A Director with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr Walia Hamman, on Wednesday expressed fears that Adamawa State may experience food shortage this season.
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Hamman, who is also an agriculturalist, made the assertion in Yola, in reaction to the activities of the Boko Haram sect in the North-Eastern part of the country which has left scores of people dead, especially farmers.
He confirmed that most of the people that were slaughtered by the Islamist in Madagali and Michika local government areas of the state were peasant farmers who produced about 70 per cent of the state’s foodstuff.
The director further noted that recent records have shown that huge number of farmers had fled to neighbouring towns and states, abandoning their farm and homes over fear of Boko Haram attack.
According to him, the ministry in a recently conducted survey discovered that thousands of farmers in the affected areas had not shown any interest to cultivate crops in 2014.
“If urgent step to encourage the few farmers still residing within the affected areas to cultivate crops is not taken, there will be possibility of hunger in some communities living in Madagali and Michika this year” Hamman said.
Hamman, who listed the mostly affected villages in Madagali Local Government Area as Zanzha, Chakawa and Bitiku, revealed that officials of the ministry in the area were encouraging farmers to go back to farming in order to reduce the expected food shortage.
The director, urged the authorities in the affected states to promote dry season farming to mitigate the impending food shortage in their states.
Responding, the state Chairman, All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Jiddere Abu, in his remark said that the situation is quite disheartening, but promised that the body was already working with the federal ministry of agriculture to support the state’s affected farmers.
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