THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC FACTORS DRIVING CATTLE RUSTLING AMONG HERDSMEN IN KADUNA STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

The research was conducted to unveil the socio-economics factors influencing cattle rustling among Herdsmen in Kaduna State, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling procedure was used to select 276 respondents from four Agricultural zones of Kaduna State; data was collected from the respondents and was analyzed using both descriptive statistics and tobit regressions. The result indicated an R2 value of 0.52 implying that 52% of all variations in the dependent variables were explained by the model. Experience in herding (-0.02535), output from farming (-0.00003), Group membership (- 0.46780) and Age (-0.51566) were negative and hence decreases the activity of cattle rustling in the area. Experience where not significant indicating least contribution to cattle rustling while output from farming (10%), Group membership (5%) and age (1%) were significant at 10%, 5% and 1%
significant levels respectively and indicates that they highly contribute to the frequency of rustling. Coefficients on total animals owned (0.01371), access to credit (4.25700), sex (1.22465) and household size (0.66412) were all positive and significant, implying they increases cattle rustling are associated with herders socio-economic factors. It is recommended that there is need to recognize that to some extent cattle rustling intersects with other forms of rural banditry, which appear to have acquired a dynamic of their own when situated within the wider context of the challenges of human security interventions scheme in form of provision of facilities and training should be advocated among the herdsmen in area.