While addressing journalists after the Eid-el-Fitr prayer on Thursday, President Muhammadu Buhari underscored the need to flush out terrorists and bandits to enable farmers go back to farms.
On March 5, 2021, the president had ordered the country’s service chiefs to ensure that security was restored before the commencement of rainy season to enable farmers return to their farms.
He said failure to do so would plunge the country into a major food disaster.
The president told the service chiefs “to go out into the field and secure the country” in order to build farmers’ confidence to return to farmlands.
“You have got a few weeks to do that because by the rainy season we expect people to develop confidence and go back to the land so that we don’t get into trouble by being away from the field and, therefore, unable to produce enough food for the nation,” President Buhari had charged the security chiefs.
Many farms unsafe as rainy season begins
With the onset of rainy season, checks by Daily Trust showed huge security challenges across many agrarian communities in the country, as bandits, kidnappers, terrorists and other forms of criminality continue to threaten the people.
Our correspondents across the country report that farmers’ fear is heightened as rainy season begins, forcing many in volatile areas to stay away from their farms.
In Kaduna State, farmers in local government areas where insecurity has reached alarming proportions are lamenting that they may not be able to farm in 2021 due to killings and constant threats by bandits.
Daily Trust reports that banditry activities, mostly in Birnin Gwari, Chikun, Giwa and Kajuru local government areas have claimed hundreds of lives in the last few years, with most farming communities at the receiving end.
Farmers in the hinterlands narrated how bandits kill mostly male farmers and steal their motorcycles, either on farmlands or while on their way to their farms.
“The situation is worse this year. They have prevented us from even clearing our farms in anticipation of the farming season.
“Just last week, the bandits killed my bosom friend, Abubakar and took away his motorcycle. He had gone to clear his farm but never returned. Many people have decided not to farm this year, and we fear that there will be food scarcity,” Shehu Isiya of Fatika district in Giwa Local Government Area said.
Ibrahim Zakari from Damari in Birnin Gwari Local Government Area said the situation was further compounded by the fact that the bandits had sacked many farming communities, including Damari, saying many were scared to return to their farms.
“In Birnin Gwari, we farm maize, beans and even rice, but I am not sure we will be able to do that this year because there are no security agents in the area. Most of them are stationed around Dogon Dawa. Those of us living along Damari axis are not secured, so many of us are yet to clear our lands for the farming season,’’ he said.
Also speaking on the situation and how it will affect this year’s rice farming, the Kaduna State chairman of the Rice Farmers Association in Nigeria (RIFAN), Muhammad Umar Numbu, said farmers in some of the notoriously unsafe local government areas would likely not benefit from the intervention by the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
Numbu said out of the 23 local government areas in the state, the CBN intervention programme would only take place in eight, adding that farmers in areas ravaged by insecurity may not be able to farm this year.
In Benue State, our correspondent reports that farmers in Agatu said they were bedeviled by armed herders’ invasion and could not return to farm this rainy season.
Thomas Ejewule, who hails from the Zone A riverine area of Agatu, which borders Nasarawa State, said those who tried to return to their farms were either hacked to death or maimed.
“If you go to farm here you won’t return alive. We haven’t seen any security in place for us to go to farm. We want a situation where security operatives would be stationed in farm areas while we do our farming,” he said.
In Gwer West, where five people were reportedly killed some days ago, tension has been heightened among farmers.
In Katsina, despite military onslaught on bandits along the Zamfara/Katsina axis, farmers are yet to gain confidence to return to farms.
Although the military recorded successes in Kankara, Faskari and Sabuwa local government areas in neighbouring Zamfara in the fight against banditry recently, farmers are still afraid to return to their farms.
Mallam Isah Unguwar Baidu in Faskari Local Government Area told Daily Trust on Sunday that banditry had deflated their farming capital through ransom payments and cattle rustling.
“It all started with cattle rustling, then kidnapping. This has a devastating effect on our finances. Besides that, fear of attack has hindered us from cultivating our large farms. Last year, we worked only on nearby small farms, just to sustain our families,’’ he said.
He added that it would take more than military action to restore confidence on majority of the farmers in the troubled areas.
“A number of villages in Kankara, Faskari, Sabuwa and Dandume have relocated to different towns. Some of them vowed not to come back, even if peace is restored. Last year, there were instances we had to pay levies to the miscreants before we were allowed to harvest our remote farms,’’ Baidu said.
Daily Trust learnt that last month, attacks by bandits had left over 80 persons dead in Zamfara State. This has further sent fear to farmers in the neighbouring communities of Katsina State.
Mallam Ahmed Rilwanu Yankara told our correspondent that the attack was a cruel indication that bandits are still present in forests that crisscrossed the two states.
The story is the same in Sabuwa and Dandume local government areas, where the volume of crops being produced has reduced significantly due to insecurity.
Mallam Zubairu Damari said that last year, some farmers abandoned their yet to be harvested large farms for the fear of bandits.
The treasurer of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Katsina State chapter, Alhaji Halilu Ibrahim Karofi, expressed concern on how bandits’ activities were threatening farming in the state.
In Anambra, insecurity is taking its toll on the state as many are afraid of going to farm, even with assurance of adequate protection from government.
One of the farmers, Mr Philip Nwora, said he would not go to farm if they were not many, for fear of attack by herders.
Similarly, many farmers in Rivers State have abandoned their farms for fear of being kidnapped by bandits and criminals.
Our correspondent in the state reports that many of the forests where farmers cultivated have been taken over by kidnappers.
A resident of Oyigbo, who pleaded anonymity for security reasons, said he had to abandon his farm at Okoloma because of the harassment of bandits.
Earlier, the chairman of Ikwerre Local Government, Samuel Nwanosike, lamented that kidnappers and cultists had taken over all the forests in his domain, a situation he said made it difficult for farmers to go to their farms.
By Hussein Yahaya, Vincent A. Yusuf (Abuja), Lami Sadiq (Kaduna), Abah Emmanuel (Makurdi), Mahmoud Idris (Katsina),Titus Eleweke (Awka) & Chuks Edozie (Port Harcourt)
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