ARMED CONFLICT AND PEACE BUILDING STRATEGIES IN AGATU LGA OF BENUE STATE

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ARMED CONFLICT AND PEACE BUILDING STRATEGIES IN AGATU LGA OF BENUE STATE

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

Background of the study

Nigeria depends largely on its agricultural capacity for the production of food (crops and live stocks) for its teaming population. Flores (2004) reported that agriculture dominates the economies of most West African countries, being the key employer and major source of income and exports. Agriculture is an important sector of the Nigeria’s economy with high potentials for employment generation, food security and poverty reduction. Agriculture is the single largest contributor to the well-being of the rural poor in Nigeria, sustaining 90% and 70% of the rural and total workforce respectively and contributes over 40% of the Gross Domestic product (GDP) (Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), 2010).

Farmer-herdsmen conflict has remained the most preponderant resource-use conflict in Nigeria (Fasona and Omojola, 2005). The necessity to provide 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 the intensification of land use (Nyong and Fiki, 2005). The competition between these two agricultural land user-groups, however, has often times turned into serious overt and covert manifestation of hostilities and social friction in many parts of Nigeria (Rashid, 2012). The conflicts have demonstrated high potential to exacerbate the insecurity and food crisis particularly in rural communities where most of the conflicts are localized, with reverberating consequences nationwide.

According to Tanah (2006), conflict is as an activity which takes place when conscious beings (individuals or groups) wish to carry out mutually inconsistent acts concerning their wants, needs or obligations. Conflict is an escalation of a disagreement which is characterized by the existence of conflict behaviour, in which people are actively trying to damage one another. There is an ongoing grassroots war in the central and southern states of Nigeria between Fulani herdsmen and farming communities. It is an old age problem, but it has escalated in the last decade and has assumed a very deadly dimension (Okeke, 2014). The conflicts occur when Fulani herders move into non-Fulani homelands with their cattle usually leading to destruction of farmers’ crops. Thus, the herders provoke their victims to acts of resistance (preventing entry into farms, killing or stealing cattle, or poisoning fields). In response, the herders wage deadly attacks on farming communities. These action and counter-action had led to loss of several lives and properties (farm land, houses and animals), thereby reducing the production level of the affected communities (Adelakunet al., 2015).

Increasing frustration and impoverishment of farmers occasioned by perennial and extensive farm plot destruction, and the ensuing bitter conflicts are eroding the gains of agricultural and rural development interventions. It is against this backdrop that this study was conceived to evaluate the effect of communal conflict on yam production in one of the affected LGAs of Benue State. The following objectives were set out to:

i. describe the socio-economic characteristics of the yam farmers in the study area; ii. ascertain the causes of communal conflict; iii. determine the effect of communal conflict on yam production, and iv. examine the constraints faced by yam farmers in the study area.

Statement of the problem

There may have been previous researches in this subject. This work gives further explanations and analysis in armed conflict and peace building strategies in agatu lga of benue state

Objectives of the study
To understand the impact of armed conflict on peaceful coexistence in Agatu lga of benue state
To understand the relationship between armed conflict and peace building strategies in Agatu lga of Benue state

Research questions
What is the impact of armed conflict on peaceful coexistence in Agatu lga of benue state
What is the relationship between armed conflict and peace building strategies in Agatu lga of Benue state