FARMERS-HERDERS CRISIS AND FOOD SECURITY IN NIGERIA: CAUSES AND IMPLICATIONS

Nsikak Mathias Udosen

Abstract


The paper examines Farmers-Herders crisis and food security in Nigeria: Causes and Implications. It viewed that Farmers-Herders crisis in Nigeria threatens food security, peace and sustainable development of the nation, Nigeria. The work maintains that the incessant crises occasioned by Herdsmen and Farmers in Nigeria, has claimed so many lives and property, and displaced so many, with attendant socio-economic consequences on sustainable development of the nation, Nigeria. Using Resource Access Theory (RAT), the work explains that the crisis between Herders and Farmers can be understood as the problem of access to land for economic survival, which as a result, has caused economic, political and environmental tensions in Nigeria, especially in the middle belt and southern parts of Nigeria since the return to democracy in 1999. The theory argues succinctly that the inability of the Fulani Herdsmen to have unhindered access to land for grazing, is to a significant extent responsible for why they often go into conflict with the host communities and farmers in Nigeria as access to the resource is the main cause of the conflict and violence. With this thriving crisis and violence of Farmers and Herders in Nigeria without proper steps by the Nigerian Government to tackle it to a standstill, the work posits that it portends grave implications for Nigeria’s food security, peace and national development. Therefore, in order to create an enabling environment for food security, peace and sustainable development, the paper suggests among others that there is need for the Nigerian Government to come up with a proper re-orientation programme that will breed good and social interaction, irrespective of religious and ethnic background. Government at all levels should be firm and fair in its resolution and implementation decision so as to tackle the crisis to a standstill. There is need for the Federal Government of Nigeria to invest on national orientation programme that will make herdsmen to see the need to value human lives and property in Nigeria, even as the Government should also strengthen its security apparatus and make it fully independent. The paper also recommended that there should be border policing to guide against illegal entry and possession of illegal arms and ammunitions for peace and development of the nation, Nigeria.

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farmers-herders crisis, food security, Nigeria

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References


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.46827/ejpss.v5i1.1165

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