Effect of Pastoralist-Farmers Conflict on Access to Resources in Savanna Area of Oyo State, Nigeria

This paper examines the effect of pastoralist-farmers conflict on access to resources in savanna area of Oyo state, Nigeria. A snow ball technique was used to obtain a list of agro-pastoralists and their camps in the study area whose conflicts with crop farmers were caused by the nomadic pastoralists’ uncontrolled grazing. Fifty percent of the households in each camp were randomly chosen and simple random technique was used to sample male and female household heads. Data was collected through primary source by administering a well-structured interview schedule to the agro-pastoralists. Majority of the agro-pastoralists are married and they are within their active productive age. All male agro-pastoralists made cattle rearing as their primary occupation and their secondary occupations include crop production, goat rearing and sheep rearing, while milk processing and fowl rearing were primary occupation and secondary occupation of female agro-pastoralists respectively. Majority of the agropastoralists had no formal education, and not a native of the study area hence adoption of innovation will be difficult. The agro-pastoralists suffered in numerous forms and ways from the conflict ensuing between them and the crop farmers. The aggressiveness of the nomadic pastoralists was the prominent assumed cause of the nomadic pastoralists uncontrolled grazing. The competitive use of various natural resources such as land, water, shelter and air by various rural dwellers is inevitable. [Oladele O.T and Oladele O.I. Effect of Pastoralist-Farmers Conflict on Access to Resources in Savanna Area of Oyo State, Nigeria. Life Science Journal. 2011;8(2):616-621] (ISSN:1097-8135). http://www.lifesciencesite.com.