FARMERS-HERDERS CONFLICTS AND GOVERNMENT’S ECONOMIC DIVERSIFICATION INITIATIVES IN NIGERIA

Abstract

The paper explores the implications of farmers-herder’s conflicts on government economic diversification drives during the regime of President Muhammadu Buhari between 2015 and 2023. Since discovery of oil in Nigeria, the country has continued to rely on revenue from the oil sector while other sectors like agriculture which hitherto to the oil discovery serves as the mainstay of the country economy suffers reckless abandonment. However, with the dwindling of oil revenue in recent years, the country’s economy has been affected. Hence the need to diversify. In order to achieve this, government has devoted a lot of energy and resources to deepening agriculture with various agricultural friendly initiatives and also encourage private individuals to embrace agriculture. However, the gains of investments in the sector have been eroded by the farmers-herders conflicts which has led to the destruction of farm land, loss of lives and destruction of properties worth billions of naira. The resultant effect is the high cost of food prices leading to hunger in the country. There is therefore the need by the government to show genuine commitment towards ending the conflicts. The study suggested that open grazing should be banned by the government, and adopt modern ranching to reduce or eliminate cattle rustling and the destruction of farm land. Keywords: Economy diversification, Agriculture, Open grazing