“Bandits have driven us from our farms”
By Achadu Gabriel, Kaduna
As the country grapples with escalating terrorism and banditry many farmers, have turned to full scale domestic farming activities for the survival if their families.
In Kaduna, most homes, streets and roadsides have been taken over and converted to farmlands as farmers -turned domestic farming now use available spaces to cultivate crops as a means of survival
In some cases, even entrance space into personal residences and flats have been cultivated to produce food to meet family needs not minding the resultant mosquitos other insects making their breeding grounds
Federal road shoulders and highways are not spared of this development as farmers, fearing that they may be kidnapped by bandits in isolated farmlands stay close to their homes and busy roads for farming against their wishes even distorting their places of abode.
A civil engineer, Ahmed Yakubu, who spoke on the development said it has implication s on the lifespan of the buildings and road corridor experiencing this phinonmenon. “The implications are that the situation may leads to serious erosion of the roads and building overtime due the farming activities side by side with residential building, roads and streets”
Also speaking to Journalist, on the matter, Philip Dauda Ladan, a farmer and politician said the fear of people going into the bushes to farm an kidnapped by terrorists is quite high in the state.
Philip who is also a pastor and the Secretary NNPP Kaduna State lamented that people has resorted to feeding their families for survival.
“It’s true and unfortunate because people are afraid to go inside the bushes to farm. I remember my uncle working with Kaduna Vigilante Service (KADVIS), looking for a place to farm.
“And I asked him, can you please get me a space to farm? He said yes, but the problem is that if I go there they’ll carry me. I said why. He said the truth is that, he too want to farm but he cannot go the farm land because even the community within the area where he has about 3-5 hectares of land, he cannot go there in Chikun LGA here, because of bandits. That, he don’t want anything to happen to me. So he’ll not allow me to go and farm there. So I’ve to find an easy place to farm close to my house by the roadsides.
“Now I’m farming in NNPP quarters, even though we have a lot of challenges there. The people managing the area sometimes come and stop us, saying that they’re afraid one day somebody may come and claim hes own the Land.
“Its a verse land. We kills a lot of snakes to farm there. Even Python can be found there. Even though it is not enough we’re just farming for survival, it is just for our consumption only.
“Roadsides is not up to even a plot to bring enough to feed the family. So we’re facing a very tough time. Birds, Chickens and other demotic animals are problems also”, he lamented.
He advised that government should end the insecurity soon for people to return to their farms for meaninful farming
