ABSTRACT

Nigeria has not given adequate attention to the inadequate adaptive and coping strategies in the face of a resource-induced farmers-herders conflict which impedes dairy business and the backward integration policy on domestic sourcing of dairy raw materials in the country. This necessitates the inquiry to assess the coping strategies by Fulani women in Kaduna State and the influence of the strategies on the sustainable livelihood of Fulani women in the milk business. The study employed the content analysis approach to infer into existing coping strategies and observation in the study area to deduce adequate information for a robust empirical inquiry. It was observed that the coping strategies employed by Fulani women in the face of farmers-herders conflict are symmetric in nature which is a recipe for the perennial conflict that claimed 1,188 lives in 160 attacks between 2005 to mid-2021 in the state. These frameworks are short-termed and revolve around the negative peace that aims to maim and neutralize the opposing party rather than employing innovative techniques capable of fostering peace and the sustainable milk business needed to actualize the backward integration policy of the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN). The study concludes in line with the foregoing that, existing coping strategies by dairy farmers in Kaduna State are inadequate to reduce vulnerability in the face of the increasing farmers-herders conflict in the state. Being that land tenure policies such as the Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranching Establishment Law and the proposed RUGA policies are beyond the coping strategies of and are discriminatory to herders and farmers respectively, there is a need for the formulation and implementation of sustainable livestock production policy such as the Sustainable Smart Agro-Climate Module (MAIS) that encompasses low-cost technologies and production practices, along with market integration strategies, and four phases of interrelated mechanisms of innovative production practices, technical training, financial enlightenment, and monitoring and evaluation by the Federal Government to enhance food security (dairy production) and assuage farmers-herders conflict and the environmental impact of pastoralism.