Farmers in Benue State witnessed tremendous hardship this year in their quest to boost food production across the 23 local government areas of the state.
The flood, which wreaked havoc in parts of the state this year, brought untold hardship to most of the affected farmers, especially for a significant number of them who did not insure their farms.
For Kenneth Apaa, his nearly 85 hectares of rice farm situated around Tyohemba community was washed away by the flood.
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Apaa said, “I have about 85 hectares of rice farm washed away by the flood. It’s pathetic. I spent over N10m on the field. My money just got wasted.”
Also, a big rice farmer in the state, Sam Yuwa, worried about high cost of production which according to him is pushing smallholders rice farmers out of business amid the flooding that bedevilled farmers in the state.
“In the past, I suffered a serious loss. In fact, the place where I’m standing right now was totally flooded and up till now, nobody has given me a kobo but you know in my place, we say farmers never die. So, you suffer this year and when nothing happens, you still continue,” Yuwa stressed.
Meanwhile, the Executive Secretary of the Benue State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA), Emmanuel Shior, disclosed that a total of 20, 468 hectares of farmlands were completely lost to the flood in 12 LGAs of the state while assuring that the agency was going to assist farmers to recover loss through interventions for dry season farming.
Worried about the development, Chairman of Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN), Fidelis Akoosu, opined that almost everybody wants to produce food in the state but there are limitations on how far they could go.
Akoosu said despite the obvious limitations, even farmers in the rural areas still do their best and when they get income, their lives usually improve except that some of them do not know how to invest for the future.
Insecurity, poor infrastructure worsen farmers’ conditions
Our correspondent reports that the major happenings around the farming communities of the state in 2022 include the flooding and insecurity which sacked farms and farmers from their abode, coupled with extremely high cost of inputs which forced many of them to reduce the expanse of cultivation.
Most of the farmers also complained about lack of storage facilities, processing, unavailability of fertilisers and high cost of taxation which they posited had badly affected agriculture in Benue State.
For instance, more villagers have swelled already existing Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) across the state while abandoning their age-long farming profession to now being idle.
Ibaah Jacob Terna, who is chairman of Agagbe IDP camp, told our correspondent that their farming population had been going through the worst form of hardship in the camp in recent times, especially as they now sleep in the open because the camp was undergoing renovation.
Terna said, “We are supposed to be in our homes and working on our farms to produce food because we are a farming community. But here we are and not even a shelter over our heads.”
His counterpart of Uniagric road IDPs camp, Yev Gabriel, lamented that their continued stay in camp was doing no good to their only known profession of farming and fending for their families as they are now living at the mercy of good spirited individuals.
“But we are compelled by situation to live here because anybody that tries to go back is killed by the herders. Weeks ago, two of my younger ones went to check their farms which they cultivated before they were chased away from the village, sadly, they were hunted down. Right now, we can’t go back to our villages, if you try it, you die. So, no matter the hunger and weather effect, we prefer to stay here (camp) than going back to the village.”
For the State Chairman of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Comrade Aondongu Saaku, government must do the needful in terms of land preparation, curb insecurity and mitigate against multiple taxation to enable farmers fill the food basket.
He cited instances with the abundance of citrus in the state yet, the farmers could hardly enjoy the fruits of their labour.
“Despite the fact that the market for orange is slow, people are still into production. There are 10,000 stands; 8,000 stands and the people coming from outside to buy hardly come because of the high taxes imposed on them. We (farmers) feel we are being cheated because the taxes collected on this produce are not given to the farmers, that is what is limiting orange production in Benue,” Saaku added.
Collaborating the AFAN chairman’s assertion on the dwindling orange fortune, Chief Atsaga Anemba, the Benue State Chairman of Fruits Farmers Association, said there are several opportunities for orange farming but several factors have become a concern to orange production in the state.
“I’m talking in terms of acquiring agro inputs for the maintenance of our fruits farms. Even getting good avenues to market farm produce is also a problem, largely due to the fact that there are no industries.
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