**A.Appendix**

*Regional Development in Africa*

consequences for farmers and society at large.

development in Africa and everywhere.

being disrupted by conflicts between and among themselves. The study sought evidence-based data to generate a body of scientific knowledge to achieve its set target. To carry out the experiment, we selected a Nigerian agrarian community we found as ideal and involved people from different sides of the dialogue on the agriculture-conflict interface to track how the impact of conflict ultimately affects Africa's development experience. To further enlighten ourselves on what we found from the field of ethnography, we consulted as many related studies we found relevant on the subject. Our project led to finding on how conflict amid agricultural production constitutes a most unfriendly environment ending in many very costly

This study found that intra-inter-ethnic conflicts in Nigeria as with other parts of Africa almost always revolve around land and resources related to land on the one hand, and that whereas conflict between communities and ethnic populations is unavoidable it has however become something so intricately entrenched in politicization by the elite from both sides of the warring camps, on the other. This, in itself, contributes to why no meaningful resolutions are achieved when communities lurk in conflict. This is besides the claim of many that the official government of the land does not seem to have any interest in installing and maintaining effective, responsive, sustainable conflict management apparatus. This makes people feel on edge especially in those areas that are characteristically conflict-prone. In line with the foregoing, it was found that the consequences associated with conflict amid agricultural production include loss of human lives and property; destruction of farmers' farms and granaries, looting of both farmers' and investors' assets; fall in agricultural productivity directly associated with fall in the area of land farmers cultivate; displacement of farming communities that usually end in unsafe refugee camps; hunger and malnutrition; high cost of agricultural and other goods; exposure to different diseases especially the endangering of women and young girls who are preyed upon and end up with sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) that further debilitate them; prolonged hold placed on education, medical and other social services; fear and horror in addition to protracted trauma and lasting psychological shock; increased outmigration especially by young adults who leave behind their vulnerable family members. The ultimate effect of all these impacts of conflict among conflicting farming populations is that they produce a constellation of drawbacks that militates against regional development in Africa. For, it takes healthy, able-bodied human beings operating in healthy, socially and politically stable environments to remain productive in what they do in order to develop themselves and develop their communities. It takes healthy human beings who stay on in production and in self-development to realize and sustain the ideals of development in Africa, all of which is in keeping with the defined ideals of the democracy of

It is our conclusion, therefore, that where and when farming communities lurk in conflict over land and related resources, everything comes to a halt as their communities separately yet collectively stop growing especially in situations when government leaders take too long to take action and sometimes none at all, as our observations so far suggest. We suspend all policy-related recommendations at this time till more is done on this ongoing study. As such we project ourselves into other desired but yet unexplored aspects of this study including but not limited to engaging government officials in conversation beyond what is said in official publications; spending more time with farmers for more detailed data collection on statistical figures in light of the human and social cost of conflict in order to better inform policy recommendations. In pursuit of these goals, this self-sponsored study intends to involve more participants hoping to get to needed funds to break into

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these new grounds.

#### **Figure A1.**

*Symbol of Benue State Pride—"Food Basket of the Nation" (the picture above was captured at Makurdi, Benue state capital on July 20, 2013 by the researcher).*
