Farmers in Nigeria have pleaded with The Federal Government to address the thriving insecurity which is keeping them from returning to their farms in the planting season.
Farmers who spoke to BUSHLINK said, this will further amplify the surging food insecurity across the country, which in turn will lead to lower supply against the country’s food demand.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) had pegged the May 2024 food inflation at 40.66 per cent despite farming incentives rolled out to support farmers in the dry and rainy seasons.
Also, the National President of the Cocoa and Plantain Farmers Association of Nigeria (CPFAN) Ayodele Ojo had earlier lamented the incessant killing of farmers and destruction of their farmlands.
This means that the 70.8 million hectares of agricultural land area with maize, cassava, guinea corn, yam beans, millet and rice being the major crops, is under threat.
Aside from killings, the farmers have decried levies paid to terrorists to access their farmlands, with Over 70 per cent of Nigerians engaged in agriculture but mainly in subsistence farming.
According to SBM Intelligence, between November 2020 and November 2023, farmers across the North-West states were levied around N224.92m by different groups of bandits operating in the region.
Speaking to BUSHLINK, a yam farmer Godwin Anebi, resident of Toto, Nasarawa state lamented his ordeal in the 2024 farming season. Anebi recounted his losses in the 2023 farming season attributing it to fear of visiting his farmland to harvest his crop. He lamented the financial losses, which befell him as a result of his absence at his farm.
He said, “Although farming is my only source of income, insecurity has made it difficult to meet my responsibility as a father and husband.
He continued, “I cultivate at least 800 tubers of yam on a good season, and when the farming season is poor at least 600 tubers. last year, I could not account for 250 tubers of yam.” They, according to him, were helpless, as the crisis has outweighed our defence mechanism. Anebi said, “Imagine not being able to make sales in this season when yam, potatoes and plantain are most expensive. Life is hard and if not addressed,& it would be difficult for farmers to meet the food demands of Nigerians”.
A beans farmer, Babuga Umar who is also a seasonal fruit trader at the orange market in Masaka, Nasarawa state told BUSHLINK, that he missed out on the 2023 and 2024 beans planting seasons as a result of insecurity in his hometown, Gangara, Sabon Birni.
Umar said, “Traders are lamenting that their seedlings are hijacked. So those who have goods, hoard them and when the demand is high they increase the price of seedlings.
“Although that is a problem, the most pressing issue is, after we buy this seedling at an exorbitant price when it is time for harvest, we pay bandits to allow us access to our farms. Those who can’t pay either lose their produce or are killed.”
The development has also forced some people to run away from their areas for fear of being killed. He said, “I haven’t travelled home in over a year now, and thus trade (fruit selling) is not sustainable as prices increase daily”.
Umar called on the president to address the crisis, which has empowered bandits and terrorists over vulnerable citizens.
In a bid to address the pressing insecurity and farmers-herders crisis driving food insecurity in Nigeria, BUSHLINK reports that President Bola Tinubu has created a new ministry known as the Ministry of Livestock Development. The new ministry was created to address the age-long conflict between criminal herders and farmers in different parts of the country.
The newly formed committee, which will be chaired by President Tinubu himself, has as deputy chairman the former chairman of the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC), Professor Attahiru Jega.
The committee is expected to propose recommendations to foster peaceful coexistence between herders and farmers while ensuring the security and economic well-being of all Nigerians.
The development comes as a response to calls from various stakeholders, including the Miyetti Allah Cattle Breeders Association of Nigeria (MACBAN), which had previously urged the president to establish a dedicated ministry for livestock.
