Crop farmers’ coping strategies for mitigating conflicts with cattle herders: Evidence from Osun State, Nigeria

Abstract

Abstract Farmer-herder conflict constitutes a severe threat to community peace, development, agricultural production and socio-economic life of rural dwellers especially crop farmers, thereby forcing them to utilise some coping strategies to survive the crises and cushion the effects. Therefore, the paper assessed the causes, effects, and coping strategies utilised by crop farmers to mitigate the effects of conflict with cattle herders in rural communities of Osun State, Nigeria. A total of 120 crop farmers (the more vulnerable ones) were selected across the state and quantitative data were elicited from them using a structured interview schedule. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse the data. Results show that respondents had a mean age of 44.16 ± 14.77 years and farming experience of 20.16 ± 11.23 years, and 75.7 % had formal education. Loss of crops (mean = 1.63) and reduction in farmers’ output and income (mean = 1.52) were the major effects of conflict, while strategies adopted include tightening farm security (mean = 2.93), praying for peace (mean = 2.91) and seeking help from friends and relatives (mean = 2.91). About half (48.6 %) utilised the coping strategies at a high level to mitigate conflict with cattle herders. There was a significant relationship between the coping strategies utilisation and the years of residence (r = 0.224), farming experience (r = 0.201) and effects of conflict (r = 0.567). The study concluded that although crop farmers utilised different coping strategies to mitigate the effects of herders’ conflict problem-solving types were most adopted. It is therefore recommended that government and other donor agencies should provide relief materials to crop farmers during conflict situations to enable them to cope with the effects of the conflict and resume their normal economic activities.