Climate Change, Resource Scarcity and Pastoralist-Farmer Conflict in North Central, Nigeria

Abstract

Pastoralist-farmer conflict has been a perennial security challenge in Nigeria. The conflict has led to the destruction of human lives and property, and spiral displacement of people with associated humanitarian crises. Several factors such as encroachment of farming routes, rape, religion and incessant migration have been adduced to predispose farmers and pastoralists to endemic violent conflicts. However, the roles of unmitigated climate change and resource scarcity in perpetuating the conflict have been given scanty scholarly attention. The paper examined the interplay among climatic change, resource scarcity and incessant conflict between the two agricultural groups. The eco-violence theory was adopted as an explanatory framework to anchor the paper. The paper relied on secondary sources of data. It maintained that unmitigated climate change and its associated drought remotely cause the pastoralists to migrate in search of pastures, thereby pitching them against the crop farmers. It recommended that more awareness should be created on the danger climate change poses to humanity. There is a need for public-private partnership to establish ranches for the cattle rearers in their domains in order to reduce constant migration.