Open Access

Sabina Appiah-Boateng

• Over the past two decades, the Asante Akyem North District of Ghana has had limited peace and stability, which are preconditions for sustainable development due to protracted farmer-herder conflicts. This study provides an alternative perspective to the underlying causes of this resource conflict by arguing that mental constructions based on the formation of frames are the precursor, as contended by the framing theory. The study further investigated the psychosocial implications of the conflict on the well-being of the herders and farmers. The study also explored the resources that the actors employed to deal with the stressful event. Using a mixed-method but a qualitatively driven approach, the study used observation guide, interview guide, interview schedule, and focus group discussion guide for the data gathering. The findings highlighted that the conflict actors formed frames such as identity-relational, affective-intellectual, and compromise-win frames as the drivers of the conflict. The findings revealed that these frames and their attended hostile reactions between the actors, usually led to psychosocial problems. The study revealed that the actors adopted different coping strategies such as religion, voluntary migration, working harder, avoidance, and socio-cultural support to deal with the conflict. There is the need for a community-level education that emphasises constructive framing relationships between the transmigrant pastoralists and the host farming populace to ensure their peaceful coexistence and minimise conflict eruptions.