How banditry, COVID-19 could ignite food crisis

One of the greatest challenges of modern history is the current fight against the coronavirus- a global pandemic that has held the world hostage and shut down even the most powerful economies. In Nigeria, the problem is two-fold: insecurity arising from insurgency, banditry, kidnappings, which is very endemic in farming communities on the one hand, […]

One of the greatest challenges of modern history is the current fight against the coronavirus- a global pandemic that has held the world hostage and shut down even the most powerful economies.

In Nigeria, the problem is two-fold: insecurity arising from insurgency, banditry, kidnappings, which is very endemic in farming communities on the one hand, and the devastating effect of COVID-19, which shut down rural economies on the other hand.

While farmers are struggling to survive the effect of the pandemic, bandits continue their campaign of killings, kidnappings ransacking mostly vulnerable farming communities across northern Nigeria, a region that produces about 85 percent of the nation’s food.

The frontline states hit by the menace are Katsina, Zamfara, Kaduna, Niger, Sokoto, Benue, Plateau, Kebbi, in addition to the insurgency-stricken northeast states of Yobe, Borno and Adamawa. Others like FCT, Nasarawa, Kaduna, Taraba and Kogi are under siege by kidnappers ransacking farming communities.

Observers said this situation may lead to severe food shortage next year if the region that produces the food is under the siege of bandits.

Arc Kabir Ibrahim, National President of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), who is from Faskari in Katsina State, which is 100 percent agrarian and the epicentre of the banditry activities in the north-west, said Faskari Local Government Area in the southern part of Katsina State, which borders Zamfara State, is now the major killing spot of banditry in the northwest.

He said “The killing of several people in Kadisau, a farming village in Faskari Local Government Area has plunged us into an all-time insecurity situation. The farmers cannot go to their farms and this portends imminent food shortage.”

While acknowledging that “the government is doing its best to stop this mayhem” it was very frustrating for the people to contend with the incessant banditry perpetrated by the miscreants.

“The options for the sustainable containment of this menace surely and clearly call for a pragmatic reappraisal of all the factors around the forests, the informants and the morale of the security agents,” he said.

In Zamfara State, our correspondent reports that the farmers are still finding it hard to go to their farms owing to incessant attacks and abductions by armed bandits despite the start of rainy season.

In Kawaye district of Anka Local Government Area of the state, dozens of hectares of farmlands remain uncultivated as farmers have abandoned them for fear of being killed or kidnapped.

“From Duza to Dawan jiya, Duhuwa to Gobirawa, uncultivated lands are a common sight. At the beginning of the rainy season in April and May this year, many farmers were either kidnapped or killed mostly while working on the farms.

“This has instilled fear on us the farmers, and we decided to abandon the lands. These criminals are everywhere. The moment you go at least five kilometres away from your community you would see them. I fear serious shortage of food unless something is done to address the problem,” a farmer Yunusa Muhammad said.

In Dansadau, a district with very fertile land for crop farming, the story is the same. The armed criminals have slammed levies on many farming communities as a precondition for them to attend to their farms. Most of the residents of these communities, our correspondent learnt, have fled.

Another farmer, Ali Kabir, said “Three days ago, two farmers were killed on a farm near Yar tasha community, located just 30 kilometres north of Dansadau town. This is apart from the fact that you cannot rear oxen with which most of our peasant farmers till their lands. The oxen have all been rustled.

“Some of these farmers have migrated to cities and towns doing one thing or the other. The agile youth have taken on commercial motorbike riding in big cities across the country. For many years, this is how we’ve been living.”

In Benue State, farmers in some troubled areas in the state have said they can no longer go to their farms for fear of bandits’ attack.

Vitalis Tarnongu, a big-time farmer, whose farms spread across some of the affected areas, said for the past three years, farmers in three local government areas of the state known as Sankera have continued to face terrible challenges from bandits and herder’s invasion.

“Farmers in the Sankera area can’t go to their farms as usual because of attacks; so many of them have been killed on their farms.

“I can say that between the past two and three years, these farmers have been facing terrible challenges which would in no distant time impact negatively on the economy of the state as well as food security,” Tarnongu said.

Similarly, Abigail Tersoo, a female farmer, said large farming activities in parts of her Logo Local Government Area have ceased due to banditry in the area.

Tersoo emphasised that she has since resorted to tending gardens around her compound to make up for soup condiments because it had become a suicide mission to attempt going to farm for economic advancement.

From Niger State, our correspondent gathered that some farmers who are affected by serial bandits’ attacks in some local government areas said if the trend continues unchecked, food security will be in danger.

Some of them who have been on and off their villages as a result of the attacks said they are not stable emotionally to concentrate on farming activities.

A farmer, Isah Abdullahi, whose only means of survival is farming, said his work has been on hold for a long time as he has not been stable in his community where his farm is located.

He explained that most times pest take over the farmland because they are not around to properly monitor the growth process and farming involving different stages.

For some weeks now, some of the farmers explained that the bandits have resorted to killing their animals and destroying farmlands with everything on it whenever they attack any village and didn’t meet people.

Coordinator Trust Women Farmers Association, Mrs Maro Nuhu, said all her members are disorganised because a lot of them have moved away from their communities, adding that when they rushed back to check their farms, they got killed or kidnapped.

“Another trend we discovered about the bandits is that when they attack any community and find no one, they mix up all food items meant to be sold, destroy some and cart away some. Farmers are left with nothing. Some of them who choose to relocate to bushes and continue farming are attacked by wild animals. The situation needs to be addressed urgently, if not food security will be threatened this year,” she said.