*We’re afraid of Bandits – Philip farmer
By Achadu Gabriel, Kaduna
As the country besieged with escalated terrorism and banditry business of kidnapping of Nigerians for ransom endlessly, farmers, nationwide have turned to full scale domestic farming activities for the survival if their families.
In Kaduna, most homes, streets and roadsides have been taken over and converted to farmlands as farmers -turned domestic farming now use spaces cultivate croos as a means of survival for their families.
In some cases, even entrance space into the personal residents and flat houses have been cultivated by the landlords earned to produce foods to meet family needs not minding the resultant mosques and other insects breeding implications.
Federal roadsides and highways are not spared of this development as farmers, fearing that they may be kidnapped by bandits from their original farm lands in bushes, stay back at home and continue to expand on their domestic farming activities against their wishes and structure defect on their buildings.
For instance, the huge increased in the current domestic farming activities including yams, cassava, and all sorts of crops,
The implications are that the situation may leads to serious erosion of the roads overtime due the farming activities side by side with roads and streets.
Speaking to Journalist, Philip Dauda Ladan, famer and politician said the fear of people going into the bushes to farm and been kidnapped by terrorists now is quite high in the state.
Philip aka pastor/Philip Booster who also the Secretary NNPP Kaduna State lamented to feed family with domestic farming so difficult, as they only do that for survival.
“It’s true because people are afraid to go inside the bushes to farm. I remembered my uncle working Kaduna Vigilante Service (KADVIS), I was looking for a place to farm.
“And I asked him, can you please get me a space to farm? He said yes, but the problem is that if I go there they’ll carry me. I said why. He said the truth is that, he too one to farm but he cannot go there because even the community within the area where he has about 3-5 hectares of land, he cannot go there in Chikun LGA here, because of the bandits.
“That, he don’t want anything to happen to me. So he’ll not allow me to go and farm there. So I’ve find an easy place to now farm close to my house by roadsides.
“Now I’m farming in NNPP quarters, even though we are have a lot of challenges there. The people managing the area sometimes come and stop us, saying that they’re afraid one day somebody may come and claim the he own the Land.
“Its a verse busy land. We kills a lot of snakes to farm there. Even Piton can be found there. Even though is not enough we’re just farming for survival, is just for our consumption only.
“Roadsides is not up to even a plot to bring enough to feed family. So we’re facing a very tough time. Birds, Chickens and other demotic animals are problems”, he lamented.
He therefore advised that government should end the insecurity soon for people to farm to feed and make sale out of surplus for better living.
