Influence of agricultural activities on housing and settlement patterns of rural communities in Benue State Nigeria

Abstract

Physical, social, and economic elements, such as agricultural occupation, impact the forms of house and settlement patterns such as shape, space enclosure, appearance, and organization. This research aims to investigate the impact of agricultural activities on the housing and settlement patterns of the Benue people of central Nigeria. The exploratory sequential research approach was utilized where qualitative and quantitative attributes and consequences were elicited based on the Means-End Chain mode. The study was done in stages between June 2020 and March 2022, with 24 individuals first interviewed and 474 nominal survey questionnaires completed and returned. Preliminary data checks for the subsequent 241 ordinal surveys returned to reveal a significant Bartlett's Test of Sphericity, a Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin value of 0.872, and a Cronbach's alpha of 0.934. While the interviews and nominal surveys provide considerable correlations between agricultural activities and the people's settlement patterns, statistical validations of the ordinal survey yield minute evidence of the associations. The conclusions of this study are consistent with prior studies, which connect agricultural activities to people's house form and settlement patterns. It is recommended that authorities make transformative efforts to nucleate the fragmented communities to free up more area for mechanized farming, combat insecurity, and reduce competition for territorial resources.