Abstract/Summary

Livestock production is an integral part of the livelihoods of most households around the devel-oping world and plays a major role in food and nutrition security of farming households. Howev-er, one of the major challenges to livestock production in Africa and Nigeria in particular is armed conflict. We employ a nationally representative panel data and armed conflict data from Nigeria to examine the effect of terrorism on small-scale livestock production and the role of ag-ricultural land access. Terrorism is an important factor that undermines livestock production. We find that increased incidents of terrorism reduces cattle herd size but does not reduce herd size of households that managed large area of land. Increased terrorist attacks also increases livestock diversification independent on land access. However, higher fatalities from terrorism reduces herd size and livestock diversification irrespective of the size of land managed by households, thus suggesting a probable land abandonment in locations where fatalities are high. Curbing ter-rorism in Nigeria would ensure farmers have physical access to their land and sustain livestock production.