Conflicts, Peace-building and Sustainability of Farmer-herder Practices in Tivland of Benue State-Nigeria

Tivland is located in Benue State, Nigeria, endowed with fertile land, luxuriant meadow for livestock browsing, and gateway for migrating livestock. Over time, farmers and herders co-existed, building relations of reciprocity, product exchange, and support. The passage of time ensued escalating tensions resulting in loss of lives and property, displacement of thousands and threatening livelihoods. In response to the escalating tensions, dialogue, cease-fire agreements and conflict resolution committees were opted for, with no solution in sight. Thus, the study examined the conflicts, peace-building and the sustainability of farmer-herder practices in Tivland of Benue State, Nigeria. Specific objectives were to, establish the changing pattern of farmer-herder practices, determine the related institutional arrangements that make farmer-herder practices conflictual and; examine the peace-building measures on farmer-herder conflicts and their effect on peace. The study adopted the survey research design. Multistage sampling technique was adopted to draw respondents for the study. The study population consisted of 16,599 farmer households and 20 herder camp heads. The Taro Yamane formula was used to determine the sample size of 420 respondents. The Farmer-Herder Practice Inventory and the FGD guide were used for data collection and were face-validated by 3 specialists in political ecology and conflict. The reliability of the instrument was through the inter-rater reliability with a recorded index of .902. Data was analysed using descriptive statistics, binary logit and chi-square statistic with a cut off set at a 0.05 level of significance. Findings indicate that farmers and herders production practices have undergone changes, moderated by population surges, changes in their prolific and tenure arrangements which conspired to decrease the probability of peace between farmers and herders in Tivland. Similarly, the disarticulation of the traditional institutional norms and rules of interactions by formal political institutions and other policy lines and the intermeshing of same divided farmers and herders about the institutional basis of their coexistence and thus, decreased the probability of peace. The impunity associated with the conflicts is linked to the State’s complicity in response to the conflicts. Findings also elucidates that the adoption of ranches and government bringing perpetrators of conflict to book are the peace-building measures that have the probability of increasing peace between farmers and herders in Tivland. It can be concluded that farmer-herder conflicts are linked to the alterations in practices while the disarticulation of the traditional institutional norms and rules of interactions by formal political institutions and other policy lines divides farmers and herders about the institutional basis of their coexistence, the choice of peace-building measures increased or decreased the probability of peace in Tivland. The study recommends agricultural land use planning that reflects the trends in population dynamics and environmental exigencies by government, farmers and herders should revert to mutual respect for traditional institutional norms and rules of interactions that hitherto made their co-existence peaceful, government should punish those who breach farmer-herder peace to serve as deterrence while farmers and herders should adopt ranching of livestock to deal with the space inefficiency and increase the probability of peace in Tivland.