Gender, Climate Change and Herder Farmer Conflicts: How Far Has SDGs 1,2,3,13,15 & 16 Addressed the Crises in Southern Kaduna, Nigeria?

Abstract

Objective: The research is intended to interrogate the remote causes of problems arising from these concepts and to also proffering lasting solutions, taking Southern Kaduna as a study. However, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 2 and 13 that underscore hunger and climatic change to needs to be activated to address crises between farmers and the herders. While gender advocacy for equal treatment has gained popular support in the south, unfavorable climate change has reconfigured the life pattern of the southern Kaduna residents, in great manner that has affected their herding and grassing for cattle as their economic survival. Theoretical framework: This study adopted the relative deprivation theory as a framework for analysis. This theory was espoused by the likes of Davis (1959), Runciman (1966), Karl Polanyi among others. Relative deprivation explains the lack of resources as the reason for conflicts in the society. Methods: It adopted descriptive methodology in its data where secondary data was garnered from journals, publications, internet, Newspapers etc. Findings: Revealed that severe climate conditions terribly aggravated lands degradation, leading to decline in food, water and for survival of the cattle in Southern Kaduna, to which the quest for better grazing land leads to conflicts between the herders and farmers. Conclusion: The study recommended that sustainable ranches in Nigeria be revived with adequate facilities to minimize the effects of climate change through climate adaption mechanism as done in the western world.