Flood: 90,000 farmers lost 300,000 hectares of farmland worth over N4bn —AFAN

As victims of flood in Benue State continue to count their losses, more than 90,000 farmers across the 21 affected Local Government Areas of the state were said to have lost over N4 billion to the ravaging flood.

Further investigation revealed that the state governor, Samuel Ortom, who is also a large-scale farmer in the state, lost about 5,000 hectares of farmland to the torrential rain that rendered more than 100,000 people homeless.

Ortom had, two Saturdays ago, raised the alarm over imminent food scarcity in the country due to the flood.

Benue is ranked among the six highest producers of rice and yam in the country, while it also said to have comparative advantage in sesame seed and soya bean.

Benue State chairman of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Mr Aondoana Hembe, who revealed this to Sunday Tribune in Makurdi, said that more than 300,000 hectares of farmlands were washed away by the flood.

Some of the crops affected, according to the AFAN boss, included: rice, soya beans, yam and cassava.

“We just completed the compilation of our members affected in the recent flood that ravaged the state. The devastating effect is unimaginable because it affected 21 Local Government Areas of the state.’

“By our records, more than 90,000 farmers were affected, as their crops were completely buried in the water. You know Benue is one of the six largest producers of rice and we also have comparative advantage in soya beans sesame seed,  yam. Unfortunately, some of these crops were totally submerged,” he stated.

When asked to quantify the loss in naira, Hembe said: “We lost over N4billion worth of farmlands, because most of the affected farmers are into mechanised farming; a total of 300,000 hectares of farmland were lost to the flood.”

The Executive Secretary, State Emergency Maintenance Agency, Mr Boniface Ortese, also said that the agency was yet to collate the total amount of properties lost to the flood.

Ortese said: “We are still collating the figure because our assessment team are going  round the 21 LGAs affected to verify all the claims.”

Commenting on the governor’s farmlands washed away, Ortese confirmed that they had the governor’s farmland on record, as also affected by the flood, stating that “the assessment team has been drafted to the areas to furnish us with the loss, but I was told that it is in thousands of hectares of farmland.”