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A Socio-Economic Analysis of Livestock Pilferage in Rural and Urban Areas of Benue State, Nigeria

Abstract A survey study was conducted in 2005 to assess the level of pilfering in livestock industry in Benue State, Nigeria. A 4-stage stratified random sampling technique was used to select a sample size of 120 livestock farmers. Primary data were garnered using a well-structured questionnaire, and analyzed using descriptive statistics such as mean, frequencies and percentages. It was found that Poverty (50%) and unemployment (41.67%) accounted for livestock pilferage in urban areas and the same poverty (46.67%) and unemployment (34.92%) accounted for livestock pilferage in rural areas of Benue State. It was also found that livestock farmers in the state suffered 68% financial losses and many farmers lost between 1-5 (73.68%) animals to pilfering. Recommendations made included improvement in working conditions, improved economy, provision of employment opportunities, legislation against pilfering activities and formation of Vigilante Groups to check the trend.