Read at : Google Alert – desertification
http://leadership.ng/nga/articles/13026/2012/01/12/kebbi_dams_conflict_management_strategy.html
Kebbi: Dams As Conflict Management Strategy
The major cause of the consistent conflict between the Fulani and the farmers in Kebbi State may be a thing of the past if the current effort by the state government is anything to go by.
Over N1.2 billion was recently budgeted for the construction of about 24 earths dams across the state as part of what the state government described as measures to check the threat of desertification, which has always be a major factor responsible for the persistent Fulani/Farmer conflicts. This came on the heels of repeated appeals by both the Fulani cattle bearers and the farmers during the 2011 governorship campaign tour.
In the past, frequent clashes between the farmers and the pastoral Fulani cattle bearers have posed a major challenge to the Northern governments, especially those within the far north, where such communal conflicts are more pronounced. Every year, particularly during the mid rainy season and soon after harvest, alarming number of deaths were often recorded, resulting from communal violence between the peasant farmers and the pastoral Fulani, who were in many instances, blamed for deliberate encroachment on farm crops to feed their cattle.
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