The Impact of Violent Conflict on Food Supply Chains: The Case of Nigerian Maize Traders
Publisher: Research in Agricultural and Applied Economics
Author(s): Carolina M. Vargas, Thomas Reardon, and Lenis Saweda O. Liverpool-Tasie
Date: 2023
Topics: Disasters, Governance, Land, Livelihoods, Public Health, Renewable Resources
Countries: Nigeria
This paper examines patterns of violent shocks and insecurity on maize traders in Nigeria. Violence has become more common in Nigeria in the past 10-15 years. This includes attacks and kidnappings by Boko Haram (continuously in the world news) and more recently increased farmer-herder conflicts, kidnappings, and banditry. This increased violence hurts farming, rural labor supply, welfare, and food security (George et al. 2021, Arias et al, 2017, and Bozzoli & Brück, 2009). Past literature has studied micro-level effects of violence, but in the agrifood sector it has focused almost exclusively on farmers. The effects of violence on other food supply chain actors, including traders, has been relatively neglected. To our knowledge ours is the first paper to address the effect of violence on traders in food supply chains.