Dry season farmers seek action against bandits, say production in jeopardy

As dry season farming commenced in Taraba State, farmers have called for an urgent action by the state government and security agents to tackle insecurity facing many communities in the state.

Some farmers who spoke with Daily Trust on Sunday said the spate of killing and kidnapping in parts of Lau, Ardo-Kola, Bali and KarimLamido LGAs called for urgent action to secure the areas and enable for irrigation farming and other activities to go unhindered.

A farmer, Eng Yahaya Mafindi, said he had been carrying out dry season farming at the Shika Irrigation Field in Gassol LGA for the past years and that irrigation farming had started in the area but that farmers were afraid of the activities of bandits which could hamper irrigation farming.

Another farmer, Abdullahi Bello, said his fear was the activities of bandits in some LGAs and that if care was not taken the bandits would disrupt farming activities.

He said in the last few weeks many people were killed and several others abducted in parts of Yorro and Lau LGAs.

He said what was happening in parts of Bali, Yorro, Ardo-Kola and Lau was disturbing and called for drastic measures to tackle the insecurity failure which could hamper irrigation farming in the state.

A farmer in Donada in Lau LGA, Saidu Dauda, said that last week two persons were killed and eight others abducted in Kunini village.

According him, hundreds of people from different parts of the state carried out rice farming during wet and dry seasons but that now many were afraid because of the activities of bandits.

Dauda, therefore, appealed to the state government to take urgent measures against bandits in the state.

Meanwhile, Hajiya Laraba Aminu Abdul, Chairperson of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) in Taraba State, said the insecurity if not check would discourage many people from embarking on dry season farming.

She called on the security agents and the state government to take urgent steps to address the situation.

She spoke at the launching of distribution of farm inputs for the 2023/2024 dry season farming in Jalingo.

Sen Jimkuta alarm on famine

raises

Senator David Jimkuta who represents Taraba South has raised alarm over a possible famine in the country due to the rate of killing of farmers.

Jimkuta, who is the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Social Warfare and Poverty Alleviation, said the rate of attacks and killing of farmers was a great concern to food security in the country.

The senator, while speaking with newsmen in Wukari, disclosed that more than 700 of his constituents from Ussa and Takum LGAs had been killed by bandits within the last three months.

He, therefore, called on the federal government to urgently declare a state of emergency in communities affected by banditry to put an end to the escalating crisis.