Date: 2016-12-16

Small scale farmers in Kwara State, under the umbrella of Small Holder Farmers Association of Nigeria (SHOFAN), have cried out to law enforcement agencies and stakeholders in the state over incessant attacks on their farms by herdsmen in some parts of the state.

Speaking with Metro in Ilorin on Thursday during presentation of a 10-point demand by the women farmers to the Ministry of Agriculture and Natural Resources, a spokesperson of the women, Madam Iyabo Babatunde, said that women had been the major victims of the herdsmen attacks in local government areas such as Kaiama, Asa, Patigi, Edu among others.

The farmer, who hailed from Gbago community in Asa Local Government Area, said that herdsmen brought their cattle on her vegetable and cassava farmland few days earlier and destroyed the cash crops.

"My children and my husband chased the herders and the cattle. Apparently, the herders had called their relations at home. So they in turn chased away my people, threatened them with cutlass and other dangerous weapons, should my people refused to go back. That's how they have been carrying out their nefarious attacks on our farms.

"Even when we meet them on our farms destroying our crops, they are always on the offensive. It is quite discouraging because women are the major farmers in our areas. We plant cassava, vegetables, pepper, garden eggs and soy beans.

"The cows use their horns to uproot our cassava tubers and as such, we record losses on our farm crops. We usually go to market to buy what we are supposed to be producing. That's how poverty sets in", she said.

Also speaking, the programme coordinator of a women farmers' group, Mrs. Folake Kuti, said efforts at addressing the matters with community heads had failed, adding that the herders always went scot-free.

"They are always treated as special beings. There was a time the herders' cattle ate up my neighbour's farm crops and the village head said we should report the matter at the police station. Nothing came out of it till now. And that had been the case. No compensation. No justice.

"The herdsmen always attack our farms in the afternoon when we would have left the farm or during market days when we would have gone to the market to buy or sell. When we meet them on our farms, sometimes, they confront us with dangerous weapons.

"Government, law enforcement agencies and other stakeholders should come to our aid. Government must as a matter of urgency put in place security measures to protect lives of women farmers and their farms from cattle herders' invasion and menace. When they destroy farms belonging to husband and wife, what will be left for the family to eat? Is that not the beginning of poverty?", she asked rhetorically.

Madam Kuti, who also demanded a gender responsive agricultural policy that would take into consideration role and contributions of small holder women farmers, said that an agricultural budget that would have specific line items targeted at small holder women farmers should be encouraged.

In his response, the permanent secretary in the ministry, Mr. Simeon Opowoye, called on the women farmers to make themselves available for government programmes aimed at encouraging their businesses.

He said a sum of N1 billion would be made available next year for farmers in the state to address food security, adding that women are burden bearers that should be assisted.