Quella birds: Kebbi farmers lament loss of 86,000 hectares of rice

Rice farmers in Argungu area of Kebbi State on Monday said they have lost over 86,000 hectares of rice farms to Quella birds.

A farmer, who spoke to our correspondent, said there was no farm in the Fadama area of Argungu that was not affected.

 A renowned rice farmer in area, Alhaji Abdullahi Sa’idu Argungu said farmers had to go to farms with guns to chase away the birds. He said “Unfortunately, there is no assistance coming from government at the moment and we are losing our rice farms to the Quella birds”

He said an estimate of a hundred farmers had lost their farms already while the birds are still raging.

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 A resident of Argungu told our correspondent that at evening time on Sunday, he saw the birds moving in large numbers over their houses to the farmlands. “I was grip with fears yesterday when I saw a large number of the birds moving over the community to the farmland. They have destroyed many rice farms, leaving nothing for many of the affected farmers”, he said.

 Another farmer, Malam Adamu said “We are in serious problem, apart from high cost in fuel prices and fertilizer, the quella birds are here, one cannot eat his breakfast at home if not bird will eat all his rice field. He said he has been sleeping in the rice fields for the past two weeks to ensure his rice was not destroyed by the birds.

 Garba Umar Rabo, one of the rice farmers whose farm was affected said in his over 20 years of rice cultivation, he has never seen birds disaster like this.  “No matter how you push them away, they keep coming back. We have to harvest before time, to minimise the loss incurred”, he said.

 Collaborating Malam Rabo’s claim, Haruna, another rice farmer said “The birds are too many to curtail. There are just too many, they are flying in thousands and by the time they land on a rice field within a few seconds, they will have finished it all”.