IMPACT OF BOKO HARAM'S TERRITORIAL TERRORISM ON LEGUME FARMERS' SAVINGS

Abstract

The study investigates the impact of armed conflict on household savings in a weak institutions using household cross-section survey data collected in 2019 in one Boko Haram affected area (Borno State) and three non-affected areas (Kwara, Kebbi, Kaduna States and federal capital territory, Abuja) as counterfactual. Multistage sampling procedure consist of purposive and random sampling was adopted to select 956 legume farmers. The result of independent sample t-test of socioeconomic characteristics shows that legume farmers in conflict and non-conflict areas differed in terms of household size (P≤0.01), farming experience (P≤0.01), legume farming experience (P≤0.01), expenditure and saving (P≤0.01). The findings also reveal that age, years of formal education and legume farming experience are positively affecting being from conflict area (P≤0.01, P≤0.01 and P≤0.01 respectively). While farming experience, household size and expenditure are negative but significantly affecting being from conflict area (P≤0.01, P≤0.01, P≤0.01 and P≤0.05 respectively). The result further shows that the conflict has no impact on savings of the legumes farmers in North-eastern Nigeria. It’s then concluded that armed conflicts have no impact on a household saving due to viable interventions to improve farmers’ livelihood through legume farming in order to mitigate the impact of Boko-haram territorial terrorism in North-eastern Nigeria. It is hence recommended that an effective intervention could mitigate the impact of armed conflict on savings.