CAUSES OF FARMERS-PASTORALISTS’ CONFLICT AND MITIGATION: A PANACEA FOR SUSTAINABLE NATURAL RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN WESTERN ZONE OF BAUCHI STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

This study assessed the causes of farmers-pastoralists’ conflict and mitigation: A panacea for sustainable natural resource management in western zone of Bauchi State, Nigeria. Data were collected using questionnaire using descriptive statistics as analytical tool. Purposive simple random sampling technique was used to select 75 arable farmers and 75 pastoralists. Purposive sampling was employed to be enabling the researcher to capture pastoralist who were sparsely distributed. The result shows that most (73.91%) of the respondents perceived that conflicts do occur in the study area. The result also reveals that 59.40% of the respondents agreed that conflict frequently occurred only during rainy season. The results further reveals that, the major causes of conflicts include lack of defined cattle route (54.05%), poor government attitude toward agricultural development (52.03%) and inadequate grazing reserves (51.35%) among others. Also, 22.30% and 20.95% of the respondents reported that, pastoralist-fisher folks and farmer-hunter conflicts also occurred, respectively, in the study area. The result further reveals that major losses incurred due to conflicts include destruction of crops (92.46%), body injury (89.59%), loss of Livestock (57.32%), destruction of houses (52.44%) among others. Seventy five percent of the respondents perceived that youth were the major victims of conflict in the study area. The major constraints to conflict prevention and management include inadequate social infrastructures (91.21%), poverty (86.49%) and failure of government to implement agricultural policies (84.49%) among others. The study recommend that provision of adequate infrastructures (e.g., dams, grazing reserves, etc.) and sensitizing pastoralists to establish private grazing paddocks and boreholes will stem down the occurrence of conflict and subsequently enhance sustainable livestock production in the study area.