The worsening insecurity in Northern Nigeria has forced large-scale farmers to abandon their once-thriving businesses in the region.
LEADERSHIP Weekend‘s investigation in some host communities of such commercial farms in the region showed that their owners have abandoned them and even fled the areas.
Consequently, thousands of the employees of these tractor-driven farms have lost their jobs and fled their homes due to the escalating violence and fear of attacks.
LEADERSHIP Weekend reports that the region, once the country‘s food basket, is facing a severe decline in agricultural production. Farmers can no longer tend to their crops, leading to food shortages and economic losses.
Some of the operators of the large-scale agriculture enterprises said poor incentives from the federal and state governments have also contributed to the decline of farming in the region.
They lamented the lack of support, including inadequate funding, poor infrastructure, and distribution of fertilisers after their farming season as their bane.
In Kaduna State, most commercial farmers have stopped working in rural areas due to bandits‘ activities.
The areas worst affected are Chikun, Birnin Gwari and Igabi local government areas.
Checks revealed that many farmers involved in large-scale cultivation of maize and other crops have deserted their farmlands for fear of being kidnapped.
However, some have resorted to small-scale farming near Kaduna City for self-consumption.
One of the farmers, Donald Bala, who operates on Abuja-Kaduna Road in the Chikun local government area, said, “Six years back, I was a big-time farmer, but now I have stopped because of bandits. Before, I used to go into rural areas and acquire hectares of land to be cultivated yearly, but not now. I was lucky I escaped being kidnapped in the bush one certain time. Government should provide security for farmers or end banditry.”
Lukeman Abdulmalik was a commercial farmer who resides in Kano but operated at the neighbouring Gabarun, Ringim in Jigawa State.
He said farmers hardly have access to fertiliser at a subsidised rate. When they eventually manage to buy and cultivate, the middlemen who come to patronise the farm produce do not buy at a fair and reasonable price.
According to him, in 2023, when his rice farm was due for harvesting, thieves harvested his hectare of rice farmland, adding that due to low rainfall, he usually used irrigation system to pump water to the farm, which made him incur more cost.
The Kano State chairman of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Abdullahi Maibredi, said, „Our major challenge with the government is that whenever they say they are giving us fertilisers, herbicides, or insecticides, they don‘t do so on time; they bring them when the farming season is almost over. So that is why we took it upon ourselves to do our thing without waiting.“
While thanking God for better security in the state, Maibredi said government support for farmers would boost food production and sustain their businesses.
In Niger State, insecurity has affected most large-scale farms owned by individuals around Rafi, Kontagora and Shiroro areas.
In fact, the farm owners have shut down the outlets due to insecurity.
But other large farms that were hitherto moribund are now capitalising on Governor Mohammed Umaru Bago’s priority on agriculture through reinvigorated Niger foods and green economy to get their grooves back.
As a result, large-scale rice farms have sprung up across the state, while most prominent farms that were hitherto moribund have resumed operations.
Among the well-established farms are Maizube, Golden and Sunti Farms which were apparently struggling to remain afloat before Bago’s administration.
However, the state’s N30 billion all-inclusive grazing reserve to boost livestock farming in Bobi Mariga local government has been stalled due to insecurity.
Most of the farmers urged the government to boost security in the state so they could return to the farm.
In Kwara State, the celebrated New Nigeria Commercial Farm, popularly known as Shonga Farms, located in Shonga, Edu local government area, has become a shadow of itself.
Shonga Farms, which had plantations on 13,000 hectares of land, was run by 13 white farmers who were invited from South Africa to Nigeria by the administration of a former governor of Kwara State, Dr Bukola Saraki (2003-2011).
Though the ownership of the farms was contentious, the farm provided job opportunities for the people of Shonga and its environs during their hey days, employing close to 4,000 workers during each farming season.
There was also initial resistance to the take-off of the farms by the people of Shonga, who protested the state government‘s acquisition of a large portion of their fertile land, when it gave to the 13 white farmers led by Allan Jack.
Despite the obstacles on its way, Shonga Farms thrived under the administration of Saraki and his successor, Alhaji Abdulfattah Ahmed, who governed the state between 2011 and 2019.
The Shonga Farms engaged in mixed, dairy, and poultry farming. It produced commercial crops such as maize, rice, cassava, ginger, soya bean, milk and poultry meat.
However, the 13 white farmers vacated the farms due to a number of factors, including their inability to pay back bank loans and unfavourable weather and environment. The incumbent administration in the state is said not to be keen on the farms‘ viability, largely because of the alleged controversies surrounding their ownership and funding.
“The new government perceives the Shonga Farms as a financial drainpipe,“ a source confided in our reporter.
LEADERSHIP Weekend gathered that the Shonga Farms were taken over by the Assets Management Corporation of Nigeria (AMCON) due to the about N1.7 billion debt the farms owed banks.
In Yobe State, some farmers are being killed, kidnapped, and threatened by suspected Boko Haram terrorists, leading to displacement and loss of livelihoods.
It was gathered that the conflict between farmers and herders over land and resources is escalating, resulting in violence and insecurity in parts of the state.
Some of the farmers disclosed that suspected Boko Haram members and herders are destroying crops, leading to food insecurity and economic losses.
Gombe State, once a thriving agricultural hub, is facing a perfect storm of challenges threatening to decimate its farming activities this year. Farmers like Abubakar Babayo Akko are bearing the brunt of insufficient rainfall, pest infestations, and hyperinflation of farm inputs.
“I have never seen a year like this. Rainfall used to start by late April or early May, but this year, we didn‘t get any until mid-July. It is a disaster,“ he said.
Idris Abubakar from Lawanti village echoes Abubakar‘s concerns. „NiMet predicted a shortage of rainfall in our area, but we never thought it would be this bad. Our farms are in terrible shape.“
The high cost of farm inputs has exacerbated the lack of rainfall.
Auwal Adamu Abdullahi, a farmer, laments, “Fertiliser, herbicides—everything is unaffordable. Our farms are vulnerable to parasites, and plant growth is stunted. It is a recipe for low yields,“ he said.
Due to the lingering Boko Haram insurgency and its activities on farming, such as attacks, killings, and stealing of farm products during harvests, Borno State has not witnessed large-scale farming. Before the insurgency, large-scale agriculture took place in areas like Marte, which was known for producing wheat, rice, and sorghum, among others.
Hassan Mohammed, the national adviser of the Zabarmari Rice Farmers Association, said the major challenge they are facing now is quelea birds and pests that eat up their farm produce. He urged the government to help them by providing pesticides to encourage more food production.
Low farm yield is eminent as activities of terrorists have paralysed seventy percent of the farming activities in the eastern flank of Sokoto State. The worst hit are farmers in Sabon Birnin, Isa, Goronyo, Rabah, Gada, Wurno, Illela, and Gwadabawa local government areas, who had abandoned their farms due to incessant gunmen attacks.
In the past six months, gunmen‘s activities have escalated following their migration from Zamfara and Katsina states, where they settled largely in Sabon Birni, Isa, and Goronyo forest areas close to the Shinkafi local government area of Zamfara State.
One of the affected farmers, Alhaji Bashir Guyawa, told our correspondent, „If the current tempo of gunmen attacks is allowed to continue unchecked within the technically allowed time of planting and replanting, there is the likelihood of loss of millet production valued at N365.75 billion.