A video showing a young boy allegedly uprooting cassava tubers from a farm and feeding them to cattle has sparked reactions on social media, with Nigerians raising concerns about crop destruction and the impact of farmer-herder disputes on agriculture.
The video, which began circulating online on Sunday, shows the boy inside what appears to be a cassava farm as he pulls tubers from the ground and gives them to cattle nearby.
The person recording the footage can also be heard speaking to the boy and encouraging him as the cassava is being uprooted.
The circumstances surrounding the footage, including the exact location, date of the incident and identity of the people involved, have not been independently established.
The video was shared on X on September 27 and subsequently reported by several Nigerian platforms. One report described the person involved as an alleged Fulani herdsman, but the footage itself does not independently establish the person’s ethnic identity or ownership of the cattle.
The footage has nevertheless triggered a fresh discussion about the longstanding conflict between farmers and cattle herders in Nigeria, particularly concerns over cattle entering cultivated farmland and damaging crops.
Social media users expressed anger over what they perceived as the destruction of a farmer’s produce, while others used the incident to highlight wider concerns about agricultural losses and food security.
Some of the reactions also contained ethnic and inflammatory claims about Fulani people. Those comments reflect individual users’ views and are not evidence that the alleged conduct in the video represents the wider Fulani population.
Crop destruction linked to cattle grazing has previously been documented in different parts of Nigeria. In Oyo State in 2019, for example, the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps arrested a herder over allegations that cattle had destroyed part of a five-acre cassava farm in Ibarapa North Local Government Area.
There have also been cases involving cassava farms in other states. In Ekiti State in 2018, an 18-year-old herder was charged before an Ado-Ekiti magistrates’ court over allegations that his cattle destroyed cassava valued at N4m. He pleaded not guilty.
More recently, farmers in Ogun State reported extensive cassava farm destruction in February 2025, alleging that cattle entered their farms and that cassava tubers were uprooted and fed to the animals. Those reports were based on accounts from affected farmers and were not presented as an independently established finding against every person described as a herder.
The latest viral footage has therefore renewed attention on the practical consequences of farmers-herders disputes, particularly for farmers whose crops provide income and contribute to local food supplies.
However, without independent confirmation of where the video was recorded, who the people involved are, and whether the farm owner has reported the incident, the specific circumstances surrounding the footage remain unclear.
Video of Fulani herdsmen uprooting someone’s farm crops to feed their cows. pic.twitter.com/rhVtWvPJD7
— CHUKS 🍥 (@ChuksEricE) September 27, 2026
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