The people of Niger State are predominantly farmers. Males, females, children and adults are deeply involved.
Across the 25 local government areas of the state, either as individuals or co-operative societies, residents plant crops like yam, rice, maize, millet, soya beans and sugar cane while also engaging in animal husbandry and fishing.
In fact, Niger is described as the food basket of the nation due to its yearly massive food production during both the wet season and dry season. The state has the largest land mass in the country with 76,363km2 and the government and the people are not taking it for granted as they utilize the arable land for massive food production.
Despite all these assets, Niger is presently facing a big challenge which is hampering the continuous participation of the people in farming.
The issue of banditry is still unabated in most parts of the 25 LGAs of the state.
Most of the farmers, according to findings by our correspondent, have relocated to neighboring states and the southern part of the country where they now carry out their farming peacefully.
For those still in their ancestral homes, they merely do skeletal farming amid the fear of being attacked and kidnapped while working on their farms.
Farming in most part of Niger has become an issue of life and death.
However, Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago has reassured the people, especially farmers, of adequate protection in all their endeavors.
The governor, while flagging off this year’s wet season sales and distribution of fertilizer and other inputs like insecticides at the Farm Centre, Minna, the state capital, last week, said his administration was aware of the security challenges in the state which is affecting farmers in no small way and assured that the issue will soon be a thing of the past.
“We know the security challenge being faced by our people including farmers. My administration is going to provide adequate security for the people of the state in order to boost our economy especially farming,” he said.
Hours after the flag-off, Bago presented 20 Hilux vans to security agencies to enhance policing especially in Minna, the state capital.
In his address at the farming inputs distribution venue, the governor had noted that the economic woes facing the country could only be tackled if only Nigerians go back to farming which, he said, is everlasting unlike mineral resources that may dry up.
“Farming does not understand English. It must be faced with renewed vigour to achieve the desired results which is bumper harvest and my target is how to encourage civil servants to go back to farming because I as governor am also going back to full farming to show leadership by example’, he said.
“You cannot retire from service and be languishing and left with nothing to eat and so, you will all be dragged to farming and, as a government, we are going to cultivate two hundred hectares of land and government officials will also be made to cultivate one hundred hectares of land each to boost food production not only in Niger state but across the country.
“Each of the 25 local government areas are also directed to follow suit by cultivating one hundred hectares and plant various crops”.
Bago pledged to revive the Niger State Agricultural Mechanization Development Agency (NAMDA) formerly known as Agricultural Development Project (ADP) with the procurement of 300 tractors out of which 10 will be given to each of the 25 local government areas of the state.
On the sale of fertilizer, the governor said steps had been taken that only 10 bags can be sold to an individual, adding that bank details and BVN of individuals will be taken into consideration while the EFCC, ICPC and the police had been invited to make sure that the distribution and sales were carried out rightly and devoid of fraud.
The government, he said, had approved 20% subsidy on the 100 trucks (600 tonnes) of fertilizer delivered to Niger and that each bag of 50kg will be sold at N18,000 as against the open market price of N24,000 to N30,000, adding that the sales will be done in the designated stores across the state and that internal control mechanisms are in place to ensure that only resource constraint farmers benefit.
In an exclusive interview with our correspondent with Sunday Vanguard, the Chairman of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) in Niger State, Alhaji Shehu Galadima, confirmed the mass exodus of farmers across the 25 LGAs of the state to other parts of the country due to insecurity.
“Many of our members (farmers) have fled the state to other states safer for them to farm”, Galadima said.
“Many of them are still out of the state but we are trying to lure them back and we hope that with the assurance of the governor towards fortifying security across the state, they will come back to contribute to the anticipated bumper harvest expected at the end of the rains this year.
“We are aware that governor has met with the Service Chiefs in Abuja, met with the Emirs, security agencies in the state and other stakeholders on how to tackle insecurity and we farmers are hopeful that this bold steps will further boost our confidence to return back to our farms and encourage those who have fled the state to come back home and start their farming again without any fear”.
On the possibility of bumper harvest this year, the AFAM Chairman said there was still hope to meet up.
“Despite these challenges, we still expect bumper harvest at the end of the rains this year. However, our major fear besides that of insecurity is the climate change which we cannot predict or control”, he said.
“Niger State is prone to severe flooding annually and NiMET has predicted severe flooding in some states across the country including Niger and this is the only fear we entertain and which could be a stumbling block to bumper harvest in the state and across the country”.
Galadima called on the state government to engage most of the unemployed youths in farming, especially dry farming, as a way of enhancing food security in the country.
In separate interviews, two major stakeholders in the farming industry in Niger, Chief of Male Farmers in Minna, Sarkin Noman Minna, Alhaji Danjuma Sarkin Noma, and Chief of Female Farmers in the state, Hajiya Fatima Ahmed, decried the unabated insecurity in the state as a major factor militating against farming.
“Due to banditry and kidnapping of our members by bandits, most of the farmers have relocated to other states”, Noma said.
“Government should provide security for us in our various farms. We are ready to farm. We can boast of feeding not only Niger State but also Nigeria as a whole if lives are protected on our farms.
“All the 25 LGAs of the state are endowed with arable land that can grow all sorts of crops and we are not tired to continue to feed the nation only if our lives are protected”.
Noma, who manages 10 hectares of land cultivating yam, rice, maize, millet and cassava, among others, listed other problems confronting them to include lack of enough fertilizer, tractors inaccessibility and loans to embark on large scale farming and therefore called on government to fulfill its promises to assist them in order to boost their morale to farm.
Hajiya Fatima Ahmed, on her part, described farming across Niger now as a matter of life and death because of incessant raid on farmers by bandits and with many of them being kidnapped for ransom and some eventually killed.
“There are no fewer than 20 cooperative female farmers under me and we are all doing well. However, farming in the state is now a matter of life and death because of terrorists”, she said.
“We are scared of these bandits who invade our farms incessantly and abduct our members and, for now, many of them are afraid to go back to farm for fear of not only being kidnapped but also killed”.
She therefore called on the state government to assist them with enough fertilizer, insecticide, loans and, above all, security in order to remain in business. (Vanguard)
