Post-conflict livelihood change of farmers in Ife-Modakeke communities of Osun state, Nigeria
Adegebo S. A., Akinbile L. A.
Abstract
Livelihood Change (LC) is often the foremost priority of the individual victims, affected communities, governments and non-governmental organisations after conflicts. This study therefore assessed the post-conflict livelihood change of farmers in Ife-Modakeke communities of Osun State, Nigeria. A three-stage sampling procedure was used to select 153 respondents for this study and interview schedule was used to elicit information on respondents? accessibility to rehabilitation support programme, livelihood outcome [during Conflict De-escalation (CD) and Post-Conflict (PC)] and livelihood change. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics such as percentages, frequencies and mean. Few farmers (19.3%) had access to rehabilitation support programme and majority (81.7%) of them at low level while, farmers ranked provision of building materials as the most important rehabilitation support item to them. Livestock production and material possession among farmers were high (72.1% and 64.7%, respectively) during post-conflict. However, crop output of farmers was low (73.7%) during post-conflict. The livelihood change was low (7.1%) as majority (57.3%) of the farmers had low livelihood change, 14.7% recorded negative change while, only 28.0% had high livelihood change. It is therefore recommended that further support and assistance in form of provision of farm inputs and credit by Osun State Government, affected Local Governments and NGOs should be rendered to farmers in the conflict areas in order to enhance post-conflict livelihoods of farmers.
Keywords: Livelihood change, Conflict de-escalation, Livelihood activities and Farm diversification