In Niger, cassava farmers decry inadequate land, others

Irrigation farmers in Niger State have said that scarcity of land, mainly caused by population explosion and difficulty in accessing water for their crops, have become a major hindrance to cassava irrigation farming in the state.

Cassava farmers in Gbako, Katcha and Wushishi local government areas also told Daily Trust on Sunday that lack of access to fertiliser and encroachment on their farms by herders had also become one of the major challenges in growing dry season cassava.

Findings by Daily Trust on Sunday revealed that cassava is one of the major tubers grown in commercial quantities in Niger State, especially in Gbako, Katcha, Wushishi and other local government areas, but farmers rely only on streams to water their crops.

Mallam Mohammed Aliyu said they were willing to grow more cassava in both dry and rainy season but were faced with inadequate land.

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“I planted cassava in November 2022 and hope to harvest in July this year. We want to cultivate more but are constrained because land is becoming inadequate as population is growing. We also need dams to easily water our farms. What we do mostly now is to water our cassava manually, which is very tedious. Even the potatoes we cultivated this dry season are being watered manually,” he said.

Another farmer, Mohammed Mahmud from Gbako Local Government Area, said that instead of fertiliser, he used animal feces, especially that of goat, in his cassava farm, due to the high cost of inorganic fertiliser.

“Last year, I used Urea fertiliser and my cassava yielded well. But this year, I didn’t have money for inorganic fertiliser because of its cost, so I applied animal drops as an alternative before I made ridges,” he said.