By Bimbola Oyesola
Farmers have warned than imminent famine looms in Nigeria owing to increased attacks by bandits and kidnappers that have hampered smooth cultivation and harvesting of farm produce as well as the inability of the Federal Government to address widespread security challenges.
All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN),the umbrella body of farmers in Nigeria, said its members had become the easiest prey to kidnappers and criminals in recent years who in them a rich and vulnerable set of persons that could be caught unchallenged in farms for ransom.
Its President, Farouk Rabiu Mudi, in an interview with Daily Sun lamented the threat to the farming profession in the country, saying aside food shortage, the country also faced an astronomical increase in food prices due to a mismatch of demand and supply as more farmers find it difficult to do business in the country.
He said already farmers had lost billions of naira to insecurity and flood, especially in the northern part of the country, and that a data on the losses was being collated by the associated.
He said though the farmers association had tried to improvise some security measures which may minimise the attack on farmers, he still believed that 80 per cent of the responsibility of securing the nation lies with the Federal Government.
“We are the target for kidnappers. We are the easiest prey to these kidnappers. They know that if they kidnap a farmer, he has something to sell. They know farmers are the richest that can pay ransom or sell their farmlands to pay ransom,” he said.
President,Chemical and Non Metallic Products Senior Staff Association of Nigeria (CANMPSSAN), Segun David said: “Some of these people are not cattle rearers, but bandits. Ondo governor said they should leave his state, so that his people can go to the farm and he has my support on this. Honestly, if this issue is not addressed, it’s going to be tough this year and next year.”
Calling on the federal government to speak up on the latest attack on farmers in the South West, David said farmers in the Ondo axis are now afraid to bring their farm products outside their locality for fear of being kidnapped.
“The consequence of this is that the farmers would be forced to sell their products locally and cheaply, most of which would perish, while people in town in the next one to two months would have nothing or little to buy, and when they buy it will be at very expensive prices,” he said.
The AFAN president, however, said there would be respite if the Fulani herdsmen could have a place to rear their animals through the purchase of farmlands to limit the destruction of other people’s farm products.
and his counterparts in the
National Union of Chemical Footwear Rubber Leather and Non Metallic Products Employees (NUCFRLANMPE), Goke Olatunji shared the same thought with the AFAN president that those attacking farmers in the country and presently in the South West were not cattle herdsmen.