Environmental Resource Competition and Herders–Farmers Conflict in Benue State, Nigeria: Implications for Sustainable Development

Abstract

Herders–farmers conflict has become a persistent challenge to rural livelihoods, environmental resource governance and sustainable development in Nigeria. In Benue State, competition over land, grazing spaces, water resources and agricultural landscapes has increasingly generated tensions between pastoralists and farming communities. The situation is particularly significant because Benue State possesses extensive arable land and is widely recognized as the “Food Basket of the Nation.” This study examines the environmental and resource-related drivers of herders–farmers conflict in Benue State between 2013 and 2023 and evaluates their implications for sustainable development. The study adopts an ex post facto design and draws on documentary evidence, published literature, reports, newspaper accounts and empirical studies, supplemented by qualitative evidence contained in the original study. Data are analyzed using descriptive table and percentage analysis. The study is anchored on Eco-Violence Theory, which explains how resource scarcity, unequal access to environmental resources and population movement can intensify competition and violent conflict. Findings indicate that destruction of crops, farmland invasion, disputes over grazing rights, reprisal attacks, communal clashes, cattle rustling and broader resource competition were important triggers of conflict. The evidence further shows substantial loss of lives, displacement of rural populations and destruction of agricultural land across conflict-affected communities. Climate change, desertification and changing pastoral mobility patterns have increased pressure on available grazing resources, while competition over land has intensified tensions between pastoralists and farmers. The study argues that the conflict represents not merely a security challenge but also a resource-governance and sustainable-development challenge, with implications for Sustainable Development Goals 13, 15 and 16. The study recommends improved land and grazing-resource governance, ranching, community-based conflict prevention, strengthened rural security and climate-resilient resource management.