Farmers lament destruction of farm produce by cattle at Ijaye Farm Settlement

FARMERS at Ijaye Farm Settlement, located off Ibadan-Iseyin Expressway are lamenting the rate at which cattle regularly invade their farm and destroy their farm produce after so much effort put therein.

Speaking with the Nigerian Tribune shortly after a meeting farmers with the  representatives of security agencies recently, at the farm settlement, Chairman, Ijaye Farm Settlement Farmers Association, Dr Tajudeen Tahiru, described the invasion of cattle on the farms as intolerable.

“Honestly speaking, we have been pushed to the wall by the herders. We have been able to tolerate them all along because we feel we can live together as one. But the herders are invading our farms even at night to destroy our farm produce.

“And when we discover this, we mobilised ourselves on peacful protest to the Oyo State government that was March 2021. They listened to us and they even reply some of our complaints at that time but that did not stop the Fulani herders from using their cattle to destroy our farms.

“They have now included raping of farmers’ wives and this was why we wrote a strongly worded petition to the governor of the state, Mr Seyi Makinde and all law enforcement agencies and that necessitated this meeting we are holding today.”

Tahiru, while stating on behalf of other farmers what they want the government to do said:”Our request from the government is that they shoild dialogue with the herders and let them see reasons they should stop destroying our farms. This is a designated farm by the state government, it is a farm settlement and not a cattle settlement. Cattle are now outnumbering the farmers, this is our plight and we want the government to do something urgent about it if truly the government is serious about ensuring food security in the state.”