Understanding Factors That Moderated Agrarian Livelihood Practices and Farmer-Herder Conflicts in Tivland of Benue State, Nigeria

The study examined the factors that moderated agrarian livelihood practices and farmer-herder conflicts in Tivland of Benue State, Nigeria. The study population comprises of 16,599 farmer households and 20 Fulani herder camp heads that were found in the study area at the time of data collection. Multistage sampling technique was used to draw respondents for the study. Data collected was analysed using descriptive statistics. Findings indicate that changes in agrarian practices of farmers and herders in Tivland have been moderated by population surges, improved literacy levels, agricultural planned change interventions, changes in the mode of production and monetization of the economy, institutional transformations like the Land Use Act of 1978, the guarantee of freedom of movement in the Nigerian 1999 Constitution (as amended), the ECOWAS transhumance protocol of 1988, and alterations in the livestock ownership structure in the African pastoralists society which conspired to reduce the probability of peace between farmers and herders in Tivland of Benue State, Nigeria. Conclusively, the Nigerian state has a major peace-building challenge which may only be overcome by a systematic reconsideration of the meeting points between the culturally rooted practices, planned change interventions and the new political institutional norms that interfere with farmer-herder conviviality.