The impacts of equal access to land and farmer-herder conflicts on household food insecurity and production decisions in Nigeria : A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Lincoln University

Abstract

Food insecurity remains a key challenge in most developing countries, especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. Among others, the threats to food security include unequal access to productive resources like land and increasing resource-use conflicts over scarce land resources. Several studies attempted to understand how access to productive resources affects the food security of rural households and what this implies for female-headed households. Studies have highlighted the main causes of the increasing farmer-herder conflicts over land resources. However, few empirical studies have sought to understand the mediating effect of access to land on the influence of gender on food insecurity. There is also a lack of knowledge regarding the immediate and long-term influence of farmer-herder conflicts on the livelihoods and food security of rural households. This thesis, therefore, contributes to these strands of literature by investigating (1) the impact of gendered access to land on food insecurity; (2) the direct and indirect implications of farmer-herder conflicts on rural households’ production decisions and food security; and (3) the factors that influence the risk perception of farmer-herder conflicts. This thesis includes seven chapters. Chapter 1 provides a general introduction. Chapter 2 presents an overview of the data and empirical strategies adopted to address the research questions. Chapter 3 examines the mediating effect of land access on the effect of gender of the household head on household food insecurity using a logistic regression model and secondary data from the Nigeria General Household Survey. Chapter 4 determines the influence of the incidence and severity of farmer-herder conflicts on the food insecurity of rural households’ using primary data from 401 rural households in Nigeria and employs a two-staged predictor substitution instrumental variable analysis. Chapter 5 investigates the effect of the risk perception of farmer-herder conflicts on rural households’ production decisions using simultaneous equation regression analysis. Chapter 6 explores the factors influencing the risk perception of farmer-herder conflicts using ordinary least squares and seemingly unrelated regression analysis. Finally, the last chapter provides a general conclusion and discusses policy implications. The empirical results show that even though female-headed households are more food insecure than male-headed households, with extra access to one acre of farmland, they are 16% less likely to be food insecure compared to male-headed households. Results also reveal that both the incidence and severity of farmer-herder conflicts increase the food insecurity status of rural households; although, the severity of farmer-herder conflict has a larger impact than its incidence. Regarding rural households’ risk perception of farmer-herder conflicts and household production decisions, results indicate that the risk perception of farmer-herder conflicts exerts negative effects on the likelihood of adopting fertilisers, investment in fertilisers, and the degree of participation in the land rental market. In addition, rural households’ risk perception of farmer-herder conflicts exerts a positive and statistically significant impact on their time allocation for farm work. The results also indicate that farming experience of household head, farm size, crop and livestock diversity, migration status, number of languages spoken, ownership of formal title to farmland, settlement density, and household location are primary factors influencing the risk perception of farmer-herder conflicts. The findings of this thesis call for the development of policies that tackle unequal gendered access to land. Initiatives that facilitate procurement and enforcement of formal land titles to improve tenure security can reduce the perceived risk of farmer-herder conflicts. Finally, all results highlight the importance of dealing with the root cause of farmer-herder conflicts by facilitating policies that promote more sustainable herding practices to curb the likelihood of these types of conflicts.