May 15, (THEWILL) – Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Foundation of Germany, has said that it is introducing result-based activities and a roadmap towards ending the farmers-herders crisis in North Central Nigeria.
The Foundation stated this at a roundtable discussion on the root cause of farmers-herders crisis in North Central Nigeria, organised by CHARIS Healthcare and Community Support Initiative; a non governmental organisation based in Jos, and concerned with supporting individuals, families and communities in distress through the provision of evidence based psychosocial care and support, achieving immediate and lasting change.
According to the Foundation, understanding the root cause of the problem is key to ending the menace which has cost lots of lives and properties over the years.
A highlight of the event was free distribution and review of a reference book capturing a research report on the root cause of farmers-herders crisis in North Central Nigeria.
The research, funded by the Rosa Luxemburg Stiftung Foundation, was undertaken by two lecturers of the Department of Sociology, University of Jos, Plangshak Musa Suchi (Ph.D) and Sallek Yaks Musa (Ph.D).
According to the brochure, the study carried out 72 in-depth interviews with traditional rulers, community leaders, religious leaders, representatives of local government authority, farmers, herders, security agencies and members of the civil society, across selected affected communities in North Central states, with a view to understanding the root cause of the farmers-herders crisis in the region.
The findings revealed that the crisis was caused by multiple, but interrelated socio-economic and political factors associated with the structure of the society and the character of the Nigerian state with the immediate trigger of the crisis often being the destruction of food crops by cattle and/or cattle rustling by criminal elements.
“Beyond these manifest causes, some deeper and more fundamental factors propelling the crisis were equally identified. Principal among these include, scarcity of economic resources, especially arable land and fresh water, which some of the participants associated with explosion in human and animal population. There is also an influx of herders and expansion of farming activities and cattle grazing”, part of the report says.
The Report also explains that, “others are socio-political marginalisation of ethnic and/or occupational groups, especially the marginalisation of Fulani herders in the political affairs of some farming communities including discriminatory policies, deeply entrenched ethnic animosity between farming communities and the Fulani herders, which is further associated with cultural tension between the two parties, religious prejudice and sentiments between the predominantly Christian farmers and the Muslim Fulani dominated herders.”
The Report also notes “security and justice institutions which mostly manifest in poor handling of the cases of crop destruction by security and justice agencies across the communities, high level of unemployment and endemic poverty in the rural communities.”
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