Flood: Taraba farmers seek support

Hundreds of farmers in Gassol LGA of Taraba State who lost their rice and maize farms during the 2022 flood disaster have appealed to the federal government for financial support to enable them revive their agricultural activities.

The farmers said they encountered a double tragedy of flooding and banditry which cost lives of the farming communities and their capital investments.

One of the farmers Haruna Sheka, told Daily Trust on Sunday that in the Sheka area over 100 farms were destroyed by the flood, hence that farmers lost the millions of naira they invested.

Isa Tafida, a large scale farmer, told Daily Trust on Sunday that he invested over N20m on his rice farms in Sheka but the flood destroyed all the farms, adding that apart from his farms, there were farms owned by farmers from Borno, Yobe and Gombe states which were also destroyed by the flood.

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He noted that most of the affected farmers could not participate in the subsequent dry and wet season farming because they didn’t have money.

Alhaji Inuwa Bakari, a large scale farmer in the area, also said that he lost millions of naira he invested in his rice farms to the flood.

Similarly, in the Mutum Biyu area, it was gathered that over 150 farmers were affected by the flood in 2022. The affected farmers, including the Chief of Mutum Biyu, Justice Sani Muhammed (Rtd), lost millions of naira of their investment in rice and maize farms.

A farmer in Mutum Biyu, Garba Adamu, said the 2022 flood disaster brought a serious setback to farming activities in the chiefdom.

He said 90 per cent of the population in the chiefdom were farmers and that most of them were affected by the flood with no assistance rendered to them.

Adamu explained that last year many farmers were forced to pay ransom to bandits who abducted many farmers, noting that the bandits abducted and killed seven family members of the chief of Mutum Biyu.

He, therefore, appealed to federal government to provide financial support to the victims of the flood disaster in the area and other parts of the state.