Borno farmers return to farm, want more land

Social and economic lives were crippled, while millions of people were displaced.   Thousands of farmers and fishermen have also lost their means of livelihood to the activities of insurgents who have destroyed many hectares of farmlands.Many farmers and fishermen operating at the famous Allo Dam in Konduga Local Government Area of the state have also […]

Social and economic lives were crippled, while millions of people were displaced.   
Thousands of farmers and fishermen have also lost their means of livelihood to the activities of insurgents who have destroyed many hectares of farmlands.
Many farmers and fishermen operating at the famous Allo Dam in Konduga Local Government Area of the state have also been killed while others have been displaced.
A non-governmental organisation, Youth Federation for World Peace, otherwise known as Peace Ambassador in partnership with FADAMA, organised intervention programme to assist the displaced farmers and enable them to continue with their farming activities.         
Ahmed Shehu, the North East Coordinator of Peace Ambassador and director of the project, said the organisation was engaged to implement the North East support initiative under the National Fadama III development project, conceived by the World Bank to provide assistance to victims of insurgency in the zone.
According to him, over 1000 displaced farmers were identified in their camps and selected for the programme.
Some of the farmers, who spoke to our correspondent, said they have already started benefiting from the programme.
A farmer from Konduga local government, Malam Kyari said: “We never thought that we will farm again after we were displaced and lost our farmlands but today we have harvested hectares of land of tomatoes through this assistance.”
“The only challenges we are facing now are that there is not enough land to farm on as the land we were assisted with at the College of Agriculture is not enough for all the displaced farmers,” Kyari added.
He appealed to the Borno State government to assist them with land to farm.   
Another farmer who is a widow, Hajia Falmata Mohammed, said she was happy to be assisted to return to what she loves doing and be empowered after she lost her husband.