Hannah Mgbede asks her husband for permission to take her first break of the day from threshing rice so she can breastfeed their 18-month-old baby girl who is strapped to her back.
Ibrahim Mohammed, her 45-year-old husband, used to harvest up to ten sacks of rice per year from his property. However, after assailants set fire to his home a few years ago, and violence between farmers and herders erupted over Nigeria’s northwest and central regions, his possessions were reduced to only three suitcases.
Mohammed hasn’t been able to acquire seedlings for yams, soybeans, or guinea corn because of the lower yield (sorghum).
Mohammed, who has three children aged five and under, says, “Sometimes we manage to eat once (a day).” “Since the catastrophe, we’ve been feeding by the grace of God to stay alive.”
Rice, yams, and soybean harvests were once so plentiful in Benue state that it was dubbed the “food basket of Nigeria.” However, in the northcentral state of Africa’s most populous country, bouts of violence have devastated crops in recent years.
Intercommunal violence between herders and farmers contending for water and land has displaced more than 1 million farmers in the state, according to officials.
The Associated Press quoted Benue state governor Samuel Ortom as saying, “We are on the verge of a food crisis.”
According to the United Nations World Food Program, at least 13 million people in northern Nigeria are currently experiencing starvation due to a dry season. Food sales have also been interrupted by the violence, as highways have become too dangerous for farmers to carry their products, and marketplaces have been torched by attackers.
Rice output has plummeted to the point where its price has risen by more than 60% in Benue and other parts of the country.
“There is a very serious risk of hunger,” a UN spokeswoman told AP, “since both conflict and COVID-19 have made it difficult to reach people who are most in need.”
Thousands of Nigerians have died as a result of decades of conflict between agrarian communities and nomadic cattle herders over restricted access to water and grazing area. Farmers sometimes accuse herders of encroaching on their fields, while the herders, who are primarily Fulani, claim the croplands are their customary grazing paths.
The government has now established a programme under the National Livestock Transformation Plan in the hopes of ending the conflict, which has been exacerbated by the proliferation of guns and the government’s unwillingness to pursue past culprits from both sides.
Approximately 3,000 persons fleeing the violence in Benue state are currently residing in a camp in the Guma local government area.
Mtonga Iliamgee, 43, says feeding her family of ten is a daily struggle. At 1 p.m., she was observed preparing their only meal of the day.
“We live for the day,” she continues, “and we never know what tomorrow may bring.”
Some youngsters arrive to class sobbing because they haven’t had breakfast, according to Felix Agune, deputy head of the camp school. Non-governmental organisations are attempting to fill the void, but it’s “nothing compared to the tremendous hunger that has swept over Benue state,” according to Rex Elanu, programme director for the One to One Healthcare Initiative.
Officials with the government claim they are attempting to make farmlands safe enough for people to return and work them. They’re also attempting to persuade nomadic herders to take up ranching in order to reduce their conflicts with farmers.
Seeds and fertilisers have also been sent to farmers in the past to boost food production, mitigate the effects of the epidemic, and encourage more young people to pursue careers in agriculture, according to an agriculture ministry spokesman.
Despite the violence, Nigerian farmers have been able to produce enough rice, cassava, and yams to keep the country self-sufficient in these staples.
The agriculture ministry’s Theodore Ogaziechi stated, “Nigeria survives on the produce generated by smallholder farmers.” “The farmers are doing everything they can to feed the country.”
Farmers are tough, but they are also fearful, according to Ortom, the governor of Benue state, because those who have sought to return to their farms have been slain.
“If these farmers have security, we’ll be able to maintain our position as the nation’s food basket,” he said. “However, if nothing is done, as is the case now, it will be a major issue.”
