Most Displaced Farmers in Borno State Return to Farm – AFAN

About 400, 000 farmers in Borno had returned to farm this year following the gradual return of peace due to gallantry effort of the military in fighting Boko Haram terrorists in the state, an official has said.Malam Salihu Sani, the Secretary of state chapter of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), in an interview in Maiduguri explained that the farmers were mainly from eight out of the nine Local Government Areas (LGAs) in the Southern Senatorial District of the state.He named the LGAs  as Shani, Kwaya-Kusar, Biu, Hawul, Askira-Uba, Damboa, Chibok and Bayo.Salihu added, however, that farmers from Gwoza the ninth LGA, did not participate much in farming activities due to an ongoing military operations aimed at uprooting Boko Haram terrorists in the area.“Farming is almost made impossible because most of our small-scale farmers especially from Northern Borno, have fled and are currently taking refuge as IDPs here in the state capital while many of them were killed by Boko Haram insurgents.“But even at that, our farmers in Southern Borno continue to take the bull by the horn to cultivate their crops especially in areas that had recorded relative peace.“Farmers in Hawul, Shani,Kwaya Kusar had produced good quantity of wheat, groundnut, soya beans, cotton,millet, potato, rice and maize while Domboa farmers produced guinea corn and bambara nut this year.“We are very optimistic, now that almost all the local government areas are liberated, our farmers will soon go back to their ancestral home and continue farming.“The Borno state government is doing a lot to kick start and revolutionise the activities of farming in preparation for the post-insurgency but farmers’ greatest challenges is access to loans.” The state government must assist our farmers in tapping from relevant agricultural programs and schemes to resuscitate the lost glory of the state’s farming activity,“ said Sani.