Effect of Farmers-Herders’ Conflicts on Activities of Extension Field Workers of Agricultural Development Programmes (ADPs) in Benue and Nasarawa States, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined the effect of farmers-herders’ conflicts on the activities of field extension workers in Benue and Nasarawa States of Nigeria. The specific objectives were to: describe socioeconomic characteristics of field extension workers of ADPs in the study area and determine the effect of conflicts on their activities. A total of 121 extension personnel were selected through stratified sampling technique for the study. Data were collected with structured questionnaire and analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The results indicated that the mean age of extension field workers in the study area was 41.5years and majority (75.2%) of them were male. Most (88.4%) of the extension field workers were married, while 62.8% of the extension workers had Higher National Diploma. The result also showed that the mean years of extension experience in the study area was 13.8 years. Test of difference on the effect of communal conflicts on the activities of field extension workers before and during occurrence of conflicts in the study area revealed significant differences in most of their activities like field trips (t=4.05, p=0.000), trainings (t=5.18, p=0.000), field days (t=3.29,p= 0.001), demonstrations (t=4.78,p=0.000) among others. It was concluded that the occurrences of communal conflicts in the two States hindered the activities of extension workers. Thus, the study recommends the use of combination of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) components by extension service providers as a means of disseminating agricultural information to farmers during insecure situations.