ABSTRACT
Violent conflict disrupts every aspect of public and domestic life, causing widespread death and injury and damage to personal property, buildings, infrastructure and natural resources. The insecurity and uncertainty lead to large-scale displacement of civilian populations and psychological trauma, undermining social structures, coping mechanisms, and the acquisition of formal and informal education and skills. The interactions between conflict and agriculture and between agriculture and human life are complex and dynamic. Agricultural production, essential to food security and livelihoods, is affected by conflict directly, through the destruction of natural resources and neglect, and indirectly, through the broader impacts of conflict. Agriculture is targeted to deny food, weaken morale and physical strength, and cause immediate damage to livelihoods and to impede the rehabilitation of the agriculture sector, which hampers post-conflict reconstruction processes in general. Agriculture can be damaged during conflict because in a fight for survival, people engage in unsustainable environmental practices.
