Effect Of Conflict On Food Security: A Case Study Of Nigeria And Sudan

Abstract

Conflicts tend to affect food security by creating food shortages, which disrupt both upstream input markets and downstream output markets, thus deterring food production, commercialization and stock management. Depending on the location of the conflicts in a country, crops cannot be planted, weeded or harvested, decreasing dramatically the levels of agricultural production. In conflict situations, food producing regions experience seizing or destroying of food stocks, livestock and other assets, interrupting marketed supplies of food not only in these regions but also in neighboring regions. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of civil wars and conflicts and various other factors on food security in developing countries.

The study used a content analysis method thereby exploring some of the conflicts in Nigeria and the Civil war in South Sudan. The Paul Collier and Anke Hoeffler “Greed versus Grievance” theory was adopted. The method used for data collection in this work is largely library research entailing the use of books, newspapers, news magazines, journals, internet and other published works we have also used observation as another method for data collection.  

In our final analysis, the study revealed that there have been several incidences of conflict or civil wars in Nigeria and South Sudan which take their roots from politics, socio-economic or ethno-religious factors which have caused negative effects on food security and the survival of the citizens of the country. In its recommendations, the study suggests that predictability and quality of aid to agriculture should be improved. More financing focused on long term productivity growth is needed in fragile states to improve their resilience to global trends (e.g. resource scarcity and climate change) that raise the likelihood of conflict.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Title page

Approval page

Declaration

Dedication

Acknowledgement

Table of content

Abstract

CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION                                                                                        

1.1    Background of study

1.2 Statement of problem

1.3 Research questions

1.4 Objectives of study

1.5 Significance of study

1.6Scope and Limitation of study

1.7Research Methodology

1.7.1 Sources of Data

1.7.2 Population and Sample Size

1.7.3 Method of analysis

1. 8 Definition of concepts

1.8.1 Concept of Conflict

1.8.2 Food Security

1.9 Plan of Study

CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW/THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK                   

2.0 Introduction

2.1 Literature Review

2.1.1 Conflicts

2.1.2 Food Security

2.1.3 Conflicts and Food Security

2.2 Theoretical Framework

2.2.1 Relevance of the theory

2.6.1 Criticism of the theory

CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOY 

3.0 Introduction

3.1 Overview of Conflicts in Nigeria and South Sudan

3.1.1 Nigeria

3.1.2 South Sudan

3.2 Causes of Conflict

3.3 Levels of Conflict

3.4 Types of Conflicts

3.5 Escalation of Conflict

3.6 Effects of Conflict

3.7 Methods of Conflict Resolution

CHAPTER FOUR: EFFECT OF CONFLICT ON FOOD SECURITY IN NIGERIA AND SOUTH SUDAN                                                                                                                   

4.1 Case Studies

4.1.1 Boko Haram Insurgence

4.1.2 Niger Delta Militancy

4.1.3 The Fulani Herdsmen Crisis

4.2 South Sudan Civil war

4.2.1 Causes of the Conflict

4.2.2 Beginning of the rebellion

4.2.3 First Cease Fires

4.2.4 New Rebel Militias

4.2.5 Compromise Peace Agreement

4.2.6 Second Juba Clashes and renewed fighting

4.3 Potential effects of Civil Wars and Conflicts on Food Security

4.4 Major Findings

CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS                

5.1 Summary of Findings

5.2 Conclusion

5.3 Recommendations

References

CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

Food insecurity and armed conflicts are two major problems that have aroused the attention of international institutions, political analysts, and governments in developing countries. Over several decades, resources have been mobilized to reduce the number of hungry in the world, particularly in developing countries. The 1996 World Food Summit set the ambitious goal of halving to 400 million the number of hungry in the world by the year 2015. In addition, the first of the eight millennium development goals set at the 2000 Millennium Summit was to eradicate poverty and hunger [United Nations (UN), 2005]. However, over the past several years, progress has been slow and the number of hungry in the developing countries has increased from 799 million in 1998-2000 to 815 million 2000- 2002, [Food Agricultural Organization (FAO) 2002, 2004, and 2005].

Civil wars and conflicts have been associated with food insecurity in the developing world. FAO (2002), for example, notes that war and civil strife were the major causes in 15 countries that suffered exceptional food emergencies in 2001 and early 2002. Civil strife affects food security in developing countries due to its detrimental effects on the agricultural sector and on the economy as a whole. Several studies have been also conducted to determine factors affecting food security in developing countries. Research published by Zhao et al. (1991) has identified factors determining the growth rates of agricultural and food production in developing countries.

Specifically, their study involves statistical estimation of an aggregate growth or meta-production function based on cross country and time series data for 28 developing countries. Special attention was devoted to land degradation and pricing policy, and the overall results showed that price distortions in the economy and land degradation had significant negative impacts, while the change in arable and permanent land was positively related to the growth of agricultural and food production from 1971 to 1980. Their research expanded the conventional wisdom supported by a classic article published in 1971 in the American Economic Review by Hyami and Ruttan that fertilizer, mechanization etc. were the primary sources of agricultural productivity gains.

These expanded results, in turn, emphasized the importance of reducing government induced price distortions or “getting the prices right” and sustainable land and water management practices if the supply side of food security is to be enhanced. Smith et al. (2000) point out a number of factors explaining food security, and discuss the necessary conditions to achieve it.

The poorer least developed countries (LDCs) display intractable child hunger that is resistant to economic growth and/or increases in food supply, including international aid and imports. Net of increased food supply, child hunger is also created by a combination of militarism (increased military spending, praetorian government, and arms imports), the ongoing detriment of numerous “food wars” and “military famines,” the prevalence of ethnic repression, and the lack of democratization and economic growth. Militarization in the sense of increased military participation and arms production reduced child hunger net of these other regression controls.

Theoretically, studies have analyzed the effects of conflicts on food security (Taeb, 2004; Messer and Cohen, 2004), but failed to provide rigorous empirical evidence. Neither has the rich literature on conflict resolution and correlates of war analyzed the effects of civil wars and internal conflicts on food security. As Messer and Cohen (2004) argue, food insecurity has rarely been investigated by the studies of the economic correlates of war directly, although they often provide evidence that conflict is strongly related to factors associated with food insecurity.

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In this study, we examine the degree to which the prevalence of conflicts affects food security in developing countries. Are impacts of civil wars and conflicts more damaging to food deficit countries than to food secure countries? What are the determinants of food security in developing countries? Addressing these issues is crucial to policymaking decisions, since achieving the other millennium development goals hinges on tackling food insecurity particularly in developing countries. From a country level perspective, food security can be viewed as the extent to which daily per capita food supply or consumption departs from daily per capita minimum dietary energy requirements.

In this study, daily per capita calorie supply as a percentage of daily per capita minimum dietary energy requirements under which a country is eligible for food aid is used as a proxy for food security at a country level. Civil wars and conflicts are measured as the number of battle related deaths per thousand members of a warring population. The empirical results indicate that civil wars and conflicts, and food aid are detrimental to food security in developing countries, but an increase in gross domestic product per capita and using intensive and extensive agricultural practices contribute to enhancing food security.

This work contributes to two lines of literature: the literature on food security, the literature on civil wars and conflicts.

1.2 Statement of Problem

Conflicts tend to affect food security by creating food shortages, which disrupt both upstream input markets and downstream output markets, thus deterring food production, commercialization and stock management. Depending on the location of the fights in a country, crops cannot be planted, weeded or harvested, decreasing dramatically the levels of agricultural production. In conflict situations, food producing regions experience seizing or destroying of food stocks, livestock and other assets, interrupting marketed supplies of food not only in these regions but also in neighboring regions. These predatory activities diminish food availability and food access directly, because both militias and regular armies in the field tend to subsist by extorting the unarmed populations for food and any other productive resources.

Any food that the militias and armies cannot use immediately in the contested areas will be destroyed to prevent their adversaries from accessing it. Bearing these risks in mind, the farming populations tend to flee, decline or stop farming. Agriculture may be reduced to subsistence and survival production by farmers who manage to stay, because there is no incentive to invest deeply in production.

Recruitment of young male men into militias and thousands of battle-related deaths not only will reduce family income but also take away labor from agriculture. It may become more difficult for small farmers to rely on cash crops such as cocoa and coffee as their income sources due to either desertion of belongings in the face of threatening rebels or prevention from transporting the commodities to local markets. An example is in Ivory Coast where farming fared poorly during the months following October 2002, when government and rebel forces engaged in combat. Cocoa and coffee farmers fled their holdings because of rebels’ threats, and cotton farmers in the North were short of income owing to their failure to transport their product to the port of Abidjan (Taeb, 2004).

Another way conflicts result in food shortage is through landmines. Due to landmines, agricultural lands become inaccessible for years, harvests are destroyed and fields cannot be cultivated. Rural populations that depend on these fields for food are prevented from farming, therefore creating a breech in agricultural and food production (Messer et al. 2000).

In sum, food security is best served when the institutional environment prevalent in the developing countries guarantees security, stability and order. No promotion for savings, investment, and capital formation can be made in an environment where long-term private and public investments cannot be planned and carried through. The problem of physical insecurity and property rights may hold back incentives to invest in either production or research aimed at benefiting the agricultural sector and consumers.

1.3   Research Questions

In order to provide solutions to the problem of this study, the researcher will seek answers to the following research question

1. Does conflict affect food security in developing countries?
2. Are impacts conflicts more damaging to food deficit countries than to food secure countries?

iii. What are the determinants of food security in developing countries?

1. What measures have been taken to ensure food sufficiency in conflicting nations?
2. Do the measures help in bringing about food sufficiency in conflicting developing countries?

1.4   Objectives of the Study

The overall purpose of the study is to analyze the effect of conflict on food security in developing countries. Specifically, the objectives of the study include to:

1. Examine how conflict affects food security in developing countries.

Determine whether or not the impacts of conflicts more damaging to food deficit countries than to food secure countries.

iii.      X-ray the determinants of food security in developing countries.

1. Ascertain if measures have been taken to ensure food sufficiency in conflicting nations.
2. Examine the effectiveness of the measures taken in bringing about food sufficiency in conflicting developing countries.

1.5   Significance of the Study

There have been series of write up on the topic under study however; most of them have fallen short of practical applications. This study is thus significant in the following ways:

1. The study will show the effects of conflict on food security in the developing countries of Nigeria and South Sudan.
2. The study will help in bringing about what constitute the conflicting factors that determine food security in developing countries.

iii.      It will explore the different measures adopted in bringing about food sufficiency in conflicting developing countries.

1. Further, it will show the different roles played by government at different levels, organizations and individuals in ensuring food security in conflicting nations in developing countries.
2. After concluding this work, the intellectuals, the Government both Federal, state and local and other organizations can make use of the research in policy formulation and decision making processes.

1.7.1 Sources of Data

The method used for data collection in this work is largely library research entailing the use of books, newspapers, news magazines, journals, internet and other published works we have also used observation as another method for data collection.

1.7.2 Population and Sample Size

The research work examined analytically the effects of conflict on food security in developing countries of Nigeria and South Sudan. Thus, in an attempt to arrive at a logical conclusion, the entities called Nigeria and South Sudan was covered with a very close study on certain conflicts as exhibited in Nigeria and South Sudan.

1.7.3 Method of Analysis

The content analysis approach was adopted in the course of the work. This is built on the fact that this approach will help at bringing out useful case studies that can best enhance understanding on the issues of the effects of conflict on food security in developing countries of Nigeria and South Sudan.

1.8 Definition of Concepts

For the purpose of this research work, two concepts will be clarified as the form the variables of the topic under study. Thus, the concepts of Conflict and Food Security will be defined.

1.8.1 Concept of Conflict

Conflict is a struggle or contest between people with opposing needs, ideas, beliefs, values, or goals. Defined in broadest terms, conflict denotes the incompatibility of subject positions (Diez et al, 2006). This definition emphasizes the opposition or incompatibility at the heart of the conflict, and initially leaves open the exact nature of these incompatibilities, i.e. whether they are between individuals, groups or societal positions; whether they rest in different interests or beliefs; or whether they have a material existence or come into being only through discourse.

To Adams (1995), Conflict exists when two people wish to carry out acts that are mutually inconsistent. They will want to do the same thing or do different things that are incompatible. The definition of conflict can be extended from individuals to groups such as: states or nation. It can involve more than two parties.

According to Kirk-Greene (1971), Conflict is a negation which is anchored on behavioral norms. It is a negative or over-reaction to situation, idea, principles and other forms of behavior. Once there is the cause for inter-group relations, conflict becomes inevitable and peace must be given a chance. Hence, conflict could be seen as a natural phenomenon which must occur among human beings.

1.8.2 Food Security

Food security exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life. Household food security is the application of this concept to the family level, with individuals within households as the focus of concern. Food security can be taken to mean access by all people at all times to sufficient food for an active, health life (Reutlinger, 1985).

According to Maxwell (1992), Food security is asituation that exists when all people, at all times, have physical, social and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life.

Essentially, food security can be described as a phenomenon relating to individuals. It is the nutritional status of the individual household member that is the ultimate focus, and the risk of that adequate status not being achieved or becoming undermined.

Davies (2009) hold that availability of food alone does not seem sufficient to explain the attainment of food security in a country. Food can be available in a country because of effective agricultural policy; good harvest in a particular year or massive importation of food; or food handout (aid). Massive food import, particularly by developing countries, usually has negative effect on foreign reserves and causes budgetary hemorrhage.

In essence, a country should be considered as food-secure when food is not only available in the quantity needed by the population consistent with decent living, but also when the consumption of the food should not pose any health hazard to the citizens (Davies, 2009).

1.9 Plan of the Study

The study is divided into five chapters, this can seeing as thus: Chapter one, contains introduction which is subdivided into background of the study, statement of the study, objective of the study, Research questions, significance of the study, scope and limitations of the study, definition of concepts and organizations of the study.

Chapter two contains literature review subdivided into theoretical and empirical literature. Chapter three discusses the research methodology, chapter four dwells on data analysis, interpretation of results and chapter five talks about summary of findings, conclusions and policy recommendations.

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