Elephants destroying our farms in Kebbi, Commissioner cries out

Kebbi State Commissioner for Agriculture, Barrister Attairu Machido, has raised alarm over the invasion of elephants on farms in some parts of the state.

The commissioner who was in Abuja on Thursday said that for the past two weeks elephant have been destroying farms in Bagudo and Kokobese local government area of the state complicating the existing farmers-herders crises bedeviling the state.

He spoke at the sidelines of the National Agroecology and Climate Justice summit, with the theme, “Sustainable Agriculture, Food Security #FeedingNaija” organised by Action Aid Nigeria (AAN).

While saying that it was the first time in the history of the state that elephants would besiege their farms, he said that they used to have issues with hippopotamus coming to their farms but not as much as the elephants currently destroying the farms.

He disclosed that the state government had reported the menace to the Federal Ministry of Environment and have assured the farmers that government would compensate them for the destroyed crops so as to avoid clash between the farmers and the elephants.

The Country Director, AAN, Mrs. Ene Obi said that with what is happening in the country and globally, Nigeria cannot afford to neglect or pay lip service to climate change challenge and that the world would not wait for the country if it fails to act decisively.

“Due to the system that has been introduced, a lot is happening such that Nigerian farmers are planting rice twice annually, unlike in the past. The attention on oil is becoming a thing of the past and is being shifted to diversification of the economy. With over half of Nigeria’s 200 million populations living in abject poverty, we cannot afford to neglect paying attention to climate change,” she said.

Also, the Head of Programs, AAN, Hajiya Suweba Yakubu Jibrin, call for concerted efforts, not only by the professional stakeholders, but by all Nigerians to pay attention to climate change, as no nation would be secured without food security.