Although farmers in Borno State have been urged to return to their lands, women say they lack adequate support to start over.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s hard to start with nothing, they have told the government.<\/p>\n
Most farmers \u2013 men and women \u2013 have not been able to farm for years, mostly because they had to flee their lands after the rise in the number of attacks by extremists, mostly by members of the\u00a0Jam\u0101’at Ahl as-Sunnah lid-Da’wah wa’l-Jih\u0101d (JAS) \u2013 more commonly referred to as Boko Haram \u2013 and the Islamic State West Africa Province (ISWAP).<\/p>\n
Many farmers died in the attacks, some were raped, kidnapped and abducted, and others had to flee for their lives and joined the millions of internally displaced persons living in the northeast of Nigeria.<\/p>\n
During a one-day official visit to Maiduguri on Thursday, June 16, President Muhammadu Buhari directed the Nigerian military and other security agencies to work with the Borno State government and come up with modalities that would allow people to have safe access to their farmlands.<\/p>\n
Following the president\u2019s visit, Borno State governor Babagana Umara Zulum\u00a0visited farming communities on Sunday, June 20, urging the people to go back to their farms as soon as possible. He also held meetings with security operatives to discuss new ways to ensure the safety of farmers on their lands \u201cso as to avoid a livelihood crisis\u201d.<\/p>\n
Some farmers with land close to Maiduguri \u2013 and who were encouraged by the visits by both the president and the governor and their promise to make farming safe again \u2013 had already started returning to their lands.<\/p>\n
Halima Umara, a resident of Maiduguri, told RNI reporter Hadiza Dowood that she had returned to her farm after many years of living in fear from the insurgency.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy occupation is farming and I have missed many years of being on my land because of the frequent attacks by extremists. It has not been safe to farm. Too many farmers and agriculture workers were killed in the attacks. Some were raped, kidnapped, abducted,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow I am back farming just in time for the rainy season and I have begun to plant seeds. My farm is behind the Maimalari Military Barracks. I am just renting the farm at this stage. In time, when it is safe again, I hope to return to my ancestral home in Foshar in Mamuri,\u201d Umara said.<\/p>\n
She said she was very grateful for the government\u2019s promise of protection.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government has urged all farmers to be fearless and return to their land and that is what I have done.\u201d<\/p>\n
Both Buhari and Zulum had said they would provide security for farmers to ensure their safety on their lands.<\/p>\n
But Umara said she was really struggling moneywise and that the price of seeds was \u201cvery high\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe prices have increased exorbitantly. Seeds have never cost more than they do at the moment. One plate of groundnut seed costs 1,000 naira, millet is between 400 naira and 450 naira. The cost of bambara groundnut is 900 naira. And we can\u2019t even afford to buy fertiliser,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
A woman farmer, who asked to remain anonymous, said that it was all well and good that the government wanted farmers to return to their land but they desperately needed help.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe government should help us by providing improved seeds, agriculture implements and equipment, and supportive sustainable supervision.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hajja Gana Suleman, the president of Jire Dole (Justice is a Must), a network formed under the Allamin Foundation For Peace Development and the Kanem Borno Human Development Association, said that she had arranged a meeting with engineer Bukar Talba, the Borno State commissioner of agriculture and natural resources, to discuss various possibilities of helping women farmers across the state.<\/p>\n
Although farmers in Borno State have been urged to return to their lands, women say they lack adequate support to start over. It\u2019s hard to start with nothing, they have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":12792,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15385","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-farming-and-livestock"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15385"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15385"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15385\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26915,"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15385\/revisions\/26915"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15385"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15385"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ndarason.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15385"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}