Flood: Maize output drops by 90% in Jigawa

Jigawa State has lost 90 percent of its maize output of this year’s farming season to flood that wrecked havoc in over 6,000 hecters of farmland in the state.

The state chairman of Maize Farmers Association (MFA), Yusuf Hassan, dropped the hint on Monday, saying following the ugly development, the state was only expecting to realize 10 percent of maize output at the end of this year’s harvest season.

According to him, 907 hecters of maize farmlands in 11 local government areas, farmed under anchor borrower scheme, were washed away by the flood, with same number of farmers affected.

He lamented that there were over 50, 000 maize farmers who were affected by the disaster in the state.

He however, said hope was not lost if government could be proactive by providing the affected farmers with residual maize seedlings which would enable them to recoup what they lost by replanting immediately after the flood receded.

Hassan noted that, in a normal farming season that was devod of any form of disaster, Jigawa state could approximately produced 250,000 tonnes of maize in a year.