CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.0 BACGROUND OF THE STUDY
Any form of violence that leads to insecurity in rural areas where majority of the people are farmers is bound to affect food security and farming practices anywhere in the world.
Farming system is an integrated set of activities that farmers execute in their farms under their resources and circumstances to maximize the productivity and net farm income on a sustainable basis. Farming system is an approach for developing farm- household systems, built on the principles of productivity, profitability, stability and sustainability. The farming system approach emphasizes understanding of farm household, community inter linkages, reviews constraints and assesses potentials. However the increase rise of banditry attacks on farming communities by the herdsmen has become a vital issue of economic concern.
Banditry is a term used to refer to acts of robbery and violence in areas where the rule of law has broken down (Collins, 2000). Banditry consists of the organization of armed bands for the purpose of attacking state or social institutions or enterprises or individual persons. Participation in such bands and in the attacks committed by them is equally regarded as banditry (Collins, 2000).
In West Africa, the prevalence and severity of banditry has contributed to the rising increase in regional insecurity with a potential threat to regional integration of the subregion (Abdullahi, 2019).
The United Nations in September 2020 observed that attacks by AlShabaab insurgent group will deepen food insecurity and obstruct farming practices into the year 2021 in Mozambique (Channels, 2020). In Nigeria, the Federal Government has realized that banditry has posed a serious threat to farming communities in the northern parts of the country.In April 2017, the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development in conjunction with the Minister of Interior initiated the formation of a special unit of AgroRangers Corps to protect farmers and farming Direct Res. J. Agric. Food Sci. 440 investments throughout the country (The Sun, 2017). The use of the Agro-Rangers was expected to forestall attacks on farmlands and boost farmer’s confidence to work on their farms without fear of attacks, thereby guaranteeing the Federal Government avowed food security plans (NSCDC, 2020).
1.2 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
The major threat to the agricultural sector in Nigeria is insecurity from both the Boko Haram and Fulani herdsmen. In the northeast of Nigeria, the sustained terrorist and banditry activities of the Boko Haram have had negative impact on agricultural activities and farming system. Not only are farming activities incapable of being carried out under an insecure environment, domestic agricultural production is stifled, farming communities are displaced and access to regional market is blocked (Eigege & Cooke, 2016). In addition to the Boko Haram group, the Fulani herdsmen have become a major threat to farming communities due to incessant attacks on these communities with attendant fatalities. The heinous banditry attacks carried out on these farming regions by the Fulani pastoral has made it difficult for farmers in these regions to go their farms to either plant or harvest. Aside the physical attack on the farmers, the damages carried out by the livestock (cows, cattle, etc) of this herdsmen deepens the sore of helpless farmers. The impact of this on the economy is reflecting in the undaunted rise in the prices of food commodities, scarcity of some food items and adverse food insecurity as areas of which food items are planted/produced are no longer producing. This because most of the farmers in agriculturally famous community of the middle belt, northwest and northeast have abandoned their farms and migrate to other communities in seeking safety for their lives hence leaving their farms fallow and unharvested crops which would pose adverse effect on the farming system. Therefore it is against this backdrop that this study seeks to examine the effect of banditry on farming system in Nigeria.