We lost investments, livelihood to flood — Kwara rice farmers

Sulieman Mohammed, who has started witnessing his breakthrough in dry season rice production was devastated when a flood last week, washed away his entire investment. The incident left him in agony and pain. Unlike Sulieman, Mrs Hassana Peter’s case was more pathetic. She relocated from Makurdi in Benue State to Shonga for greener pastures following […]

Sulieman Mohammed, who has started witnessing his breakthrough in dry season rice production was devastated when a flood last week, washed away his entire investment. The incident left him in agony and pain.

Unlike Sulieman, Mrs Hassana Peter’s case was more pathetic. She relocated from Makurdi in Benue State to Shonga for greener pastures following a boost in dry season farming in the area.

According to her, she was sleeping inside the farm several miles away from her residence, not to leave anything to chance that would mar her harvest. But within 72 hours, everything crumbled.

Speaking with Weekend Trust inside her flooded farm, a frustrated Mrs Hassana raged: “This is terrible, I embraced dry season rice farming after the bitter experience with the rain when floods sacked our livelihood. I sold all my properties because of this but look at how the water destroyed all my investment. I have been inside the bush for three months now just to make sure that nothing goes wrong only to wake up to see this massive destruction. This is too much for a struggling woman like me to bear,” she said, adding the water destroyed her two hectares of farmlands with about ten beds that she just transplanted.

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On his part, Mr Peter, another victim, said he was going back to his state,Plateau, having lost a fortune and several hectares of cultivated rice farm land to the incident.

“The flood washed away all my food and the belongings I had in the farm because we were sleeping inside the forest to prepare our rice farm for good yield,” he told our correspondent.

 

75% rice farms submerged

At the last count, about 75 percent of rice planted during the dry season had been submerged in over seven communities.

The latest “flooding” affected thousands of rice farmlands and left a higher number of farmers and other business providers in agony with no hope in sight.

The loss from the four-day incident, said to have started penultimate Thursday, runs into billions of naira and grounded the economy of the area according to the victims who said they started the process around October/November 2024.

Weekend Trust gathered that prior to the ‘flooding’, the affected communities were a beehive of activities; attracting people from across the country who have relocated to take advantage of the bubbling and thriving dry season rice farming introduced a few years ago.

Due to the incessant flooding that plagued the affected communities and riverine areas in the state, the farmers were introduced to the dry season rice farming with Faro 44, a variety due for harvest within four months.

It was gathered that the initiative was championed by a member of the House of Representatives and chairman of Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN), Ahmed Adamu prior to his election.

 

Unprecedented havoc

Mr Abdullahi, who was part of farmers that diverted to rice farming because of the successes and prospects of the dry season initiative, described the situation as a big disaster.

“In Shonga, we don’t do rain season farming anymore because of the incessant flooding. Farmers who cultivate cassava, maize and other crops have diverted. From the community up to the bank of the River Niger, everywhere is filled with rice fields and it’s difficult to believe this is happening during dry season farming.

He said the least that a farmer could spend to manage a hectare is close to two million naira.

“To manage one hectare, you need at least two pumping machines, hose, prepare a bed, 30 litres of fuel within three days for about four months, fertilizer, boreholes and solar pumping machines with three panels that cost about N700,000 for large farms and about N120,000 for workmanship. We just transplanted some seedlings not up to three weeks. Even if the water goes down, billions of naira have been lost. That’s why we are appealing to the government to come to our aid,” he said.

He said those affected, both indigenes and non-indigenes, are close to 2,000, adding that the situation has hitherto opened up the night economy in the affected communities.

“People sleep inside the farm and if you go there at midnight, you would think it is daytime with people going up and down pumping water inside their farms. There is no place in Kwara State that contains that large number of people practicing dry season farming more than Shonga.”

Part of the affected communities are Tada, Diregi, Chiji, Shimaji, Dugu, Lade, Fonga, Jebba, Kpada, Shonga, Bacita and Lafiagi in Edu and Patigi local government areas some of which are occupied mostly by the Hausa/Fulani from Sokoto, Kano, Kebbi and Zamfara, among others.

Locals said the rice farmers from the northern part of the country travel down to acquire land, spend money on it, sell and leave after harvest. They said more than 2,000 trailers move out from Shonga during harvest, each carrying not less than 600 bags of harvested rice.

Mr Aliyu Jibril, who lost several hectares of rice farmlands to the flood, said since they started the dry season farming of rice in Shonga, this year’s loss is unprecedented.

Jibril, who worked for the initiator, Adamu, for about 14 years before establishing his own rice plantation, said the farmers doubled this year compared to last year with over N450 million lost collectively. He added that over 300 farmers were affected in some of the communities.

A Lagos-based entrepreneur whose investment was also affected, Alhassan Mohammed, advocated for on-the-spot visits by the government to appreciate the extent of the devastation, adding that some of his colleagues fainted when they saw the situation.

“The experience was terrible; we lost billions of naira to the incident that happened within four days. I urge the federal government and others to visit the place to see for themselves the terrible devastation.

“Some victims fainted, especially those that took loans which they invested heavily on their farms and were hoping for a bountiful harvest in three months’ time,” he stated.

 

5,000 hectares affected – Initiator

The initiator and member representing Edu/Moro/Patigi at the House of Representatives, Hon Adam Ahmed Saba, said over 5,000 hectares of rice plantations estimated at over N11.5 billion were affected.

Hon Saba, who said the destruction extended to rice farms in Patigi and Moro local government areas, said he had distributed 150 bags of NPK fertiliser, 50 knapsack sprayers, 50 bags of rice seeds, 170 litres of pesticides and 10 solar water pumping machines to help mitigate the effect.

 

What actually happened

There have been many postulations and assumptions about the cause of the incident. While some farmers like the Lagos-based Alhassan Mohammed described it “as a yearly flash flood,” the initiator, believed “it was the opening of dams in Jebba and Kanji, Niger State that caused it.”

“Farmers who had been engaged in dry season farming were shocked to see their land flooded as this typically does not happen outside the rainy season. We’re used to flooding during the rainy season, but this flood is unlike anything we’ve seen before, especially during the dry season, it’s strange. The opening of the dams in Jebba and Kanji has caused serious harm,” he said.

Speaking during a visit by the state government’s delegation led by the Deputy Chief of Staff, Princess Bukola Babalola, Emir of Shonga, Dr Halidu Yahya Ndanusa, expressed sadness over the incident and called for a thorough probe.

According to him, “From here up to Ouagadougou in Burkina Faso, Niger Republic, and Mali, there was no rain. The Sahel is dry. How can there be a flood here? The source of this flood must be local.

“We have asked from Kainji Dam, and they said it wasn’t from them. But Jebba Dam could not deny it. In fact, they said they would soon close it.

“We spent several years attracting people to this place. We hope this will not happen again next year to avert food insecurity. The governor has spoken to me, and he took it very seriously. It is very important that we get to the root of the matter. If it is true that Jebba Dam released water, what was the reason, and who authorised it?” he said.

However, pending the investigation of the state government and other federal agencies, findings by Weekend Trust showed that the flooding was as a result of water from the Jebba Dam but officials denied any act of sabotage.

Top officials of the Dam confirmed that it was water from the dam that caused the flooding.

According to one of them, “It was the spillover water from the dam that flooded the farms in Shonga and other communities in Patigi.

“It’s a yearly occurrence, once the dam is filled and cannot contain water, it spills the excess. But this year, the water was much which caused the havoc,” the source said.

A liaison officer of Jebba Dam, who simply identified himself as Ahmad said “Although I am not working in the dam directly, what we discovered is that it may be as a result of bad flow from River Lokoja or River Kaduna because those of us close to the dam did not experience anything.”

Furthermore, he said “there is a possibility that during last year’s flooding, sand might have piled up at a particular place and when the spilling came this time, it didn’t have a way to pass and the water found its way into the affected areas.”

“There are lots of places in the riverine areas that are still very dry as we speak. So, it’s not from the dam here.”

 

Government relief materials

The team lead of the state government delegation, Bukola Babalola, assured the victims that the government would offer assistance to the farmers to cushion the effect of the flooding on their farms.

“We have seen what happened and we are taking the message back to the governor to see what can be done to remedy the situation. A lot of farmers are crying here that they need a lot of support. We have heard their complaints, and help is on the way,” he noted, after delivering relief materials worth millions of naira to the affected farmers.