The Demographic Implications of Crop Farmers-Pastoralists Conflict in Benue North-West, Nigeria

Conflicts between crop farmers and pastoralists have become a common feature of economic livelihood in West Africa. The study assessed the demographic implications of crop farmers-pastoralists conflict in Benue North-West, Nigeria. The study adopted a cross-sectional survey design and a sample of 120 respondents was purposively selected from the three LGAs mostly affected by the pastoralists’ attacks. Data were collected using structured questionnaires, key informant interview and field observations and analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequency, percentages and mean). The study in its course found that availability of evergreen arable land (3,27), competition over available evergreen arable lands (3.0), damage to crops (3.12) and the proliferation and availability of cheap small arms and light weapons (2.52) are the major causes of conflict in the area. The study also revealed that the conflict has both short and long term demographic implication on the affected communities. The study recommended sustainable measures towards addressing conflict in the affected communities.

Shabu and Igbawua (2014) and the investigative panels and committees such as Tyoshin Traditional Council and Isherev Progressive Association in the study area who have outlined remote and immediate causes of the problem in the affected areas. The methods to be adopted by the government and all stakeholders ought to be all encompassing and multi-dimensional because of the far reaching security implications of the conflict on the development of the affected communities, and food security in Nigeria. Therefore the need for the modernization of both methods of production (crop farming-pastoralism) is a panacea, requiring government to take the bold steps of creating the enabling environment for both production systems to thrive in a symbiotic relationship devoid of mutual suspicion and animosity.
Every farming system has a boundary which separates it from the larger system that makes up the environment. Conflicts and violent clashes between farmers and nomadic cattle herders have been a common feature of economic livelihood in West Africa (Tonah, 2016). The boundary represents the limits in the larger system. Farmers regularly compete with nomadic herders for farmland, pastures, water, trees and the use of rangeland in general (Akpaki, 2002). There have been violent clashes between nomadic herdsmen and farmers in several parts of Nigeria for several years. The clashes are occasioned by the destruction of agricultural farms of the farmers by the cattle of the nomadic herdsmen.
However, in spite of the spate of violent clashes between nomadic herdsmen and farmers in Nigeria, adequate social research attention has not been given to the demographic implications of these clashes considering the tremendous population increase. It is against this background that this study attempts to examine the demographic implications of nomadic herdsmen and farmers clashes in Nigeria.

Study Area
Benue north-west consist of seven Local Government Areas; however, Makurdi, Guma, and Gwer West Local Government Areas were purposively selected because they are the LGA's that have mostly suffered the frequent attacks by pastoralists. The area lies between latitude 6 o 29 1 N -8 o 15 1 N and longitude 7 o 2 1 E -9 o 40 1 E. The area borders with Nasarawa state in the North, South by Gwer East and Tarka LGAs, West by Apa and Agatu LGAs, and East by Logo LGA and Taraba State as can be seen in Figure 1.  The river plains and the fadama areas on the banks of the prominent river Benue and other rivers and streams in the trough have green pastures all year round which constitute the major attraction to pastoralists who traverse the entire Northcentral geo-political region. The main occupation in the area is agriculture which includes cultivation of crops and livestock farming. However, the Fulani herdsmen who are settlers in the study area are predominately pastoralists. Some crop famers also indulge in livestock rearing which includes pigs, goats, sheep, poultry and cattle but on a limited size.
IJMRA, Volume 4 Issue 7 July 2021 www.ijmra.in Page 1002 Makurdi LGA which is one of the local governments in the area is also the state capital and has a total population of about 300,377 (NPC, 2006), with 11 council wards. Besides, Naka LGA has 15 council wards with an estimated total population of about 122,145 (NPC, 2006) while Gwer west LGA has 10 council wards with a total population of about 191,599 (NPC, 2006).

Methodology
This study employed a cross-sectional survey design and data were collected from a sample selected to represent a large population. Stratified sampling technique was employed considering the three crop farmers-pastoralist conflict prone local government areas in Benue state which include: Makurdi, Guma and Gwer West. Purposive sampling technique was then used to select a total of 120 respondents from the study area with forty (40) respondents selected from each of the considered LGA used for this study. Data collected from respondents using structured questionnaires was coded and summarized using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 20 software. Descriptive statistics such as frequencies, percentages and mean were used to analyze the data collected for this study.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 3.1 Causes of Crop Farmers-Pastoralist Conflicts
The study investigated the causes of crop farmers-pastoralists conflict in the study area. Table 1 reveals the key factors responsible for the incessant outbreak of the conflict in the area. This mean score (3.0) implies that the availability of evergreen arable land for grazing in the affected communities act as a pull factor that enticed the pastoralists to the areas resulting into the conflict. This is similar to the findings of Okoli and Altehe (2014) in their study which stated that herders tend to move from Northern and Southern Nigeria to the Middle Belt region where there is availability of vast arable land especially during dry seasons, thereby increasing the competition over farmlands consequently resulting to crisis. This implies that the more the herdsmen converge on the communities and the farmlands, the lesser the available land for crop farming becomes, and this increases potentials for conflict between the crop farmers and pastoralists. This conforms to Ayih (2013) assertion that, as the population of both the herders and crop farmer's increases; the grazing areas that were hitherto abundant are being taken over by scattered small farms, making grazing difficult.
According to the majority of the respondents (Mean=3.27), competition over arable and water point is the cause of crop farmers/pastoralist conflicts in Benue North-Wesr of Nigeria. The result also indicated that majority of the respondents attributed the crop farmers-pastoralists conflict to crop damage and compaction of farmlands by cattle hooves (mean=3.12). A study on resource use conflict between Farmers and Fulani herdsmen in Guma Local Government Area of Benue State, Nigeria by Musa, Shabu and Igbawua (2014) also came out with the similar results that the destruction of crops/farmlands by cattle is one of the major causes of crop farmers-pastoralists conflict in the area. This destruction of crops and farmlands results from the competition over arable lands by pastoralists and crop farmers.
Also majority of the respondents (2.52) see proliferation and availability of cheaper small arms and light weapons as a fuelling factor of the conflicts as agreed by most of the respondents in the study area. Similar finding was also highlighted by Abbass (2019) in his study of conflict for survival between pastoralists and farmers in Northern Nigeria. In addition, pastoralist migration as a result of ecological and climate condition (mean=2.53) also fuel crop farmers/pastoralist conflicts in the study area. The information obtained from the focused group discussion also revealed that the incessant conflict between the crop farmers and pastoralists in the affected communities is prompted by the easy and illegal acquisition of fire arms by youths. They disclosed that the herders during the attacks carry different firearms including AK47, double barrels guns among others unidentified weapons. Most of the respondents opined that if both parties have no access to firearms, the level of destruction of lives and properties and the frequency of the conflicts might have been on a lighter scale.

Demographic Implications of Crop Farmers/Pastoralist Conflicts
The result on the demographic Implications of Crop Farmers-Pastoralist Conflict in the area revealed that the conflict situation under review has resulted in dire humanitarian, socio-economic and political consequences. The effects of the conflict are discussed based on the empirical insight drawn from the field using relevant tools as well as exploration of relevant secondary sources.
The results clear the doubt that many people especially the crop farmers have fled from their homes and communities for their safety as a result of the security threat of the areas. The study gathered that many people from the affected communities are currently taking refuge in the IDP camps as can be seen in Figure 2 and 3. The displacement of crop farmers from their original homes, denial of access to their farms due to insecurity have social and economic implications on both the victims and the entire society because food production is vital to the livelihood of every one. Besides, the farming population of many communities in the study area has been depleted leading to wide spread hunger and poverty among the farmers. The study also examined the death toll and injuries sustained by the population in the affected communities. The data presented in Table 2 shows the number of casualties recorded from different attacks by pastoralists in different communities within the study area obtained from secondary data sources from 2011-2018. The attacks on different communities of the study area as a result of the crop farmers-pastoralists has claimed 190 lives and injured many leading many people to widowhood and orphans. The number of death reported between June 2011-May 2018 was 190 persons while those injured were 52 persons (Ayua, 2018). Tyohemba (2014) reiterated that the loss of a household member through death may be a critical economic loss particularly, if that person was a major contributor to the household's livelihood. Availability and cost of labour is affected because many rural households depend on cheap family labour.  4  17  10  2  9  20  2  33  5  3  6  3  7  49  17  3   2  -5  3  -----3  3  5  4  23  4 -Source: Adopted from the Report compiled by Ter-Tyoshin HRH Ayua Abomtse, 2018 4.0 CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS Conflict in agrarian communities largely revolves on livelihood issues or resource based. The results show that in addition to some structural factors, conflicts are associated with livelihood pressure and competition between crop farmers and pastoralists. Specifically, the dominant composite causes revealed in the study are competition over evergreen arable land and water point, damage to crops and compaction of farmland by cattle, pollution and proliferation and availability of cheaper arms and light weapons.
Consequently, the crop farmers-pastoralist conflict developed demographic implications reflected on the social, economic and political lives of crop farmer's population in the area with many killed while others rendered homeless, taking refuge in different DP camps across the state. The livelihood structure including life ad properties, food security and wellbeing of crop farmers and pastoralists are affected or threatened and compromised which contribute to deaths, poverty, food and nutrition, insecurity and poor health of crop farming communities and further escalation of conflicts. Therefore, sustainably addressing conflict in the communities is critical to achieving economic, agricultural development and sustainable livelihood of the population in the affected communities.