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Assessment of Agricultural Production and Vulnerability to Conflict among Rural Households in North Central Nigeria

Oluwadamilola Kemi

Conflict connotes disagreement, dispute, or controversy in ideas or viewpoints held by two or more individuals/ group which ends up in disharmonious interpersonal relationship. It has a major impact on agricultural production in Nigeria. Communal clashes are one of the major conflicts that are dominant and it affects food production in North Central Nigeria. This study was therefore designed to examine the vulnerability of rural households to conflict; assess the impact of rural households’ vulnerability to conflict on agricultural production.

Data used for this study were obtained from a total of 179 households through a three-stage sampling technique. The first stage was the purposive selection of 10 crisis prone local government areas. Second stage was the selection of one village each from each crises prone local government areas. The third stage was random selection of 25 households. Major tools of analysis for this study included descriptive statistics, vulnerability index, and correlation analysis.

Farming households have conflict vulnerability index of between 58 and 63%. Farming households had a loss of 2467.25 Kg (grain eq.) which constitutes 36% of total output per annum to conflict, the coping strategies adopted by the rural household during conflict included relying on less preferred food as first and borrowing of food as fifth. Correlation analysis also revealed that 100% increase in output will lead to 16% increase in vulnerability to conflict among rural households.

It can therefore be concluded that rural households in North Cnetral Nigeria are vulnerable to conflict. It is therefore recommended that farmers should be trained and supported on the use of improved varieties to increase yield without increasing the size of land so as to avoid vulnerability to conflict.