Crops damaged by flood

The Secretary, Kebbi state chapter of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Alhaji Muhammad Idris, said on Friday that 45,000 farmers had lost crops worth N3 billion to flood.

Idris, who made the disclosure i an interview with our source in Birnin Kebbi, said that the destruction was unprecedented.

He said that the association had enlightened its members prior to the flood that they should vacate from the flood-prone zones.

``We told them what to do, but they did not heed to our counsel early enough; by the time they realized our warning, it was late as some farmers had already gone far into farming.

``It is sad that we had to suffer this much in spite of the three-month prior warning we had from the relevant bodies,'' he added.

The secretary stressed the need to supply farmers with modern seed varieties that were drought-resistant and could grow faster than the conventional seeds.

He said that the rural farmers had not received assistance from both the Federal and state governments as officials from both governments had separately sent delegations that toured affected areas.

``The officials moved round to ascertain the level of the damage; we are still waiting to hear from them,'' he said.

Idris said that AFAN had more than 1.5 million members drawn from the state's 21 Local Government Areas, and called more assistance for them.

``Unless the farmers are assisted to massively engage in dry season farming, the state and its neighbours will face food scarcity next year,'' he said.

He called on the Federal and Kebbi governments to assist farmers with soft loans, modern agricultural equipment and farm inputs to improve their yields.