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•Medium-sized yam of N500 now sells for N1, 500

•Farmers blame insecurity, failure to secure communities, resettle them

By Peter Duru, Makurdi

Hunger and starvation may be lurking around the horizon for obvious reasons. One clear reason is that Benue, which produces more yam than any other state in the country and has earned the sobriquet of the “Food Basket of Nigeria”, is experiencing serious security challenges and can no longer produce as much as it used to in the days of peace and stability.

In normal times, Benue State does not only produce an enormous quantity of yam, it also parades varieties of yam with different tastes and aromas, which addicted consumers, go for in the respective locations and roadsides in the agrarian state. But after years of unceasing attacks by armed herdsmen on farmers and communities that produce these staple food, the state is about to witness a drought never seen in years. The choice yams are not coming out in large numbers while the few that make it to the sales

points, come with high price tags. There are more buyers of the yam than the quantities and varieties that are being put up for sale in all the markets in Benue State. The buyers are truly, worried.

According to our correspondent, the problem is caused by the negative impact of the protracted herdsmen attacks on the farming populace which has turned the farmers into refugees and left them in camps.

Findings indicate that markets across the state are usually flooded with various varieties of Benue yam at this period, but that is not the case at the moment.

All the yam sections visited in Makurdi markets were either empty or had scanty supplies of yam tubers some of which were

sourced from nearby states and sold in the markets, unlike what was obtained in the past when traders at this time of the year usually throng the state to haul truckloads of the highly sought cheap and affordable Benue yam to other parts of the country.

Sadly, the scarcity of new yams in the market has also forced prices of the commodity out of the reach of the common man as a medium-sized tuber, which used to sell for about N500, now goes for as high as N1,500.

Reacting to the worrisome development, the State Chairman of All Farmers Association of Nigeria, AFAN, Saaku Aondongu, said it was the price Nigerians would painfully pay for the failure of the Federal Government to end the herdsmen menace and ensure the security of lives and properties of the people of the state and Nigerians in general.

Aondongu said: “Benue has 23 local government areas, out of which 21 have come under attacks by herdsmen; and of that number, the nine LGAs that constitute the core food production hub of the state have been devastated. With that, you do not expect to have the quantity of yam production that we used to have before now. At best we may be meeting half of what we used to produce in the past.

“Aside yam, which is an upland crop, rice and corn that are Fadama crops also serve as fodder for cattle because herdsmen lead their cows to the farms to feed on them and if you attempt to stop them they gun you down. I can assure you that with what is happening in Benue which is the Food Basket of the Nation, the entire country is obviously in trouble in terms of food security. Every corner of the country will experience hunger because Benue farmers at the moment cannot even produce

enough to feed the state.

“It is unfortunate because the Federal Government has failed in its responsibilities to ensure the security of lives and property of the people. What the Federal Government ought to do is to concentrate on and fight insecurity so that

farmers can be allowed to work on their farms. But now when the farmer goes to the farm you find him dead and all you can do is to go and carry his corpse. So which other farmer will want to go and die; even when you are hungry would you want to die?

“Unfortunately, the Federal Government is only preaching agriculture and food production and not encouraging it because agriculture and food production begin with security. It will interest you to know that our people in Benue State started

ranching from time immemorial. During dry season goats, sheep and pigs are left to roam on restricted areas but the moment it rains they are all confined so that they don’t go out to destroy farms.

“But what we are witnessing today is that cattle from all parts of Africa invade our country, communities and farms and they come in order to eat. Again the people that were controlling cattle in the past did it with sticks, and cutlass was used to cut fodder, but now they go about with AK-47 rifles. Who will see AK-47 and still bend to work? It’s not possible.

“So, the country is facing imminent hunger. The people are increasing, the land is not increasing and production is not going on because armed herdsmen have taken over our communities and people are displaced and people have to eat but the food is not there; it is a sad commentary,” the farmers’ leader lamented.

On his part, the General Secretary of Yam Sellers Association in Makurdi LGA, Michael Orbunde, also blamed the scarcity of new Benue yam on the lingering herdsmen incursions and displacement of a large population of farmers in the state.

He said: “The yam we are selling now was gotten from Baruwa in Taraba State near Cameroon. This is because our people who are predominantly yam farmers are finding it difficult to farm because the majority of them are in IDP camps and those not in the camps are not able to access their farms because armed herders have taken over our communities and farms.

“Before by this time of the year, you have new yams flooding our markets in Benue, but that is not the situation today because of insecurity. We presently do not have enough quantity and the price is also exorbitant. People could not plant yams

as they used to because Fulani herdsmen would not allow our people to go to the farm. The menace of herdsmen has affected so many of our communities. People have abandoned their homes for fear of being killed and are taking refuge in IDPs camps

and cannot go to the farms.

“The fear now is that because of the shortages we are witnessing, by December and January, we might witness an acute shortage of yam in Benue State because the situation is a warning signal of what is ahead. Our people could not cultivate due to insecurity; that is simply the reason why new yam is scarce in Benue markets and the little you find is very expensive.”