ng; talk2salaushehu@yahoo.com

Received: April 6, 2020 Accepted: September 11, 2020

Abstract: Pastoralists-farmers’ conflicts in Nigeria have grown, spread and intensified over the past decade

and today pose a threat to national survival. Thus, this study measured food security status, assessed the effect

of pastoralist- crop farmers’ conflict on food security and described the coping strategies employed by the

respondents to reduce the effects of the conflict. Proportional sampling method was used to select a sample of

200 farming households. The analytical tools include descriptive statistics, logistic regression and food security

index. The study indicated that 54.5% and 45.5% of the respondents were food secure and food insecure,

respectively. Furthermore, pastoralist-crop farmers’ conflict, household size, sex, farm distance and access to

co-operatives were the significant factors driving to food security in the area. Moreover, farmers generally used

a combination of strategies to manage conflict. The ‘use of job experience, hard-working, early cropping,

appease other party and seeking for help from relatives, village leaders and governments were some of the

effective coping strategies used by the respondents to reduce the effects of conflict. Consequently, ranching and

use of Rural Grazing Area (RUGA) settlement be encouraged by the government to reduce the effect of the

conflict. Policies and strategies aimed at reducing the household size and enhancing cooperative formation

should be pursued.

Keywords: Conflict, coping strategies, food security index, RUGA settlement

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

1. Introduction

Food is fundamental to life. It is considered as the

basic means of nourishment, and a recommended

food intake in terms of quantity and quality is

critical for a healthy and productive life (FAO,

2005). Food occupies a large part of a typical

Nigerian household budget. The need for food is

topmost in the hierarchy of needs. Thus, the

achievement of food security is crucial to any given

country. A food-secure household is therefore that

whose per capita monthly food expenditure fall

above or is equal to two-third of the mean per

capita food expenditure. On the other hand, a food-

insecure household is that whose per capita food

expenditure falls below two-third of the mean

monthly per capita food expenditure (Omonona et

al., 2007). In Nigeria, food insecurity is still a

critical challenge among rural and urban

households (Ifeoma and Agwu 2014). The

country‟s food security crises became aggravated

as a result of the frequent conflict between

pastoralist and crop farmers (Gambari, 2018).

Pastoralism is the main livestock production system

in much of Africa where pastoralists live in semi-

arid zones. It is a historically developed strategy to

cope with the uncertainties associated with climate

change, a buildup of parasites and other related

challenges. It is above all an efficient way to

produce livestock at relatively low prices through

the use of non-commercial feeding stock. This

system of production is breaking down today as

violent conflicts between pastoralists and farmers

have arisen and created a major national crisis

(Gambari, 2018).

Pastoralist and crop farming conflict have remained

the most preponderant resource-use conflict in

Nigeria (Fasona and Omojola, 2005). Providing

food of crop and animal origin as well as raw

materials for industry and export in order to meet

ever-growing demands, has led to both

intensification and expansion of land use

(Nyongand Fiki, 2005). The competition between

these two agricultural land user-groups however,

has often turned into serious hostilities and social

friction in many parts of Nigeria. The conflicts

J. Agric. Environ. Sci. Vol. 5 No. 2 (2020) ISSN: 2616-3721 (Online); 2616-3713 (Print)

Publication of College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Bahir Dar University 20

have demonstrated high potential to exacerbate the

insecurity and food crisis, particularly in rural

communities.

Pastoralists-farmers‟ conflicts in Nigeria have

grown, spread and intensified over the past decade

and today poses a threat to national survival.

Thousands of people have been killed,

communities have been destroyed and so many

farmers and pastoralists have lost their lives and

property in an orgy of killings and destruction that

is not only limited to livelihoods but also affecting

national cohesion and food security. Recurrent

reprisal killings are simply making the possibilities

of peaceful resolution more difficult. Rural banditry

is becoming the norm in the Nigerian hinterland

and has been transformed into a vicious criminal

activity. The result is that the scale of loss of both

herds and human lives has been escalating and the

victims are on all sides – subsistence farmers,

commercial farmers and pastoralists (Cotulaet al.,

2004). This creates food availability and

accessibility problems at the household and

national levels (Akinsanmi and Doppler, 2005).

Several studies have been done on the determinants

of food security of households (Babatundeet al.,

2007; Omonona et al., 2007; Amaza et al., 2008;

Ifeoma and Agwu 2014; Ahmed et al., 2016; Salau

et al., 2018; Shehu et al., 2019). However, data on

the effect of conflict between pastoralists and crop-

farmers on farming households‟ food security are

rare in the literature. Thus, this study was therefore

initiated to measure food security status, assess the

effect of pastoralist- crop farmers‟ conflict on food

security and describe the coping strategies

employed by the respective stakeholders to reduce

the effect of the conflict.

2. Materials and Methods

2.1. Description of the study areas

This study was carried out in Kwara State. The

state is located between parallels 8º and 10º north

latitudes and 3º and 6º east longitudes east. It

covers an area of 35,705 Square kilometres, with a

population of 2,371,089 and a population density of

66 people/Square kilometres(NPC, 2006). Kwara

shares an international boundary with the Republic

of Benin to the west and interstate boundaries with

Niger State to the north, Oyo State to the

southwest, Osun and the Ekiti States to the

southeast and Kogi State to the east (Figure 1).

The climate is characterized by both wet and dry

seasons each lasting for about six months. The

raining season begins towards the end of April and

lasts till October while the dry season spans

between November and March. Days are very hot

during the dry season; from November to January,

temperatures typically range from 33°C to 34°C,

while from February to April, the temperature is

between 34.6°C and 37°C. The total annual rainfall

is about 1318mm with the mean temperature being

between 30°C-33°C.

Agriculture is the most prominent occupation in the

State and the principal crops grown are Cassava,

millet, maize, okra, sorghum, beni-seed, cowpea,

yam, sweet potatoes, and palm tree. There are a

total of 1,258 rural communities in Kwara

(Muhammad-Lawal and Omotesho, 2008). Rural

dwellers constitute more than eighty percent of the

total population of Kwara state. The State is

divided into four zones by the Kwara State

Agricultural Development Project (KWADP) in

consonance with ecological characteristics, cultural

practices and project‟s administrative convenience.

These are Zone A: Baruteen and Kaima Local

Government Areas (LGAs); Zone B: Edu and

Patigi LGAs; Zone C: Asa, Ilorin East, Ilorin

South, Ilorin West and Moro LGAs and Zone D:

Ekiti, Ifelodun, Irepodun, Offa, Oyun, Isin and

Oke-Ero LGAs.

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Publication of College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Bahir Dar University 21

Figure 1: Map of Kwara State showing the Local Government Areas

Source: Adapted from Ibiremo et al. (2010)

2.2. Data collection and sampling methods

Kwara State is one of the states in Nigeria that have

recorded a high incidence of pastoralist-crop

farmer-conflict. Out of the 16 local government

areas (LGAs) in the state, 10 are most associated

with pastoralist-crop farmer conflict (Adisa, 2012).

Out of these 10, 6 LGAs were randomly selected

namely: Asa, Patigi, Ifelodun, Ekiti, Isin, and Oke-

EroLGAs in the first stage. Secondly, communities,

where the conflicts are well pronounced, were

purposively selected in each LGAs. These

communities are Alapa in Asa LGA, Oro Ago in

Ifelodun LGA, Motokun in Patigi LGA, Obbo

Aiyegunle in EkitiLGA,Isanlu-Isin in Isin LGA and

Odo-Owa in Oke-Ero LGA.The lists of all affected

farmers were obtained through the village head.

This was followed by the proportional selection of

respondents from the affected communities to make

a total of 200 respondents as shown in Table 1.

Table 1: Number of sampled respondents in each Local Government Areas

S/N

Local Government Area

Name of the

Community

No of affected farmers in

each LGA

No. sampled

respondents

1

Asa

Alapa

57

36

2

Ifelodun

Oro-Ago

52

32

3

Patigi

Motokun

67

42

4

Ekiti

ObboAiyegunle

84

52

5

Isin

Isanlu-Isin

36

22

6

Oke-Ero

Odo-Owa

25

16

Total

321

200

Source: Own field survey results, 2019

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Publication of College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Bahir Dar University 22

2.3. Data analysis

Descriptive statistics, food security index and

logistic regression were employed to achieve the

research objectives. The socio-economic features

were explained using descriptive statistics while the

critical coping strategies adopted by respondents

were explained using a three-point Likers scale.

The respondents were grouped into food secure and

food insecure households using food security

index.

 









[1]

Where:

Fi = Food security index

PCFE = Per capita food expenditure

MPCFE = Mean per capita food expenditure

Note: ifFi> 1= Food secure i

th

household and if Fi <

1= Food insecure i

th

household

A situation where the per capita monthly food

expenditure (PCMFE) of a household is larger or

equal to two-third of MPCFE the household is food

secure. On the other hand, a food-insecure

household is a situation where the PCMFE is

smaller than two-third of MPCFE (Salauet al.,

2019).

To ascertain the influence of pastoralist-crop

farmers‟ conflict on households‟ food security, a

binary logistic regression model was employed,

which indicated below.

             [2]

Where

Z = the binary outcome of food security status

where food-secure household takes the value

of 1and 0 if otherwise

mo= Constant

m

1

, m

2

,…,m

k

= the regression coefficients,

which interpret the effect of X on Z

X = explanatory factors

k = number of explanatory factors

u = error term

The explanatory factors are:

X

1

= Pastoralist-crop farmers conflict (proxy

by total loss due to conflict in Nigerian Naira)

X

2

= Household size (adult equivalent)

X

3

= Farming experience of the household

head (years)

X

4

= Gender of household head (D=1 for male;

D=0 for female)

X

5

= Household distance to the farm (km)

X

6

= Co-operative membership (Yes = 1; No =

0)

To militate against the effect of conflict, coping

strategies of respondents were measured with 15

items on a 3 point Likert-type scale. These include

10 problem-oriented coping strategies (POCS),

three avoidant (or emotion-oriented) coping

strategies (EOCS) and two social support seeking

strategies (SSCS) as indicated by Adisa (2012).

3. Results and Discussion

3.1. Socioeconomic characteristics of

respondents

The majority (52.5%) of the respondents were

males with a mean age of 46.7 years. This suggests

that most of the respondents were still in their

active age (Table 2). Age is a critical variable

which can affect the ability and agility with which

the head provides the food needs of the household.

An old household head is more likely to have a

larger family size and may lack the energy required

to work for the upkeep and sustenance of the

family. Furthermore, 51% of the household heads

had access to one form of co-operative or the other.

About 12% of the household heads had tertiary

education. Hence, the respondents are supposed to

be able to make good decisions which will likely

enhance their food security status (Babatundeet. al.,

2007).The respondents operate at a subsistence

level with a mean farm size of 3.96 hectares. The

size of cultivated farmland cultivated may affect

production and consequently food security of the

respondents (Akinsanmi and Doppler, 2005).

Furthermore, the study revealed that the mean

monthly income of the household was N92, 0500

from agricultural and non-agricultural related jobs.

Households that could work harder and have higher

monthly incomes are more likely to cope with

conflict than those with lower monthly incomes.

The average household size was six persons among

the respondents. Their polygamous way of life

probably accounts for the large family size

documented in the area.

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Publication of College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Bahir Dar University 23

Table 2: Socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents

Variable

Frequency

Percentage

Mean

Age of the household head

1- 30

39

19.5

31-60

114

57.0

46.7

61-90

47

23.5

Sex of the household head

Male

105

52.5

Female

95

47.5

Level of education of the household head

No formal education

55

27.5

Primary

55

27.5

Secondary

67

33.5

Tertiary

23

11.5

Marital status of the household head

Single

15

7.5

Married

121

60.5

Divorce

19

9.5

Separated

45

22.5

Household size

1-5

75

37.5

6-10

113

56.5

6.43

11-15

12

6.0

The main source of income

Agriculture

112

56.0

Salary

55

27.5

Trading

33

16.5

Access to Co-operative

Yes

102

51

No

98

49

Household monthly income (Nigerian Naira)

50,000 - 100,000

138

69.0

101,000-150,000

54

27.0

92,500

151,000-200,000

8

4.0

Farm size (hectares)

1 – 5

165

82.5

6 -10

31

15.5

3.96

11-15

4

2.0

Source: Own field survey results, 2019

Table 3: Households’ food security status

Item

Food secure (%)

Food insecure (%)

All

Proportion of households

54.5

45.5

100

Number of households

109

91

200

Source: Own field survey results, 2019

3.2 Food security status of farming households

The calculated mean per capita monthly food

expenditure (MPCFE) was ₦4213.622. Households

whose per capita food expenditure falls below and

above ₦4213.622 were designated as food insecure

and secure households, respectively (Salau et al.,

2019). Hence, 54.5% and 45.5% of the farming

household were food secure and food insecure

respectively (Table 3).

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Publication of College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Bahir Dar University 24

3.3 Determinants of food security of households

The Nagelkerke R-value in the present study was

68.2% that indicated about 68% of the variations in

the dependent variable were explained by the

independent variables. Accordingly, factors that

were influenced food security were pastoralist-crop

farmers‟ conflict, family size, sex of the household

heads, household distance to the farm and access to

co-operative societies (Table 4)

The coefficient of pastoralist-crop farmers‟ conflict

is positive and significant at 1% level of probability

among the households. This suggests that the

larger the percentage of conflict, the higher the

chance of being food secured. This could probably

because the affected households usually get some

form of succor or help from relations, village

leaders and governments when conflict occurs. It

also suggests that the affected households usually

engage in other non-farm related activities to beef-

up the household income when conflict occurs.

Household size was negative and was also

important at the 1% level of probability. This

suggests that larger households may be food

insecure. These findings agree with those of

Shehuet al. (2019).

Sex of the household head was positive and

significant at 5% level of probability. This suggests

that male-headed households may be more food

secure than their female counterparts. These

findings agree with that of Ifeoma and Agwu, 2014,

who found out that households headed by males

have a higher probability of being food secure than

households headed by women. This may be as a

result of the fact that in male-headed households,

both heads and their spouse are involved in

income-generating activities while in female-

headed households, the head (who may be

unmarried or widowed) solely provide necessities

for the family. Household distance to the farm was

positive and important at 5% level. This implies

that the shorter the farm distance the more secure

the households. Surprisingly, age was not the factor

influencing food security of households in the

study area.

Table 4: Logistic Regression Analysis

Food security status (Y

i

)

Coefficient

Standard Error

Significance

Pastoralist-crop farmers conflict (X

1

)

0.000

0.001***

Household size (X

2

)

-0.336

0.100

0.001 ***

Age (X

3

)

-0.023

0.105

0.125

Sex (X

4

)

3.127

0.501

0.000 ***

Farm distance (X

5

)

0.649

0.269

0.016 **

Access to co-operative (X

6

)

2.049

0.466

0.000 ***

Constant

-4.128

1.522

0.007

Source: Own field analysis, 2019 **, *** = significant at 5% and 1% levels of probability

3.4. Coping strategies for conflicts among

farming households

The results of the present study showed that

farmers generally used various strategies to solve

conflicts as indicated below (Table 5). Ten

problem-oriented coping strategies (POCS) were

identified, out of which working harder (M = 2.09),

„using of own job experience (M = 2.06) and early

cropping (M = 2.08) were the most effective coping

strategies employed among the farming

households. These findings are in consonance to

that of Adisa (2012) who found out that while

farmers generally tended to use problem-oriented

strategies, herdsmen used emotion-oriented

strategies. This might be an indication of a strong

emotional attachment to the cattle among the Fulani

tribe in Nigeria. Similarly, the relatively more

pronounced use of problem-oriented strategies

among the farmers is an indication that they

actively sought solutions to the problems arising

from the destructions they encountered. Appeasing

other parties was the most effective emotion-

oriented coping strategies (EOCS). On the other

hand, the widely used social support seeking

strategies (SSCS) was sought for help from

relatives, village leaders and governments.

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Publication of College of Agriculture and Environmental Sciences, Bahir Dar University 25

Table 5: Conflict coping strategies adopted by the respondents

Coping strategy

Mean

STD

Problem-oriented coping strategies (POCS)

Working harder

2.09*

0.602

Used of own experience

2.06*

0.696

Borrowing money

2.19*

0.752

Selling old farms

1.45

0.640

Early cropping

2.08*

0.694

Buying food

1.51

0.626

Using seeds for food

1.59

0.595

Using charms (traditional medicine)

1.40

0.576

Diversification of incomes

1.46

0.625

Fencing of farms

1.76

0.752

Emotion oriented coping strategies (EOCS)

Accepting as fate

1.76

1.049

Praying for peace

1.65

0.591

Appeasing other parties

2.11*

0.689

Social support seeking strategies (SSCS)

Requiring litigation

1.89

0.598

Seeking for help from relatives, village leaders and governments

2.15*

0.734

*Effective coping strategies

Source: Own field analysis (2019)

4. Conclusion and Recommendations

The conflict between pastoralist and crop farmers

over the use of agricultural land is still pervasive in

Nigeria, and portends grave consequences for rural

development. This study assessed food security and

examined the influence of conflicts of pastoralists

and crop farming communities on households‟ food

security in Kwara State, Nigeria. The study

indicated that the majority of the respondents were

food secure. Furthermore, the conflict between

pastoralist and crop farming communities was

found to be significant in explaining the food

security of households in the state. Other important

determinants of food security are family size,

gender, farm distance and access to co-operative

societies. Moreover, farmers generally used a

combination of strategies, as no single strategy is

enough to bring the needed succor caused by the

conflict. The „use of job experience, early

cropping, appease other party and seeking for help

from relatives, village leaders and governments

were some of the effective coping strategies used

by the respondents in reducing the effects of

conflict. Pastoralist-crop farmers‟ conflict was a

significant determinant of food security status of

the farming households. Hence, there is a need for

the government to encourage the establishment of

cattle ranching and use of Rural Grazing Area

(RUGA) in order to reduce conflict. Households

should be advised to pool their resources together

and form co-operative societies. Larger household

size should be encouraged to diversify their income

base to reduce food insecurity in the area.

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare that there is no conflict of

interest for publication.

Acknowledgements

We appreciate the support of the Center for