As this year’s farming season sets in, the Federal Government has been called upon to provide adequate and robust security for rural farmers in Katsina State and across the nation.
The Chairman, Coalition Of Civil Society Organizations in the state, Abdulrahman Abdullahi, made this call while speaking on the current state of the nation.
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He said, the appeal is coming on the heels of the declaration made by Governor Aminu Masari, that in the year 2020, more than 50,000 hectares of land were not cultivated in the state, due to the activities of bandits.
The over 50,000 hectares of uncultivated land, according to Masari, are within the ten local government areas, bedevilled by banditry.
This is because, about 90 per cent of the entire population of Katsina people are farmers, either commercial or subsistent.
According to Masari, the incident alone, made the output of farmers drop drastically in the year 2020.
He hopes for a better farming outing this year.
He added that the government is doing all things possible, to ensure peace and security returns to the troubled areas.
To avoid a recurrence of the loss of agricultural land to non-cultivation, the coalition of Civil Society Organizations’ Chairman, Abdulrahman Abdullahi is calling on the Federal Government to secure the farmers, in order to motivate them back to their farmlands.
He added that, if adequate measure is not taken in this regards, hunger, famine, food insecurity, as well as an increase in criminal activities will be on the rise, as most farmers are now abandoning their communities to a safer place, mostly, within the urban areas.
Although there is a relative reduction in the attacks on communities in the last 3 months, the call on the Federal government to do the needful, will further serve as a morale booster, for farmers to return to their communities and farmlands, without fear of being abducted or killed, while working on their farmlands.
( Editor, Omor Bazuaye)
