**4. Study findings: data representation and analysis**

This section is comprises the representation and analysis of data collected from the field of study and combines findings from the different study techniques applied in the process. First, we represent field data collected from farmers in Ukum, as are displayed in the accompanying tables and charts. This is followed by the representation and analysis of data from questionnaire responses, non-scalable interview responses from Ukum-based investors; and finally, we turn to and focus on data from direct and participant observation.

### **4.1 Findings from questionnaires and interviews with farmers**

Informed by preliminary interactions with farmers from around the Zaki-Biam of Ukum main study site, the questions in **Table 1** were formulated and used to


#### **Table 1.**

*Regional Development in Africa*

*above was directly adapted from the Web).*

*above was directly adapted from the Web).*

**Figure 1.**

**Figure 2.**

production. On the other hand, Ukum of the Tiv world characteristically typifies the tens of hinterland populations where conflicts are incubated and, in fact, frequently occur in Nigeria. Writing about the mainstream economic occupation of the people, an official statement of Ukum LGA states: "In fact, the Local Government

*Map of Benue state showing UKUM local government area (LGA) as the study site (the map of Ukum LGA* 

*Map of Nigeria with the 36 states of the country and showing the location of the study site (the map of Nigeria* 

[19]. Writing more inclusively about the whole state in relation to the vast human and natural dispositions that conduce to the people's extensive, productive engage-

*Benue State is richly endowed with natural resources of different types. The State has vast and fertile land which is worked by an enterprising rural population. Agriculture forms the back-bone of the Benue Benue State economy, engaging more than 70 per cent of the working population. Bush fallowing using simple tools is the dominant system though mechanization and plantation agriculture/agroforestry* 

<sup>1</sup> See Appendix A as **Figure A1** for "Food Basket of the Nation" symbol and pride of Benue State, Nigeria. We have and reserve our critical caveat over this symbol due to the political asymmetry and above all the core-periphery bipolarity we observed as this symbol represent though hardly spoken of by

for which Benue State is known"

is the pivot […] of the Food Basket of the Nation1

ment in agriculture, our source continues:

**150**

the indigenes.

*Tracking the impact of conflict on agriculture and development in Ukum, Nigeria.*

<sup>2</sup> It is of great importance to note here that the Ukum (and Tivland) of Bohannan's ethnographic experience and time has been very irreversibly transformed from subsistence to cash economy with so many causal linkages and implications this social transformation holds out for this population as our study observed it.


#### **Table 2.**

*Impact of conflict on agriculture and development in Ukum, Nigeria.*

#### **Figure 3.**

*Impact of conflict on Ukum-Nigerian farmers.*

collect data working with randomly selected 20 participants who were also engaged in follow-up one-on-one interviews. The data thus gathered from respondents are laid out in **Table 2** and **Figure 3**.

First, study data make it overwhelmingly clear that there is a direct correlation between the occurrence of conflict and outmigration among Ukum, Nigerian rural farmers; this is the stance of all respondents. With 19 out of 20 farmer-interviewees admitting that conflicts bring about high date tolls upon their communities, it is immediately and directly understandable why migration especially among young adults is usually very high in areas hard hit by conflict. Follow-up accounts of some informants indicate that some of these conflicts are socially engineered by their chiefs and elite whose prebendalist3 agenda is often hidden under the guise

**153**

**Table 3.**

*Agricultural Production Amid Conflict: Implications for Africa's Regional Development*

of community welfare and good. Yet they did not deny the need to stand up to and defend their lives, their land and property and, above all, their pride as a people against any and all attempts of their enemies to bully them out of their right to the

According to our field data, 18 out of 20 farmers abandon their farmed plots when conflicts strike; similarly, a very high majority of Ukum farmers (18 out of 20) experiences very high drop in crop production, and this is partly accounted for by the telling levels of discouragement among farmers whose motivation to produce is highly reduced. A majority of respondents (15/20) affirmed that conflicts are often correlated with the spread especially of sexually transmitted diseases. Closer follow-up interviews revealed that the two farmers who answered in the negative and the three who declined the question made their responses as a result of the traumatizing, psychological shame and the harrowing embarrassment this question triggers suggesting also either they themselves, their relatives, and/or friends may have fallen victim to this. On the other hand, it is strikingly noteworthy that all 20 participants stated that conflicts bring about sharp increase in the prices of foodstuffs and other commodities in the immediate conflict zones as in the wider areas of neighboring rural and urban communities. Whereas 17 out of 20 farmers see conflict as directly discouraging to prospective agro-based domestic and foreign investors in their communities, all 20 overwhelmingly concur that conflict inflicts wide-spread and multistranded poverty upon them. When further pressed in interviews in the direction of causality, all respondents agreed that land and related natural and or ecological resources are almost always the reason for conflict. This explanation was given for conflicts within and among communities of Ukum and those that occur between Ukum and other neighboring ethnic populations like the Jukun of Taraba (and Nassarawa)

As follow-ups, questionnaires were floated among investors, traders, and other business people within and around Zaki-Biam market of Ukum LGA. The aim was to pool data to be compared with findings from Ukum indigenous farmers. The same respondents who participated in this section were also engaged in follow-up interviews. As with Section 4.1, the overall aim was to have a better understanding of how conflict affects agricultural production and general community develop-

*DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.86613*

States bordering the Tiv.

**4.2 Findings from Ukum-based investors**

ment in Nigeria and Africa at large (**Tables 3** and **4**, **Figure 4**).

A/1: Have you ever experienced any cases of conflict in Ukumland? B/2: Do conflicts negatively affect investors' businesses in Ukumland? C/3: Do you feel secure doing business around the Zaki-Biam market area? D/4: Have you ever been hard hit by the outbreak of conflict in Ukumland?

E/5: Were your business assets looted during the crisis of conflict? F/6: Did you witness any persons die during conflict here in Ukumland?

*Impact of conflict on agricultural investment in Ukum, Nigeria.*

G/7: Have you ever felt discouraged by conflicts from expanding your investment here? H/8: Are other investors discouraged from investing their resources in Ukumland? I/9: Do conflicts bring about increase in the prices of food crops and all commodities? J/10: Do you feel there are effective institutional conflict management tools here?

land they have occupied from time immemorial.

<sup>3</sup> *Prebendalism* refers to political systems where elected officials and government workers feel they have a right to a share of government revenues, and use them to benefit their supporters, co-religionists and members of their ethnic group, and whom they, ipso facto, zombify and instrumentalize, but only to boost their purely utilitarian, materialist agenda. The term is commonly used to describe the patterns of corruption in Nigeria, and to point out why its democracy is not working. Though used in other or similar nomenclatural epithets all of which critique and caricature the flawed practice of democracy in Nigeria and other parts of Africa, it was Joseph's (2014) contribution that made it gain higher and projected currency in literature especially on corruption in Nigeria and its African likes.

### *Agricultural Production Amid Conflict: Implications for Africa's Regional Development DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.86613*

of community welfare and good. Yet they did not deny the need to stand up to and defend their lives, their land and property and, above all, their pride as a people against any and all attempts of their enemies to bully them out of their right to the land they have occupied from time immemorial.

According to our field data, 18 out of 20 farmers abandon their farmed plots when conflicts strike; similarly, a very high majority of Ukum farmers (18 out of 20) experiences very high drop in crop production, and this is partly accounted for by the telling levels of discouragement among farmers whose motivation to produce is highly reduced. A majority of respondents (15/20) affirmed that conflicts are often correlated with the spread especially of sexually transmitted diseases. Closer follow-up interviews revealed that the two farmers who answered in the negative and the three who declined the question made their responses as a result of the traumatizing, psychological shame and the harrowing embarrassment this question triggers suggesting also either they themselves, their relatives, and/or friends may have fallen victim to this.

On the other hand, it is strikingly noteworthy that all 20 participants stated that conflicts bring about sharp increase in the prices of foodstuffs and other commodities in the immediate conflict zones as in the wider areas of neighboring rural and urban communities. Whereas 17 out of 20 farmers see conflict as directly discouraging to prospective agro-based domestic and foreign investors in their communities, all 20 overwhelmingly concur that conflict inflicts wide-spread and multistranded poverty upon them. When further pressed in interviews in the direction of causality, all respondents agreed that land and related natural and or ecological resources are almost always the reason for conflict. This explanation was given for conflicts within and among communities of Ukum and those that occur between Ukum and other neighboring ethnic populations like the Jukun of Taraba (and Nassarawa) States bordering the Tiv.
