Farmer-Herder Conflicts: Our Food Security Under Threat – FG

The Federal Government has expressed concerns over the incessant conflict between farmers and herders in sub-Saharan Africa, stating that it was threatening food security in Nigeria.

It said that it was high time crop farmers and herders co-exited peacefully, stressing that the conflict between both groups had dragged on for too long.

The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Mahmood Abubakar, said this in Abuja at the Regions Summit on Human and Climate Security Challenges and Farmer-Herder Conflict Resolution in the Livestock Sector.

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The summit was jointly organised by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, the United Nations Development Programme and the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the United Nations. Its theme was, ‘Promoting Peace and Climate Security in the Crop and Livestock Farming Sectors.’

In his address at the event, Abubakar said, “The summit became necessary as it provides the opportunity for dialogue and discourse on the way forward for achieving peaceful coexistence between crop farmers and livestock herders whose incessant conflict in the region is threatening food and national security in Nigeria.

“Farmer-herder conflict predates the existence of Nigeria as an independent, sovereign nation. It is a conflict that the previous and current generations of farmers and herders, especially rural dwellers have come to know and managed properly using traditional methods.

“However, the dimensions it has taken lately call for deep introspection into unravelling the causes of the heightened, unwarranted attacks by both actors in the conflict and more innovative ways of addressing it.”