Bleak business for farmers, fishermen in North-East

Catherine Emmanuel, 52, told Sunday Trust that her husband left for Umuahia over a year ago.“We deal in textile materials and have been here for many years.In fact, I was born and brought up here but my parents left when they became old. Before then, I met my husband and we got married. We are […]

Catherine Emmanuel, 52, told Sunday Trust that her husband left for Umuahia over a year ago.
“We deal in textile materials and have been here for many years.
In fact, I was born and brought up here but my parents left when they became old. Before then, I met my husband and we got married. We are blessed with  five children, three girls and two boys; all of them can speak Kanuri fluently,” she said.
She said at the height of the Boko Haram, her husband and the two boys fled.
“I am now staying with my daughters, women are safer here but my boys are all craving to come back,” she said.
At the Pompomari Housing Estate where many non indigenes have houses, our correspondents gathered that many have left even as among those that left, some have returned because they could not acclimatize with the environment they found themselves in the south.
Hope Joseph, 43, said he had to return to Maiduguri after staying in Lagos for nearly two years.
“I really regretted selling my house here at Pompomari. I built it with over N7 million but sold it at N3.5million in 2012 when it became evident that I had to leave. I am now back because it became evident that I couldn’t cope in Lagos,” he said.
Borno, Yobe and Adamawa States are the gate way to Nigeria from the North-East with a vast stretch of the borders linking with neighboring countries of Chad, Niger and Cameroon.
Before the escalation of the Boko Haram insurgency, farming, fishing and merchandize were the mainstay of the over 10 million people in the three states.
From Maiduguri, for instance, it is very common to see people travelling to Chad and Cameroon and, from there move to as far as Sudan, Central African Republic and parts of the Middle East.
Businesses were thriving and lots of rich men and women were created. Those good old days are no more as the federal government has sealed the borders while Boko Haram insurgents have taken over territories, making movement impossible.
And within Nigeria, Borno, Yobe and Adamawa states were like a final bus stop for merchants from other parts of Nigeria who thronged to buy assorted grains, fish, and livestock.
Sadly, all the three states are now battling with a common enemy-the  Boko Haram insurgency-that  has crippled lives of the people.
Though many Igbo, Yoruba and people that speak other languages have defied the odds and remained in the three states, thousands of others have  sold off their landed properties at give away prices and moved southwards.
Those who have confidence that the Boko Haram insurgency will not last forever have closed their shops and moved on hoping to return when the situation normalizes.
There are some that have left behind their wives and sisters to take care of their shops and other ventures.
Farmers and fishermen also tell pathetic stories.
Borno is famous for its rich, nutritious fish varieties basically because of its closeness to the Lake Chad. Sadly, that fame is gradually fading as fishing is now in the lowest ebb.
In April, 2013, serious fighting between the Boko Haram insurgents and Nigerian troops in Baga, the hitherto famous fish town along the shores of the Lake Chad led to the killing of hundreds of people, especially fishermen, farmers and their families.
No one captures the ugly scenario better than Alhaji Abubakar Gamande, the leader of fishermen in the Lake Chad region who explained that the deterioration of security along the shores of the Lake Chad had forced many Nigerians to relocate to neighboring countries.
“My members are worst affected by the security situation in Nigeria. Over one million fishermen and their families are now living in Niger Republic. It is mind boggling that some people are saying only 30,000 people have relocated to Niger…it is far more than that,” he told journalists after a recent stakeholders meeting in Maiduguri.
The District Head of Baga, Alhaji Zanna Abba Hassan who was also part of the meeting said security of life and property of his people who are mostly fishermen  is now threatened.
“Most of our people have relocated to Chad and Diffa in Niger Republic…over one million people are no longer living in the Nigerian side. We have made several appeals to those that matter on the fact that our people are relocating but not much has been done to address the problem. My people are just being advised to return without adequate arrangement to secure their lives.”
He said the Borno State Government had done its best in terms of giving support to the people. “But security is the responsibility of the federal government. Even if the state government builds bed of roses for us, we can’t stay when security is lacking.”
Part of the problem, according to him, is that the insurgents have been attacking farmers, herders and fishermen with impunity. “They normally seize the fishing boats and their content after brandishing guns…once my people resist, they would be shot dead. They (insurgents) have dominated everything…we can’t even farm properly and we cannot even transport the little fish we have to Maiduguri with ease,” he said.
Mallam Hassan Mustapha Baba Yarwa, the secretary of fishermen in the five riverine local government areas of Ngala, Marte, Abadam, Monguno and Kukawa that produce the bulk of the fish being consumed in parts of Nigeria said if nothing urgent is done, there would be no fish to eat in the foreseeable future.
At the Baga Fish Market in Maiduguri, the dwindling fortune of the business can be better imagined.
Babagoni Kura, a middleman in the market said merchants from Enugu, Onitsha, Asaba, Benin, Kaduna, Kano, Jos and Bauchi are afraid of taking the risk of coming to Maiduguri to buy fish.
 Dr Abubakar Garba Iliya, the Managing Director of the Chad Basin Development Authority (CBDA) said the Boko Haram insurgency has crippled farming activities in Borno and Yobe States.
“You may recall that sometime in 2011, we came up with a concept in the Chad Basin referred to as the Triple R- meaning Rehabilitation, Resuscitation and Restoration of the Basin. This has yielded results. During the dry season last year (2013), we cultivated 5,000 hectares of wheat. This was done in collaboration with the Borno State government. Unfortunately, because of the  insurgency, we were able to harvest only 30 per cent of what was cultivated. If we had successfully harvested the 5,000 hectares, we would have been talking about injecting 200 metric tons of wheat into the market.
“The project as a whole had to come to a standstill because the workers in New Marte had to leave and the farmers themselves had to abandon their farms.  As such, we lost over 70 per cent of our harvest,” he said.
In Adamawa State, thousands of farmlands have been abandoned in the northern part of the state after escalation of attacks  by Boko Haram fighters on farming communities. The area  is now gradually falling under the control of the insurgents.
This season, thousands of hectares of fertile land lay untilled and completely taken over by tall grasses in the outskirts of towns and villages in the troubled territory in Madagali and parts of Michika. In some places, you can take 30 minutes drive along a stretch of farmlands without spotting a single farmer in an area that used to be crowded with men and women working on their pieces of land during the day time.
Infact, one of the attraction for travelers along Michika-Gulak-Madagali  high way was the spectacular line-up of women-farmers with hoes on their shoulders and in some cases, riding on bicycles as they headed towards their distant farmlands in the morning hours or toward their villages in the afternoon.
Recently, six people were beheaded while working on their separate farms in the outskirt of Gulak, sending fresh warning to the communities to stay clear of their source of livelihood. Most farmlands are kilometers away from the settlements and farmers no longer feel safe in the bush.
In addition to this, the current 24 hour curfew on Madagali Local Government area to help check the activities of Boko Haram figthers has prevented residents from going to farms even in areas that are relatively safe.
The Federal Director of Agriculture in Adamawa, Dr. Walia Hamman said at least 50,000 farmers have abandoned farming in Madagali Local Government alone and moved to Mubi North, Mubi South, Hong  and areas as far as Yola, the capital of the state, where they become dependents on relatives and friends or engage in less productive trades such as hawking and menial jobs.
He said the economy of the affected communities largely depends on agriculture and related activities thus the insecurity is threatening the survival of the population, saying it will take years of rebuilding to resuscitate the economy.
According to him, the halt in agricultural production has caused hunger in the area, which before now, had supplied other parts of the country with various crops.
“The situation is disturbing because people who used to contribute a lot to food production in the country no longer feed themselves and have become dependents on their relatives in other places. Farming is only possible for those living in the mountains”, Hamman lamented.
Residents interviewed said the insecurity situation in Adamawa has rendered most of them jobless as farming and farm related manual labour remains a major source of income in the agricultural communities in the state.
 A woman farmer who had been displaced from Izige, Hadiza Usman said she could  no longer work on the farm to support her seven children whose father was killed by Boko Haram in an attack in February, calling for restoration of security in the North East.
 She said  the little assistance she used to get from the community is no longer forthcoming because those assisting her barely feed their own families.
Mamman Ali said he moved to Shuwa after his wives and children persuaded him to abandon his farming business  in Madagali due to insecurity, unfortunately for him, Boko Haram invaded Shuwa three months after his relocation.
“Life is difficult for every one in this part of the country, We are not secured at all.”Lamenting the loss of agricultural produce of worth hundreds of millions of naira to insurgency,he said he has no option but to quit farming and live with relatives far away from the insurgency stricken areas.
“I am  currently in touch with a relative who has been making efforts  to get me an employment as security guard at a bakery in Jimeta but the arrangement has not yet materialised. These people are after our lives, so we better leave the town and start new lives in the city ”, he said.
The chairman of  Gwar Market, a fruits and vegetable market in Yola, Adamu Danwanzan, said crops produced in Northern Adamawa and Southern Borno have been scarce as a result of insurgency as the market rely on the area for most of its supply of onions, beans, ground nut, pepper among others, lamenting that  the scarcity has shot prices up.
 In Yobe State, efforts by farmers has also been thwarted by the Boko Haram as most people complained of being deprived access to their farmlands by both security operatives and the insurgents.
 Security operatives that have posts near farmlands don’t allow cultivation for  safety reasons while the insurgents threaten to kill farmers if they reveal their hideout.
With increased activities of Boko Haram in Gujba and Gulani local government areas, reasonable population of farmers that fled have abandoned their farmlands and domestic animals, thereby crippling the state`s agricultural strength and potential.
 These areas have been the hub of agricultural output of the state, thus, contributing immensely to the revenue generation of Yobe.
A farmer from Goniri told our correspondent that he has a very large farmland where he used to produce hundreds of bags of cereals.
 “When I cultivated the farm last two years, I got 348 bags of maize, 150 bags of Ground nut, and about 86 bags of beans. But, when the insurgency started, we could no longer do it again. I tried to do it last year but, I had to abandone the farm after spending reasonable amount on the farmland,” he said.
He said that many farmers in the area could no longer cultivate their farms for the fear of being killed by Boko Haram or security operatives.
  “If the soldiers enter the bush and see you, they may not give you the chance to explain who you are,” he said.
Although some farmers in Damaturu and other safe places usually cultivate subsistent crops along major roads, many  of them complained that they cannot access their farmlands in the remote bushes.
 In all the three states, governments have procured grains worth millions of naira from other places in other to assist the displaced.