Benue State Farmers-Herders Conflicts Wicked Problem – 1 : Agriculture Livelihoods for Food Sovereignty, North-Central, Nigeria (Published)
Farmers-herders’ conflicts impact on agriculture livelihoods (availability, access, utilization and stability): vulnerability, poverty, and well-being in Benue state, Nigeria. In 2022 qualitative and exploratory research was deployed in the 744 questionnaires survey at Guma and Gwer-West local government areas, Benue state, Nigeria. Data analyzed using the mean, frequency, percentage and Likert 5 scale to transcribe the social theory and construct validity. The results of the study area survey show: 79.5% conflicts frequency, 53.4% farming occupation, 88.6% conflict’s awareness and 34% government policy measures implemented on conflicts, in Benue state, Nigeria. Likert 5 scale consensus scores: illegal excavation: agreed (969); illegal mining: agreed (963); gas flaring: agreed (870) and deforestation: strongly agreed (1017). Significance drivers of the resource conflicts are: high conflicts of interest (374), high cattle rustling (379), obstruction of the gracing route (332), pastoralism crises and climate change. Agriculture livelihoods framework developed for co-value creation methodology for specific problems context for actors and stakeholders for sustainability. Human development, regenerative agriculture, and converged technologies can mitigate stress and shock adaptation strategies for the farmers-herders’ conflicts. Infrastructure ex-ante drives total factor productivity for agricultural growth (technology, organization, institutions, and resource allocation). It has an integral factor on agriculture livelihoods driven by an interconnected set of physical, economic, institutional, and social factors. Multi-stakeholder collaboration and partnerships will provide bespoke solutions: mitigate agricultural risks, desertification, transhumance conflicts, resource management, market linkages, defence security posture and agriculture supply-chains for food sovereignty to eradicate multidimensional poverty for the emergence of Nigeria and Africa agriculture corridor development.
Keywords: Agriculture corridor, Agriculture livelihoods framework, Climate Change, Farmers-herders ‘conflicts, Food Sovereignty, Human Capital Development, Livestock, Sustainability, spatial polysingularity