The experts insist that unless urgent and very drastic steps are immediately taken, the crisis may worsen as floods continue to ravage farmlands in the northern states.

Ten states, namely Kaduna, Kano, Jigawa, Nasarawa, Taraba, Bauchi, Zamfara, Yobe, Sokoto and Kebbi are highly affected, following heavy rainfall in the region.

An agricultural investor in Toro LGA of Bauchi State, Bello Yakazsi, urged the government to declare an emergency in the food sector across the country.

Yakazsi, said, “While the situation we are currently experiencing in the North can be said to be a peculiar one, it is high time that the Federal Government declared a state of emergency in the country’s agricultural sector.

“We have limited powers over the strange and dynamic play of Mother Nature but the little efforts we can muster to save ourselves from hunger and starvation must be put in place by all the government agencies. This is not the time for politics.”

As a result of the effect of the twin threat of flood and drought, some farmers in Kano State, especially those within the 14 LGAs that are at a high risk of flooding as predicted by the National Emergency Management Agency, have continued to express fears about possible flooding in the state and have begun praying against flooding as rainfall persists across the 44 Local Government Areas.

One of the farmers in Rimin Gado, Mallam Musa Sani, told The PUNCH, “Since the beginning of August, we’ve been experiencing heavy rainfall, which lasts for long hours, on a daily basis.

“As you know, too much rainfall does not allow crops to grow speedily. So, we fear that once flood occurs, farmers are at the risk of losing their crops.”

An official of the State Emergency Management Agency, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak on the matter, confirmed to The PUNCH on Saturday that “even though the agency has yet to receive the comprehensive report on the flood from our assessment team, we are very worried about the situation but, we cannot act without any official report.”

Meanwhile, the Secretary of the Jigawa State Emergency Management Agency, Dr. Haruna Mairiga, told our correspondent in Dutse that over 2,744 hectares of farmlands had been washed away by flood in Jigawa State. The floods ravaged 12 LGAs, namely Buji, Kafin Hausa, Auyo, Hadejia, Birniwa, Malam Madori, Garki, Taura, Gwaram, Dutse, Kiyawa and Jahun.

“No fewer than 2,744 hectares of farmlands have been washed away by the flood across the 12 affected LGAs. From August 1 to 13, 2024, the state witnessed intermittent downpours leading to several incidences of flood and the death of 21 persons as well as the destruction of farmlands and houses,” Mairiga said.

He added that farmers in the state had lost over N1bn of farm produce and crops to flood.

Mansur Musa, Chairman of Kiyawa LGA, one of the worst-hit LGAs, said many farmlands and villages, as well as the LGA secretariat, have been submerged by water.

In Zamfara State, Shehu Shinkafi, a farmer on the outskirts of Shinkafi LGA told The PUNCH that many farmers were expecting a bumper harvest following the stability of water in their farms.

However, he expressed fears following the emergence of heavy rains in the state in recent times.

According to a report by NEMA, more heavy rainfall is expected in the state.

The agency had predicted that eight LGAs in the state ­- Bungudu, Gummi, Gusau, Bakura, Maradun, Talata-Mafara, Shinkafi, and Zurmi – would be affected by flooding during this year’s rainy season.

This was disclosed by the agency’s Director-General, Zubaida Umar, in Gusau during the sensitisation programme for the 2024 downscaling of flood early warning strategies for early actions.

Also, the Nigerian Hydrological Services Agency predicted that in this year’s annual flooding outlook, 31 states with 148 LGAs would be within the high flood-risk areas, while 35 states, including the FCT and 249 LGAs, were considered within the moderate flood-risk areas. The remaining 377 LGAs were forecasted for the low flood-risk areas.

He said the lifting of the Forex ban will break the monopoly of the processing and marketing of the grain by local millers.

Alhaji Hassan Yaro, who grows rice in Kano, Jigawa and Borno states, is the Chairman of the Kano Council of Traders and Entrepreneurs.

The Central Bank of Nigeria lifted the foreign exchange restrictions it placed on importers of rice and 42 other items eight years ago.

Alhaji Yaro praised the President Bola Tinubu administration for the lifting of the ban, believing that it would flood the market with the grain and slash its price to an affordable rate for the common man.

“I could remember, rice millers reached an agreement in 2014 with the then President Buhari in Africa House, Kano, when he was campaigning for re-election, to process enough of the grain for the country at an affordable price,”

Yaro stated, “For whatever reason known, perhaps, only to the local millers, the grain, instead of flooding the markets at prices affordable to the ordinary Nigerian, went beyond the reach of most Nigerians in terms of both availability and affordability up to last week when the Forex ban was lifted.”

Alleging that most rice millers do not mean well for the country, he vowed to mobilise as many farmers of the grain as he can across the country to upscale the traditional milling method and pursue wavers for the importation of affordable milling machines from China, should the local millers attempt sabotaging the Tinubu administration on this.

The modern irrigation farmland, which was designed for rice farming in the state, was handed over to the beneficiaries by the Minister of Water Resources, Mr Suleiman Adamu, at Yamidi community in Auyo Local Government Area.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the project, which is being executed under the Transforming Irrigation Management in Nigeria (TRIMING) scheme, is supported by the World Bank.

Adamu said that TRIMING was a special intervention scheme of the federal government aimed at promoting the sustainable development of irrigated agriculture in the country.

According to him, the contract for the HVIS project is awarded to CGC-YSEJ Joint Ventures in 2018 to execute the rehabilitation of the existing gravity irrigation area.

The minister said that the project had so far covered about 9,000 hectares out of the 12,500 initial covering areas, in addition to expansion of about 778 hectares as well as the rehabilitation of the barrage at cost of N9.3 billion within a 36-month completion period.

He said “Today’s project is working with the Agricultural Development Project (ADPs) in five respective TRIMING states toward achieving the extension of agriculture service delivery to the farmers that are operating in and around the irrigation states,”

According to him, a lot has been done to ensure the sustainability of the scheme, adding that “good progress has been made in the provision of extension services by the triming project”.

Adamu also announced that 12 sectors covering an area of 356 hectares have earlier been completed and handed over to the farmers, including Gamsarka, Ayama, Zumoni, Meshawa, Adaha, Marina, Mado and Auyo.

He said “The fourth handing over to include Arbunau Hausa 129 hectares, Auyakayi 417 hectares, Akubushin 940 hectares and Yamidi A and B 453 per cent hectares. But What we have seen on the fields construction activities are now in the advance stage toward the desired direction. It is my expectation that the contractors will keep up their performance to ensure delivery of this scheme on or before the scheduled time. Lining of the North main canal may be considered later to avoid suspension of irrigation activities for a longer duration. Under the water resources component of the TRIMING project, river triming activities of selected 98.3km of river channels around Hadejia to control the menace of annual flooding are ongoing,”

In a meeting conducted via teleconference and chaired by the forum’s Chairman, Governor Simon Lalong of Plateau State on Monday April 13, the state governors said having a lockdown in the region is not possible as most of the residents are farmers who need to go to their farms.

A statement released by the Plateau state governor’s Director of Press and Public Affairs, Dr Macham Makut, said the governors in the meeting expressed disappointment that the region has few testing centers for the Coronavirus.

The statement in part reads “They (northern governors) agreed that at the moment, each state would adopt the measure suitable to its setting because total lockdown of the region will come at a very high cost since most of its citizens are farmers who need to go to farms since the rains have started. Another issue discussed by the northern governors was the issue of palliatives from the Federal Government where they regretted that so far, no state in the region had received a dime as special allocation despite the fact that some of them have recorded cases while others are making frantic efforts to prevent any outbreak, as well as prepare against any eventuality. This they observed has eaten deep into the pockets of the states as they have spent a lot of money already and may not be able to sustain this for a long time. Since prevention is better than cure, they canvassed that the Federal Government grant them some special funds just as it has done to other states. The northern governors lamented that the region has no testing centre, which is very disturbing. They resolved to again liaise with the Federal Government to ensure that each state at least gets one testing centre while highly populated ones get two. The governors also discussed the economic impact of COVID-19 on the region and decided that they needed to take a holistic look at the economic prospects of the region with a view to repositioning it for less reliance on federal allocation and to prepare for the future by diversifying to areas of comparative advantage such as agriculture, manufacturing, tourism and human capital development. They consequently set up a seven-man committee chaired by the Governor of Kebbi State, Atiku Bagudu, to fashion out the way forward. Other members are the governors of Kaduna, Sokoto, Kwara, Nasarawa, Jigawa, Gombe and Nasarawa states.”