The conflict has accounted for the severe food crisis and insecurity in several parts of Zamfara state. Similarly, several agricultural lands have equally been destroyed. It has also accounted for environmental changes, degradation of agricultural soil, erosion of the genetic base of agricultural biodiversity, water scarcity, poor governance, growing demand and changes in consumption patterns, uncontrolled deforestation, export-oriented agricultural development policies and political malfunctions [1]. 

Rural banditry has become a widespread social phenomenon that is fast ravaging several societies of the world. In most cases rural banditry is usually the decision of individual centrally organized parties geared to engage in open armed clashes in disputes about power over government and territory and such conflicts are caused by several factors [2]. Among the factor include is insincerity on the part of one or the parties that were involved, is the disappointment from either of the parties that were involved, is internal disagreement [3], is inability to address the root cause of a long-standing conflict, is the proliferation of weapons and arms, that causes armed conflict, according to Atala and Hassan [4], is the ethnic factor. According to Best [5], rural banditry can only be made possible when weapons are made available to fight, thereby inflicting injuries and sometime death of individuals. Similarly, mischievous individuals take advantage of it to cause disturbance in order to achieve their interest [6].

According to Babatunde [7], rural banditry is fast becoming popular in developing countries than in developed ones. It is also fast becoming an integral part of the activities in most developing nations like Nigeria.

Earlier researchers Heynes, [2]. He further showed that the aftermath of armed conflicts in society has been consistently negative, for instance, it increases the rate of poverty, resulting to an increase in the number of internal displacement of several persons, causes outbreak of diseases, reduce food security and stunt impediment in economic growth. 

Just like other developing nations, Nigeria has in the last five decades, experienced various forms of armed conflict, most notably after independence. It has occurred in almost all the six geopolitical zones of the country. Even though the incidences do not cut across every state in each geographical zones, yet almost all the states have suffered from its negative consequences either directly or indirectly [8]. Thus, the consequences of rural banditry on the Nigerian society are negative and endless because besides affecting almost all the states of the federation it also affected virtually every other area in the state where it occurred. For instance, in Zamfara, it has led to massive loss of lives and properties and caused disease and disabilities. It has also increased the numbers of widows, widowers and orphans. It has raised up the rate of depression, trauma, mental retardation, suicide and environmental destruction with dire consequences for agricultural production and food shortages [9].

In a bid to cushion the effects of hardship posed by conflict in the rural areas of Zamfara State, the state government introduced various programmes such as amnesty. This programme is aimed at relegating the effects of rural banditry on the people of Zamfara State. It was observed that similar strategy was adopted at the Niger Delta by the Federal Government of Nigeria through the amnesty programme when the military force failed to deter the militants and bring normalcy to the region [5], where people have been forced to device coping strategies to ensure that they survive. 

Before the occurrence of rural banditry in Zamfara state, the federal government introduced International Fund for Agricultural Development-Climate Change Adaptation and Agribusiness Support Programme as a strategy to efficiently combat hunger and poverty, in seven northern Nigerian States Kebbi, Sokoto, Zamfara, Katsina, Jigawa, Yobe and Borno [3]. 

Figure 1: Map of Zamfara Sate

Source; Department of Geography UDUS

Figure 2: Sampling Procedure

In these States, women and farmers with small farm holdings were the most vulnerable group of people because they suffer from hunger and poverty. Since the incessant rural banditry began in Zamfara State, the socio-economic status of these people has become extremely low apparently caused by decreased participation in rural development programmes which by implication pose a threat to the IFAD -CASP.

Research Design

The researcher used an explanatory study. Fatile and Adejuwon [10], posited that explanatory research enables a researcher to explain the cause and effect of the phenomenon under study as well as describe the relationship between the variables identified in the phenomenon under study. One of the reasons for adopting the explanatory research is that, in addition to merely describing the phenomenon under study, the researcher wants to explain what and how of the study. Given [11], described explanatory research as a systematic process of inquiry that explains the why and how of a phenomenon. 

The research adopts a qualitative research design, in which two questionnaires were use in order to enable the researcher to gain a more comprehensive and in-depth insight into the subject matter. This gives a comprehensive explanation of the impact of rural banditry on participating crop producers of IFAD- CASP in Zamfara State Nigeria.

Study Area

This study was conducted in Zamfara State, the capital of Zamfara State is Gusau. The state was established in 1996 by the then military administration of the Late General Sani Abacha. Zamfara State was carved out of Sokoto State. It comprises of fourteen (14) Local Government Areas, with an area landmass of 38,418 sq. km. The state stretches between Latitude 10 21’ to 13 15’N and Longitude 60 20’E Figure 1 (Google maps, 2019). Zamfara Sate is bordered in the North by Niger Republic, in the South by Kaduna State, in the East by Katsina State and in the West by Sokoto, Kebbi and Niger States respectively, the state lies in the Sudan Savannah Agro Ecological Zone of Nigeria and has a population of 4,515,400 according to NPC 2019 projection.

Statistics have shown that more than 80% of the people living in Zamfara State engage in various forms of agricultural activities ranging from crop production of millet, guinea corn, maize, rice, groundnut, cotton, tobacco and beans to livestock and fish farming. The climate exhibits a definite mark of wet and dry seasons. Tropical continental air mass predominates during the dry season while harmattan last from December to February and wet season June to mid-October. Rainfall distribution varies from 675mm to 1000mm with an average annual temperature of between 26 and 30 degrees centigrade.

Sampling Techniques and Sample Size

The population of the study comprises of participating crop producers of IFAD-CASP in Zamfara State, North West Nigeria. The State is divided into three agricultural zones namely: Northern Zone (Birnin Magaji, Kaura Namoda, Shinkafi and Zurmi LGAs), Central Zone (Bungudu, Gusau, Maru and Tsafe LGAs) and Western Zone (Anka, Bakura, Bukkuyum, Gumi, Maradun and Talata Mafara LGAs).

A comprehensive list of CDAs was obtained from IFAD-CASP office in Gusau, then the selection of sample for the study was done using multi-stage sampling technique. At the first stage, from each of the three agricultural zones, three LGAs were purposively selected to obtain a total of nine LGAs. At the second stage, twelve CDAs were selected from each of the LGA selected to obtain a total of thirty-six CDAs. At the third and final stage, ten respondents were selected using simple random sampling from each of the selected CDA to obtain a total of three hundred and sixty respondents.

Method of Data Collection

The researcher engaged the services of research assistants. Both the researcher and the research assistants administered the structured questionnaire directly to the respondents and immediately retrieved them upon completion. While secondary information was obtained through journal, books, magazines, internet, past thesis, Online Library, encyclopedias and research proceedings etc.

Method of Data Analysis

After the data collection process, the researcher reviewed, sorted and labeled the instruments before the commencement of the analysis. This was done using the variables in line with the research instruments. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics (frequencies and percentages).

Table 1 shows the socioeconomic characteristics of IFAD-CASP Participating Crop Producers from the findings, Majority 71.9% of the participating crop producers of IFAD-CASP were male due to their active involvement in outdoor activities such as farming and animal rearing. While female participates mostly in indoor farming activities such as small animal rearing, processing, threshing and packaging of farm produce this is so because Islam is the predominant religion and has put some restrictions on women to interact freely outside the matrimonial homes and getting responses from such category is sometimes impracticable. These discrepancies are believed to have been influenced by the nature of the study theme- rural banditry which is highly practiced by the male counterparts [12]. Again, some women felt this is not their area of interest because they hardly participate. Even though they are also directly affected by these harmful acts as they are mostly the victims of rape abduction and other forms of sexual abuses [13]. 

The age of IFAD-CASP participating crop producers has effect on the level of activities. It determines the level of participation in the programme and it is an important measure of farm productivity. The age grouping can be divided into say the active group and dependent age group. Table 1 shows that about 32.5% of the IFAD-CASP participating crop producers were between the age ranges of 28-37years which is the active age range. At this age, the respondents are expected to be virile and able to do a lot of farm work if given proper incentives. According to Ashe, [3], majority of the respondents were within their youthful ages of active involvement in rural occupations which are mostly farming and rearing of domestic animals and invariably became more affected by the problem of cattle rustling as they are usually the target. 

This agrees with the findings of Gall et. al., [12], who posited that youth perform most active farm operation and majority of the youth are between the ages brackets of 18-35years. This was an expected indicator based on the fact that the youths have been highlighted as the main players in the rural banditry activities. This agrees with the findings of Given, [11], who opined that Majority 52.2% of the farmers were below the mean age indicating that the farmers were still in their active and productive years. Consequently, they may respond violently to conflict issues or become very aggressive to herdsmen due to youthful exuberance. Also, the results show the dominance of male in farming probably because men are more energetic and capable of involving in tedious production activities associated with farming than women. 

It is believed that married couples are likely to participate more in IFAD-CASP than single parent families due to labour supply in farming activities and access to productive resources in agriculture [14]. The research findings show that, majority of the IFAD-CASP participating crop producers are married having 77.8%, single having 13.6%, widowed 4.7% and divorced 2.5%. This implies that most of the participating crop producers have some responsibilities; therefore, marital status is an important factor to be considered in any programme of change to be introduced to the study area since family decision will be required in any activity to be embarked upon Gall et al., [12].

Zamfara State Climate Change Adaptation and Agribusiness Support Programme Officer (IFADCASP), said that the Programme was aimed to providing access to improved seeds and technologies that has helped farmers increase production as well as their income. According to the State Programme Officer raising the income of farmers through the provision of improved seeds and farming practices, which the farmers adopt has recorded high yields. “The programme has helped many farmers by increasing their yields and enhancing the farmers' income”. However, this research finding was in disagreement with the above statement due to rising issue of rural banditry and rural banditry in the study area. Majority 53.3% of the IFADCASP participating crop producers in the study area has an income of <N20,000. This implies that participating crop producers suffer more loss such as reduction in output and income from crop as a result of the destruction of crops and indiscriminate bush burning by rural bandits.

Table 1: Distribution of Socio-Economic Characteristic of the IFAD-CASP Participating Crop Producers in Zamfara State  n = 360

Source: Field survey, 2020

Table 2: Distribution of IFAD-CASP Participating Crop Producers According to Issues that Led to Armed Conflicts in Zamfara State

Source: Field Survey, 2020

Table 3: Distribution of IFAD-CASP Participating Crop Producers According to Sources of Rural Banditry

Source: Field Survey, 2021

The findings of Gall et al., [12], shows that majority of the farmers suffer more losses from farmer-pastoralist conflicts, especially economic losses such as reduction in output 20.0%, loss of properties 28.3% and scarcity of food 23.3% were regarded as severe economic losses experienced by farmers. A larger percentage 46.7% of the farmers indicated loss of properties as a major economic loss encountered as a result of conflict.

It is necessary to establish the residence of the participating crop producers, in such a way to find out the location of the participating crop producers either urban or rural dwellers. Majority of IFAD-CASP participating crop producers 83% are rural dwellers in the study area which are more affected by the issue of rural banditry and rural banditry while 17% are urban dwellers. According to Dimelu [14], in his studies on Livelihood issues in herdsmen-farmers’ conflict among farming communities in Kogi State, find out that 22% of the farming family lives in urban area. This could negatively affect the farmers’ perception of conflict situation and subsequently their behavior and altitude to conflict. This might be one of the reasons why farmer-herders’ conflict has remained unabated and a regular phenomenon in Zamfara state. This is in agreement with finding of this research which revealed 83% of IFAD-CASP participating crop producers are rural dwellers

Relatively the larger the family size of the IFAD-CASP participating crop producers may mean more people to cater for and more labour force will be available to work on the farm and help with other farming activities. The result in Table 1 shows that majority 33.8% IFAD-CASP participating crop producers have a household size of 0-5, followed by 37.5% of the participating crop producers have household sizes of 6-10 people. This implies that most of the IFAD-CASP participating crop producers have a larger household size which may have resulted from the need for family labour which may increase household productivity and larger household size may consequently result to more dependent family members.

Table 2 shows the Issues (Sources/causes) that Led to Rural banditry in Zamfara State.

The conflict that has started since 2011 created a serious problem between Fulani herders, farmers and rest of the communities in Zamfara State, this enmity has been one of the pushing factors that influenced the existence of rural banditry which extends to the IFAD-CASP participating crop producers. Rural banditry has a lot of hardship and state of fear among the residents of the state, the miscreants who take advantage of the terrain of some of these areas kill thousands of people and other valuable items were destroyed, sometimes women face constant intimidation and harassment including cases of rape and assault and abduction while children are forced to embark on unprepared migration due to the fear of the unknown [5]. 

The result in Table 2 indicates that, the major issue that led to rural banditry in the study area is widespread poverty with 94.4% among the IFAD-CASP participating crop producers. Although poverty is the highest contributing factor on conflict issues other factors also have a considerable bearing on the raids and which makes situation in study area very complex. The second issue that led to rural banditry is the proliferation of small arms and light weapons with 94.2%. The proliferation of light weapons like short guns, rifles, machine guns and other assault rifles in the hands of rural bandits are responsible for the increase in rural banditry in the study area. These findings are in line with the work of Hairiya [13], who found out that Proliferation of dangerous weapons among the rural bandits especially foreign bandits who travelled along the borders of Niger, Chad and Cameroon with arms and ammunitions concealed inside their loads help adversely in the spread of these dangerous weapon to other potential criminal gangs in the region.

The third issue is the issue of disputes between herders and farmers over access to land with 91.4%. The herdsmen-farmers conflict in Nigeria occurred 95 times within two and half years (January 2016-June 2018), it is important to state that since this research is solely based on online reports of the conflicts, it is unarguable that all the incidence reported by various media online that fall within the data frame cannot be sourced at once. However, it is clear herdsmen-farmer conflict is prevalent in Nigeria. This is because the conflict occurs 3.2 times per month 95/30 = 3.1667. The implication here is that, Nigeria as a nation will continue to lose her human and financial resource which is very disastrous to the overall national development if not contained [14]. 

The fourth issue that has led to rural banditry is the issue of illegal imposition of tolls by armed bandits on farmers seeking to gain access to their farms with 83.6% this conflict affected IFAD-CASP participating crop producers in the study area. According to IFAD-CASP participating crop producers, armed bandits’ attacks are mainly on rural communities. It could be argued that there is no village in Zamfara state that has not witnessed the impact of rural banditry in one form or the other. In carrying out their heinous acts, the bandits use dangerous weapons such as AK 47 Rifles, General Purpose Machine Gun (GPMG), Double or Single Barrel guns, Dane guns, Local pistols, Machetes, knives and Sticks. The attacks in most of the cases result in to the wanton destruction of lives and properties and high level of human rights violation [4]. The bandits understand the terrain more than the security agents. In some cases, they fire shots sporadically and kill unsuspecting persons indiscriminately before carting away animals, raping women or kidnapping for ransom, armed bandits who terrorized villages in Zamfara State perpetrate their criminal acts along different routes which cut across different parts of the state and the neighbouring states such as Katsina, Kaduna, Niger, Sokoto and Kebbi States Leadership. 

Before the year 2010, armed banditry used to be overlooked and under-reported and handled only by the locals. However, the year 2010 ushered in a set of criminal gangs who specialized in armed banditry and so a new style of banditry has emerged which involves not only rustling the cattle but killing the owners and scaring people away from their communities [11]. Furthermore, Anka, [1], posits that the 2011 general election in Nigeria has brought about the emergence of these security threats that have crippled social and economic life in some Zamfara communities including Dansadau, Zurmi, Shinkafi, Anka, Maradun and Tsafe forests. It is further discovered that no fewer than 36 communities along these villages have been destroyed and no fewer than 15,000 cattle are rustled [1]. The fifth issue that has led to rural banditry is the issue of the allegations of corruption practices against state security operatives with 64.9% due to the increase in bribery and corruption practices of the security agents. A study has shown that there are about 377,000 policemen for about 170 million Nigerians [7]. Sadly, enough more than half of these policemen are attached to politicians and other top government officials. This invariably means that the ratio is one poorly motivated police officer to over 500 disgruntled and discontented Nigerians. This ugly situation has created an avenue for the formation and proliferation of different informal security outfits to fill up the vacuum left by the Nigerian Police Force (NPF). The vigilante group of Nigeria is the oldest and largest informal security outfit in Nigeria, with a total of 3.2 million members across different states and Local Governments in the country [9]. 

The main objective of forming vigilante groups is to provide immediate security at the grassroots in rural areas. There has never been a time in Zamfara when the services of the vigilantes are more needed than this period of rural insecurity. It is the belief of an average person in the state that the vigilantes are up to the task of not only protecting them, but also providing them with security and a conducive atmosphere for peaceful co-existence [3]. The reason for this optimism is that members of the group are drawn from the local community with track records and reputation for hard work and commitment to peace and tranquility in the area. In fact, for one to be enlisted into the vigilante he has to undergo some screening, clearance and be recommended by his village or district head [14].

According to Anka, [1], the issues that have led to conflicts are legion especially in the area of resource use conflicts. The factors causing conflict such as boundary dispute (mean = 3.38), mean value of 3.27 on lack of respect for customs, mean = 3.58 on contested ownership, mean=3.42 on encroachment into farm land, mean = 3.45 on noncompliance with rules, mean = 3.46 struggle for power, mean = 3.39 on population pressure, mean = 3.51 on scarcity of land and mean = 3.45 on urbanization. They opined that about half of the land conflicts are over boundaries that occur mainly with neighbors or relatives who live close by. The second most common reason for conflicts is over inheritance, which exclusively occurs among relatives. In the past five years, it appears that there are more conflicts related to land sales. As the value of land increases due to population pressure, agricultural commercialization and urbanization, it is expected that the land sales market will develop over time. However, if property rights are not clearly defined, there could be more cases of land conflicts related to land sales. 

The result in Table 3 revealed that the sources of conflict in which 28.1% respondents agreed that conflicts in the study area occurs internally among the inhabitants of the area. This is aggravated due to the issues of land disputes, enmity, proliferation and illegal possession of weapons by the people. Internal sources could even be among members of the same family who may have differences in opinion which could be political or envious in nature. It is also clear from Table 3 that 71.9% respondents believed that the sources of conflict are external in nature. This according to the respondents occurs as a result of external sponsors providing support to banditry activities, the support could be through the provision of financial aid, dangerous weapons, mobility. This therefore aided the invasion of crop farmers to cause havoc in terms of destruction of crops/farms destruction of lives and property and even displacement of the farmers thereby causing serious poverty and hunger among the crop farmers.

Based on the summary finding of this study, the research established that majority of IFAD-CASP participating crop producers were male, married with a mean age of 33 years and an average income of less than N 20,000/ month. The factors influencing the participation of IFAD-CASP participating crop producers in the programme appears positive and statistically significant. This implies that a probability increase in the independent variables (conflict, insecurity, fear, location and experience in conflict) would led to decrease in dependent variable (participation). Further established was widespread poverty, proliferation of small arms and weapons competition for gold mines and dispute over farm land account for causes of rural banditry in the study area, resulting to economic, social and physical decline in livelihood of the crop producers. These conflict engagements have drastically affected the activity of IFAD-CASP in carrying out its mandate to the respondents in the study area. In addition, IFAD-CASP participating crop producers were perceived to derive less benefit from the programme.

The research therefore concluded that rural banditry has significantly affected IFAD-CASP participating crop producers in Zamfara state Nigeria.

Recommendations

Based on the finding of the research, the following recommendation were deemed necessary with a view to make IFAD-CASP viable instrument for the implementation of Agriculture, rural poverty and development:

• The Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affair, Disaster Management and Social Investment in collaboration with States, Local Government and Non-Government agencies should enroll the vulnerable into its social support investment programmes such N-power, Presidential youth empowerment scheme (P-YES) conditional cash grant, market money and other special intervention scheme

• Government should as a matter of urgency provide adequate security to mann the porous borders of the north-western states. This can be achieved through the Nigeria immigration service and other sister security and intelligence communities

• Federal Government in conjunction with State and Local Government should hence forth register all mining sites and the activities of mining companies be properly monitored by the Nigeria police force, security agencies and the community

• Both primary and secondary stakeholders like the community, traditional leaders, politicians, government and NGO should focus on providing information for early warning, organize training, workshop and seminar on peace building process and reconciliations. Promises made during such gathering should respected and redeemed

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