Benue farmers have lost N10bn to herdsmen attacks —Farmers’ Chairman

Benue State governor, Samuel Ortom, recently disclosed that twelve out of 23 local government areas of the state were under the control of Fulani herdsmen.

Some of the council areas being occupied include; Agatu, Gwer West, Makurdi, Logo, Buruku, Kwande,  Ado, Guma, Ogbadibo, Ohimini, Oju and Otukpo cutting across the three senatorial districts of the state.

Investigation revealed that some communities in the affected council areas have been deserted following Fulani herdsmen attacks leaving behind farmlands and crops wasted.

Benue is an agrarian state, the bulk of the population are peasant farmers growing various types of farm crops such as; yam, cassava, soya beans rice, beniseads, pepper and host of others.

With the constant attacks on the affected Local Government areas, several of the peasant farmers have fled their locality to urban areas, leading to abandonment of their farms which cattle have feasted on.

It is on record that twelve Local Government areas of the state had  suffered serial attacks while no fewer than 2000 persons were killed in the last four years that the crisis assumed a national attention.

The state chairman of All Farmers Association of Nigeria, AFAN, Comrade  Aondoana  Kuhe, recently told the Nigerian Tribune that farmers in the state  lost over N10 billion in terms of farm produce aside from the human loss which he said he could not give its statistics immediately. According to him, ‘where do we start from, is it the forceful taking over of our farmland by the herdsmen or what we farmers in this state have lost, indeed,  farmers in the state lost about N10 billion to herdsmen invasion  which has been  ravaging  the state in the past four years.

Farmlands  have been taken over from us, most of our farmers could not go back to their farms as a result of the incessant invasion by  herdsmen, you know here in Benue we have comparative advantage in beniseads and rice which we produce in large scale, unfortunately, the invasion has wreaked havoc on our farmlands’, adding, “the number of farmers that lost their lives can not be given because nearly everyday we lost farmers and their land taken over from them, while the lucky ones have been displaced.

“Both  peasant and mechanized farmers were affected by the invasion, many of our mechanised farmers have lost so much money invested on their farms as a result of these attacks. It is either the cows entered into the farmland and ate up all the crops or the farmers had to run away for their lives when the herdsmen invaded,” he said.