Institutional Voids and Community Resilience: Evaluating the Comparative Efficacy of State Versus Non-State Security Interventions in Sustaining Youth Agribusiness in Conflict-Affected Nigeria

Abstract

Prolonged armed banditry in North-West Nigeria has created severe institutional voids, forcing rural communities to rely on informal security architectures to sustain agricultural livelihoods. However, the comparative efficacy of state versus non-state interventions in mitigating these shocks remains empirically under-evaluated. This study assesses the perceived effectiveness of government and community efforts in sustaining youth agribusiness participation in Zamfara State, Nigeria. Utilizing a multi-stage sampling technique, data were collected from 424 youth agripreneurs via structured Likert-scale instruments. Descriptive statistical analysis, including mean scores and standard deviations, was employed to evaluate 17 distinct mitigation interventions. Results indicate an overall grand mean effectiveness score of 3.976, signaling moderate to high perceived efficacy of existing interventions. Crucially, local vigilante groups (Yan Sakai) emerged as the most effective intervention (Mean = 4.292, SD = 0.922), significantly outperforming formal state mechanisms. Conversely, employment creation programmes recorded the lowest perceived effectiveness (Mean = 3.608, SD = 1.521), highlighting a critical disconnect between top-down economic policies and the grassroots realities of conflict zones. These findings demonstrate that while community-driven security provides immediate, localized resilience for agribusiness continuity, it is insufficient without complementary, security-sensitive state economic interventions. The study concludes that sustainable rural development requires a hybrid governance model that formally integrates, resources, and regulates community vigilantes while redesigning youth employment programs to align with secure, value-chain-specific agribusiness investments.

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