Paper short abstract:

The study unraveled the overlapping connections and disruption borne by Fulani herders and farmers due to constraints on grazing and farming land. Disruptions and connection touches on grazing patterns, land access, livelihoods, water access, farmers-herders conflict and altering family relations

Paper long abstract:

This study digresses from the dominant narratives advanced by scholars and observers which examined the direct multifaceted impacts of Large-scale Land Acquisitions (LSLAs) which have become a commonplace in Africa—particularly Nigeria—in the wake of the 2007/2008 global financial, food and fuel crisis. In this light, the study interrogated the indirect fallouts of the phenomenon of large-scale land acquisitions by foreign agribusiness firms in the agrarian region of North-central Nigeria. While the dominant narrative advanced in extant literature are fixated on the direct fallout of such capitalist land commodification and expropriation, this study examined the indirect effects of the phenomenon in orchestrating connections and disruptions among socio-economic groups such as smallholder farmers and transhumant herders in north-central Nigeria. The establishment of the over 10,000 hectares Olam Integrated Rice Farm by the Singaporean firm Olam International in Rukubi-Ondorie communities heralded a disconnection of historical smallholder rice farmers from their farmlands, which in turn occasioned their emigration to farm on grazing paths seasonally utilized by transhumant herders leading to violent connections farmers-herders conflicts. Concomitantly, the dispossession and displacement orchestrated by this land appropriation further brings about disruption of livelihoods and water access for vulnerable households. Drawing on data collected through qualitative methodology and instruments, this study unraveled the inherent connections and disruptions to both farmers and herders caused by establishment of commercial farms on economically strategic spaces. Findings from the study reveals an intertwined and overlapping connections and disruptions to grazing patterns, land access, livelihoods, water access, and intra-family relations.