97% of farmlands cultivated in Katsina, says farmers’ group

By : Danjuma Michael, Katsina

Date: 9 February 2025 3:32pm WAT

Aondohimba Abraham, a millet farmer poses for a photo in his farm after abandoning his main farm due to attacks on farmers in Eggon, Nasarawa State Nigeria on August 11, 2021.Many farmers in rural areas in Abuja, Nasarawa, Benue and Jos have been deprived of access to their farmlands for fear being kidnapped or killed by herders. - Threatened by insecurity, farmers in Nigeria's farm belt are increasingly abandoning their land, leading to supply problems and adding to the already high cost of food in Africa's most populous country. Nigeria's Middle Belt and northwestern states have for years been caught in violence between normadic herdsman and farmers as climate change intensifies rivalries over water and land. But that violence has spiralled into security crisis tit-for-tat attacks and expanded into widespread kidnapping, cattle theft and criminal banditary. (Photo by Kola Sulaimon / AFP)

Despite challenges brought about by insecurity, no less than 97% of farmlands were said to have been successfully cultivated during the last farming season across Katsina State.

The state Chairman of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Ya Gwajo-Gwajo, who made this known in an interview, said only about three percent of farmlands were not cultivated in the state, including those in security-prone councils.

Gwajo-Gwajo said the state had recorded the same percentage of cultivated farmlands in the past two to three years, and that the 2025 farming season may even witness an improvement.

He said, “Only about three percent of farmlands were not cultivated during the last farming season in the state, including areas affected by insecurity.

“Peace has been restored in several areas; where there has been no farming, farmers have now gone to farm in those areas, and they were able to successfully harvest their crops.”

He, however, said the last farming season witnessed low-quality produce by some farmers due to heavy rainfall experienced during the period.

According to him, the weight measure of the same sack of grains last year was lower than what was obtained in 2023, as the heavy rainfall affected the quality of the yield.

He also said a worm infestation, which threatened crops in many farmlands last year in the state, was overcome as a result of the heavy downpour and the use of pesticides by farmers.

Gwajo-Gwajo called on both the state and federal governments to target genuine farmers when wanting to assist them with things like loans, subsidised fertilisers, seedlings, equipment for mechanised farming, and so on, for this year’s farming season.

He said there was a need for the government to gather data on genuine farmers who would be assisted, as doling out such items to non-genuine farmers would be counter-productive.

He also called on the federal government to dissuade the importation of grains that farmers in the country are able to produce for consumption.

He said,”What the government needs to do is to stop the importation of grains and empower Nigerian farmers so that we can farm these grains on a large scale for local consumption.”

He explained that Nigeria has millions of farmers that can produce what the country needs, and even export them once government policies are favorable.