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Rice farmer Donald Amokaha spends his days weeding a temporary plot outside the town of Makurdi on the banks of the Benue River in Nigeria’s agricultural heartland.
A two hour drive from the countryside, Amokaha has a swath of prime farmland, but it is abandoned. Fear of the attacks forced him to leave earlier this year.
“I usually grow rice, millet and sesame seeds on 100 hectares (250 acres) of land in Guma … but this year I ran,” Amokaha told AFP. “I plowed 40 hectares but I couldn’t plant.
Amokaha is just one of many farmers fleeing violence in Nigeria’s Middle Belt, an agricultural region.
The agricultural heartland, like the northwestern states of Nigeria, is beset by years of violence between nomadic herders and farmers – a feud that has worsened as climate change intensifies competition for water and the earth.
While insecurity is rooted in this conflict between pastoralists and farmers, the crisis in northwest Nigeria has turned into broader criminality with mass kidnappings for ransom, cattle rustling and banditry.
The rural exodus is a key factor in the rising cost of food in Africa’s most populous country, affecting its tens of millions of poor people.
Some farmers like Aondohimba Abraham have abandoned their main farms to work in safer areas. By Kola Sulaimon (AFP) The government’s statistics office says inflation in June was around 17% compared to the previous year.
This rise was fueled by the fallout from the global pandemic, which triggered a drop in demand for oil, severely affecting the revenues of oil-producing Nigeria.
But in the index is even worse news: food inflation of 22%.
Worries
In Nasawara State, on the outskirts of Nigeria’s capital Abuja, vegetable vendor Badamasi Bello is worried.
Benue is called the nation’s food basket due to its high agricultural production. By Kola Sulaimon (AFP) He said he was losing customers on a daily basis due to soaring commodity prices. The high cost of transport also contributes to the price increase.
“I used to sell tomatoes and peppers, but things are expensive now. I used to sell 10 bags of these items a day, but the customers don’t come the way they used to. I only sell two bags a day.
Last month, the head of the National Emergency Management Agency warned of the food shortage, saying many farmers living in camps for internally displaced people would find it difficult to return to their lands. .
The United Nations International Organization for Migration (IOM) reported in May that Benue had more than 200,000 displaced people, although local government estimates place the figure much higher.
Nigeria locates Makurdi, the capital of Benue State. By (AFP) Benue State Governor Samuel Ortom, a fierce critic of the opposition PDP party government, said he feared the repercussions of the rural exodus on food production and the economy in general.
“This crisis portends a great danger for the growth and development of Nigeria,” Ortom told AFP.
“Without adequate security, there can be no agriculture to produce food for our people.
In May, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) warned that at least 9.2 million Nigerians face a crisis or worse levels of food insecurity this year due conflicts in the country.
Import calls
Benue produces staple foods such as yams, rice, beans and corn. It supplies 70 percent of Nigeria’s soybeans, according to the Nigerian Investment Promotion Commission.
Traders say transportation costs push prices up as well. By Kola Sulaimon (AFP) Nigeria’s central bank says it recently released 791 billion naira ($ 1.92 billion / 1.7 million euros) to farmers and reduced interest rates on loans in a bid to boost food production .
Chijioke Ekechukwu, managing director of Dignity Finance & Investment, said farmers were producing much less than needed to meet Nigeria’s food demand.
“The current situation is affecting prices. The government must open the borders for importing food shortages. When this is done, there will be enough for the local market and prices will be forced to come down,” Chijioke told the ‘AFP.
“In the long term, the government should tackle insecurity.
Nigeria closed parts of its borders in August 2019 in an attempt to curb the smuggling of rice and other goods as the government tried to improve its food self-sufficiency.
The borders were also closed in March last year to help fight the coronavirus pandemic, although four borders were reopened in December.
Amokaha, a former agriculture commissioner and now a farmer, said food prices would rise inexorably until producers could return to their land.
“Rather than importing food, the government should tackle insecurity in order to encourage farmers to increase their production,” he said.
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