Climate-Driven Conflicts in Nigeria: Farmers’ Strategies for Coping with Herders’ Incursion on Crop Lands

Conflicts between crop farmers and herdsmen in Nigeria have intensified in recent decades, posing a danger to agricultural sustainability, rural livelihoods, and food security. This study investigated coping strategies that arable crop farmers have adopted in Enugu State, Nigeria, against herders’ incursions. Data were collected through the use of a structured questionnaire. According to the result, herders’ activities, including crop destruction, assaults on women, and intimidation, have severely affected livelihoods, which has resulted in reduced income and declining productivity. In response, most farmers applied some measures such as fencing, group farming, and cultivating small plots near homesteads to avoid clashing with the marauding Fulani pastoralists. Among all the measures adopted by the farmers, results reveal that only collective strategies, such as group farming and cultivating small plots close to homesteads, were sustainable. The study pointed out the limited capacity of rural households to cope alone and suggested the need for government assistance, such as the provision of less expensive protective infrastructure and stronger community security arrangements. The study recommends that the government should ensure and employ conflict management strategies through empowering traditional institutions with delegated legislation to ameliorate further occurrences. The research contributes to the body of literature by revealing the farmers’ viewpoints and strategies within the broader discourse on farmer–herder conflicts in Nigeria.