The tensions around Jos are rooted in decades of resentment between indigenous groups, mostly Christian or animist, and settlers from the Muslim north who have been competing with them for control of fertile farmland and economic and political power.
Bauchi neighbours Plateau state in Nigeria's "middle belt", where the Muslim north meets the predominantly Christian south, leading to tension over the control of fertile farmlands and economic and political power.
Yet when it comes to letting individual families control large tracts of farmland, Communist Party leaders are beginning to have a change of heart.Since January last year the term "family farm" has come into vogue in the party's vocabulary.
Although non-operating landowners control a growing percentage of farmland in the U.S., not enough is known about them.
Land-grabbing is when private groups buy or gain control of vast areas of farmland in developing countries for producing food and biofuel crops for the first-world market.
Foreign-made farm technologies remain unappealing to farmers in Africa because they are cumbersome for those who control, on average, 1.6 hectares of farmland.
In Venezuela, over 75% of farmland is controlled by fewer than 5% of landowners.
The biological control of pest insects in farmlands is an important ecosystem service provided by natural enemies, a tenet that is frequently supported by natural ecosystems; however, natural ecosystems can sometimes serve as a source of pests and can maintain them as an ecosystem disservice.
