Stakeholders in Taraba proffer solutions to food insecurity

Stakeholders in Muri area of Taraba State have proffered solutions to the looming food insecurity caused by banditry, kidnapping, communal conflicts and farmers and herders clashes.  The stakeholders, academicians, retired military officers, politicians, farmers, among others, during a two-day summit in Jalingo, lamented that bandits and kidnappers were forcing farmers to abandon their farms.  Muri […]

Stakeholders in Muri area of Taraba State have proffered solutions to the looming food insecurity caused by banditry, kidnapping, communal conflicts and farmers and herders clashes. 

The stakeholders, academicians, retired military officers, politicians, farmers, among others, during a two-day summit in Jalingo, lamented that bandits and kidnappers were forcing farmers to abandon their farms. 

Muri area which comprises eight LGAs, according to the stakeholders, is currently facing security challenges and if urgent steps are not taken more and more farmers will abandon their farms and the consequences will be food shortage. 

In a paper he delivered during the summit, Professor Yakubu Bila of the Department of Agriculture, University of Maiduguri, observed that food shortage loomed in the Muri area as bandits were now threatening farming activities. 

In a paper titled: “Insurgency and Its Implications on Food Security and Development in Muri”, Bila observed that in recent years kidnapping, community conflicts, incessant clashes between grazers and farmers and banditry in the Muri area had forced many farmers to abandon farming. 

He said, “The ongoing kidnapping, farmers/herders clashes and banditry in Muri pose a serious threat to food security in the area.” 

He noted that it is a known fact that people were traumatised, maimed, killed and forced to abandon their only way of livelihood, farming. 

Bila, therefore, said the state government must wake up to its primary obligation of guaranteeing the protection of life and property. He said, “There is an urgent need for the initiation of bottom to top security approach anchored on local community intelligence.”

Similarly, Professor Abbas Bashir said peace was desirable for development in any society and commended traditional rulers, law enforcement agencies and spirited individuals that are working tirelessly against inter-ethnic conflicts and banditry in Muri area. 

He accused the government of deliberate and sequential breaking of the ranks of traditional institutions that should have been a rallying point in the state and Muri area in particular.