Abstract:
The agricultural potentials of Benue state are so enormous with food production capacity sound enough to feed the whole of West African sub-region (FAO, 2017) which explains why it is code-named the “Food Basket of the Nigerian nation”. The Benue valley and trough plays host to crop farming and pastoral agriculture due largely to its fertile soil and temperate climate which offers a favorable environment for crop farmers and herders to thrive thereby making it not only an agro-hub but a conduit-pipe for multi-culturalism. Crop farmers mainly of Tiv and Idoma and cattle breeders largely of Fulani ethnic groups respectively had co-existed in Benue state for several decades in a relationship better described as symbiotic. Today, this cordiality has deteriorated into bloody confrontations between the two divergent socio-economic groups due to their desire to protect their opposing interests in the face of climate change and increasing environmental scarcity. Most studies focus on the historical trajectory, dynamics, rationale and cause/effect relationship of the crop farmers/herdsmen conflicts in Benue state. They glossed over their quest for “survival” and preservation of what both crop famers and herdsmen consider as their culture and heritage dating back to antiquity as basis of the tension between them. The study examined the political economy dynamics of crop farmers/cattle-breeders’ conflicts in Benue state. It adopted mixed methods of data collection and qualitative descriptive method for data analysis while the Malthusian theory of Population Growth and Eco-scarcity was adopted as the analytical framework. The study found among other things that dispute over land resource use between herders and crop farmers is implicated in the increasing collapse of cattle/food crop economy in Benue State. It recommended that the Federal and State Governments must reconcile the designation of corridors for passage of livestock as a panacea for lasting peace in Benue state.
