**2. Study methodology**

Since it is the case that the type of social phenomenon to be studied determines the study methodology applied, we adopted the analytic tool of political economy as our ideological inspiration and guide for the collection and interpretation of field data in this study. This choice is informed by the conviction that political economy opens a wide leeway for the exploration of factors impacting agricultural

**149**

**3. Situating the study**

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

development in rural parts of Nigeria as with other parts of Africa. Central to this leaning to the political economy ideological framework is the insight that taking up a definitional stance should start with social practices, not fully formed concepts since meaning of ideas is forged in concrete social practices [17]. If the concept of political economy, among other things "… encompasses studies of production, circulation, accumulation and consumption of goods, services and value" [18], then, the social practices involved in these activities and other related factors intertwined with them, in space and time, need to be explored for much better understanding. This is why we chose to approach this study from the perspective of socially grounded etymology [17]. As such, certain specific Nigerian agrarian milieus that had experienced and or are currently going through the horrors and hazards of conflict were chosen for this project. The study pitched its main tent of data collection in Ukum Local Government Area (LGA) of Benue State in Central Nigeria to track how conflict impacts agricultural production but above all with the view to examine how this agriculture-conflict strange marriage in turn affects the community's development experience. We compared our field data from this principal study site with what obtains in other rural farming parts of Nigeria and, by extension, in other parts of Africa and by appealing to extant literature on the subject. For the scientific exercise of data collection and analysis, the study applied such techniques as individual and group interviews, direct and participant observation, photography, descriptive vignettes, video and audio recordings. To hew meaning from field data, the study used tables, charts, graphs, descriptive analysis, and comparison with extant literature on related studies. With this study toolkit answers were sought to such questions as: What is the meaning of conflict in the Nigerian and African social context? What is the relationship between agricultural production and conflict? In what ways does conflict impact agricultural production in Nigeria? What specific consequences does conflict have on community and general development in Nigeria? What are the causes of conflict especially in agrarian rural Nigeria? Who are the actors of intra- and inter-ethnic conflicts in Nigeria? What institutional instruments of conflict control and management are there in place in Nigeria? If there are such tools, how effective are they? These and related curiosities informed the questions with which our study participants were engaged in the process even as this ethnographic inquiry stretches on into the future for more extensive exploration.

To get to the core of the subject of this study—on how conflict impacts the agriculture economy and general development of Nigeria, and ultimately of Africa the ethnography crafted to experiment the ideological framework engineering it was carried out using the earlier stated methodological tools and experimented in Ukum community of Benue State, Nigeria. **Figures 1** and **2** show the country and main site of the study respectively. Ukum is one of the 23 LGAs of Benue State in Central Nigeria. By virtue of its geographical location, it shares borders with Taraba and Nassarawa States in Northern Nigeria as is shown in **Figure 1**. Like other parts of Benue and sometimes much more, Ukum is heavily engaged in commercial agricultural production and is a major source of supply of both tuber crops, citrus, and a wide range of vegetables to other parts of Nigeria. Ukum is also replete with

Besides, and in addition to the foregoing, the Ukum community of Benue State was selected for this study for two major reasons: first, it purely represents the main features and heavily agrarian character of almost all the rural communities of Nigeria and Africa where incessant conflict looms amid the stages of agricultural

many markets that operate all week with Zaki-Biam being the largest.

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

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

development in rural parts of Nigeria as with other parts of Africa. Central to this leaning to the political economy ideological framework is the insight that taking up a definitional stance should start with social practices, not fully formed concepts since meaning of ideas is forged in concrete social practices [17]. If the concept of political economy, among other things "… encompasses studies of production, circulation, accumulation and consumption of goods, services and value" [18], then, the social practices involved in these activities and other related factors intertwined with them, in space and time, need to be explored for much better understanding. This is why we chose to approach this study from the perspective of socially grounded etymology [17]. As such, certain specific Nigerian agrarian milieus that had experienced and or are currently going through the horrors and hazards of conflict were chosen for this project. The study pitched its main tent of data collection in Ukum Local Government Area (LGA) of Benue State in Central Nigeria to track how conflict impacts agricultural production but above all with the view to examine how this agriculture-conflict strange marriage in turn affects the community's development experience. We compared our field data from this principal study site with what obtains in other rural farming parts of Nigeria and, by extension, in other parts of Africa and by appealing to extant literature on the subject. For the scientific exercise of data collection and analysis, the study applied such techniques as individual and group interviews, direct and participant observation, photography, descriptive vignettes, video and audio recordings. To hew meaning from field data, the study used tables, charts, graphs, descriptive analysis, and comparison with extant literature on related studies. With this study toolkit answers were sought to such questions as: What is the meaning of conflict in the Nigerian and African social context? What is the relationship between agricultural production and conflict? In what ways does conflict impact agricultural production in Nigeria? What specific consequences does conflict have on community and general development in Nigeria? What are the causes of conflict especially in agrarian rural Nigeria? Who are the actors of intra- and inter-ethnic conflicts in Nigeria? What institutional instruments of conflict control and management are there in place in Nigeria? If there are such tools, how effective are they? These and related curiosities informed the questions with which our study participants were engaged in the process even as this ethnographic inquiry stretches on into the future for more extensive exploration.
