Hunger looms, FCT farmers cry for help against farm destruction by cattle

 cattle

The efforts of Government to ensure food security may continue to face challenges as long as the rate at which the devastating activities of the herdsmen through their cattle are not properly checked by the security authority in Abuja and its environs.

 Findings have revealed that many farmers especially at the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) are now running away from food crops that can be easily destroyed by cows which are moved about in search of food, and which has severally resulted to many conflicts between farmers and herdsmen with lives and properties lost in the process as the case in many other parts of the country.

Finding revealed that crops like cassava, potato, rice, yam, bean and maize are the mostly affected as the activity of the moving cattle in search of pasture in the farm areas of the FCT and other parts of the country.

 According to Chief Patrick Osadebay, a farmer and large scale processor, located at Dobi, Gwagwalada area council of Abuja is negatively impacting on food production with many opting out of farming because of farms destruction by herdsmen activities.

Many affected farmers who spoke on condition of anonymity stressed the need for a very effective policy that would check the activities of herdsmen to embrace ranching rather than moving about their animals which in most cases have resulted to destruction of many farms where the crops, stem and the leave of the crops are totally eaten up thereby putting farmers in a great pain of loses.

The farmers claimed they have lost millions of naira to the farm invasion occasioned by Fulani cow as they counted their losses cum asking the government to put in place effective control measure so as to avert the high trend of farmers moving away from crops to something else.

One of the youth farmers (who wanted to be called James) under the aegis of Young Entrepreneurs Farmers’ Club expressed that the orange- fleshed sweet potato cultivated on about two hectares of land at Kuje Area Council, Abuja was totally destroyed thereby saying the incident was already making him to have a rethink about going into farming until the needful is done about the herdsmen activities.

Chief Patrick Osadebay told Food Farm News that he had lost over one million naira on the activity of cattle saying the animals have eaten up everything he had on the rice farms pointing out  that that the devastation did not spare his cassava farm.

“Every morning and evening they pass through my farm together with their owners in large numbers, and in the process of passing they ended up eating everything on my cassava farm, but the most painful is the rice farm where I lost over a million naira for the cost of production minus the human labour that I have injected into the farm as a processor. This is the similar experience many farmers like me had in the hands of herdsmen where rice, cassava, soybean, potato are totally eaten up” said Chief Osadebey.

He however called on the government speedily expedite action that would check the activities of the these herdsmen saying many farmers are already opting for an alternative from the food crops saying this would bring about scarcity in the running year as many would not want to participate in the dry season farming.

Chief Osadebay stressed the need for the government to ensure proactive protection for these farm areas so as to avert looming food scarcity that would be occasioned by people deserting food crops for other business engagement: “ I want to call on the government that more security effort should be put in place especially to checkmate the activities of the herdsmen in the country especially in Abuja and its environment where we expected as a seat of power will not condole such activities, but to my surprise and to many farmers this is not the case. Day by day cattle destroy and eat up food crops of farmers without any solution at sight”

This report is not affecting farmers in Abuja and its environs alone, many of such experiences are happening across the states of the nation which have severally resulted in  clashes where lives and properties were lost in the process with many animals and crops being destroyed to the detriment of our food security.