Socioeconomic characteristics

Violent confrontations between farmers and herders have become a defining feature confronting peace and stability in many parts of Nigeria. This study assessed the effect of farmers and herdsmen conflicts on the livelihood activities of arable crop farmers in Benue State. Specifically, it describes the socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents in the study area, identified the livelihood activities involvement of respondents, identified the causes of farmers-herdsmen
conflicts, examined the key effect of the conflict on the respondents, ascertained perceived vulnerability factors to the conflict, and identified the coping strategies used by the respondents. The study was carried out in Benue State, Nigeria the selected sampled Local Government Areas are Oju, Guma, and Vandiekya with a sample size of 231 at a response rate of 99.3% (229). A
structured questionnaire administered through an interview schedule was used to collect data for this study. Data collected were analysed with descriptive statistics like frequency, percentages, mean, standard deviation. T-statistics in Binary Logistic Regression and F-statistics in Analysis of Variance and posthoc range test were used to make inferences. Results show a preponderance of male 62% over female 38% with mean age 38 years, the respondents had a mean farm size of 4 hectares, a mean household size of 4 persons and 19 years as mean farming experience. The study also showed that the farmers had a high level of livelihood involvement in major arable crop production with yam having the highest with �ത =3.68. The destruction of crops during the conflict was identified as the major cause of conflict with �ത =4.77 while crop was destroyed during the conflict was identified as one of the major key effects of the conflict with �ത =4.72. The ineffectiveness of security structure ( �ത =4.24) was identified as the major vulnerability factors to the conflicts. The study also revealed that children were withdrawn from school ( �ത =4.26) and children are now involved in child labour ( �ത =4.09) were the major ways
respondents coped with the conflict. Variables on determinant of conflict among farmers and herdsmen conflict such as sex (Wald = 18.06), age (Wald = -10.36), education (Wald = 8.12), religion (Wald = 27.14), type of farming (Wald = 17.06), farm size (Wald = 14.67) were significant at 0.01 level while primary occupation (wald=3.09) was significant at 0.05 level. Results further showed that a significant difference existed in the effect of conflict in the three local government Area as Oju experienced more than the other two Local Government Areas with the F-test values of 28.58 df (2) 226 at 0.01 significant level Also, armers in Guma were more vulnerable to farmers-herdsmen conflicts than those in the other local government Area
with the F-test value of 4.176 df (2) 226 at the 0.05 significant level. It was concluded that the conflict had a negative effect on the livelihood activities as the production income of the farmers in the affected Local Government Areas were greatly ecreased by over 50%