Terrorists’ attacks worsen food security in Katsina, Yobe

Gambo Ibrahim sold two of his farmlands to raise the N900,000 ransom demanded by kidnappers for the release of his two brothers.

Mr Ibrahim was a large-scale farmer in Kuka, a village in the Jibia area of Katsina State. His two brothers were supervising work in one of his farms when they were kidnapped by bandits three years ago.

“After paying that money, I contributed about five times to ransoms for the release of relatives and friends,” he told PREMIUM TIMES in an interview.

“Some were killed. My family members were threatened. Things were hard. In 2020, I couldn’t work on any of the farms. That was when I knew living in that village was no longer possible. So, I left.”

Mr Ibrahim now lives in the Katsina metropolis, many kilometres away from his ancestral home. He abandoned his farms where he harvested an average of 600 bags of millet, guinea corn, maize, groundnut, beans and other crops yearly.

Thousands of other farmers in Katsina and many other parts of the North-west face similar challenges as Mr Ibrahim from widespread insecurity. Outside the region, PREMIUM TIMES found that farmers in Yobe State and other parts of the North-east are also struggling under the assault of the Boko Haram insurgency, a menace that is decimating agricultural productivity, food sufficiency and nutrition in many parts of Nigeria.

Farming amid terrorists’ scare

Northern Nigeria, especially the western and eastern parts of the region, has been at the receiving end of terrorist activities and attendant humanitarian crises for more than a decade.

While Boko Haram insurgents – terrorists fighting against Western education – hold sway in the North-east, bandits have made life a misery for residents in the North-west. Schools, farms, markets, worship centres, and highways have been repeatedly attacked by terrorists, leading to the death or displacement of millions of people.

In multiple interviews with people in both sub-regions, this newspaper found that farmers are some of the major victims of terrorist activities largely because most of the residents are involved in agricultural practices. Even those who engage in trading and other businesses including civil service jobs engage in farming.

PREMIUM TIMES spoke with more than a dozen farmers and experts in Yobe and Katsina states on how the situation has affected food production in recent years.

“The first implication of these attacks is a reduction in the number of farmers. Farmers cannot go to their farms,” Sulaiman Iguda, a lecturer at the Hassan Usman Katsina Polytechnic, told PREMIUM TIMES.

He said a lack of access to farmlands equates to insufficient food production and poor earnings for farmers.

The United Nations said 25 million Nigerians are at risk of hunger between June and August this year because northern Nigeria, which produces the bulk of the food, has been witnessing attacks.

“Whether a farmer is killed or abducted or even not affected, we lose a farmer after every attack because the farmer might never return to work on his farm again,” Abdullahi Sule, who was displaced from his farms by insurgents in Gora, a community in Gujba area of Yobe State, said.

Mr Sule told PREMIUM TIMES that he does nothing now since he was forced to flee Gora for Damaturu six years ago. He said he used to harvest about 150 bags of grains—mainly beans, guinea corn and millet.

Standing beside Mr Sule was Abdullahi Usman, who is now the chairman of the displaced people in Bayari C camp. Mr Usman said he had over 70 cattle and sheep but they were all stolen by the terrorists.

He said the state government was not doing enough to help farmers displaced by the insurgency to return to their farms in Yobe State.

“During the last administration, we were given food but it has stopped. Every corner you look at in this camp, you will see a displaced farmer with his family. Farming is the only thing we know but we can no longer do it,” he said.

Lawal Kabir, a farmer in the Nahuta area of Katsina who now lives in Batsari town, also lamented being kept away from his farm.

“Farming is our life,” the 33-year-old told PREMIUM TIMES. “Twice, I was almost kidnapped when several farmers around our farmlands were abducted. Three of my friends were killed. We stopped going to the farms for fear of being abducted.”

Mr Kabir and his three siblings maintained 10 farmlands belonging to their immediate family. They cultivated maize, guinea corn and millet, harvesting an average of 700 bags yearly. Before they finally fled to the town, they only harvested 45 bags because they could only farm on one of their farmlands.

Another farmer from Salihawar Rufai village also in Katsina State, Lawal Shehu, told PREMIUM TIMES that he still farms, but “one can’t go more than a kilometre away from the town.”

Ripple Effect

The effect of insecurity on food prices has been severe. A market survey conducted by PREMIUM TIMES in Katsina and Yobe states showed that prices of grains have risen in the past two months, partly because of insecurity.

In June, 100kg of maize was trading at N25,000 but now sells at N42,000, while 100kg of guinea corn sold at N21,000 but now sells at N41,500. A 100 kg of millet sold at N25,000 but is now N39,000. Local rice sold at N44,000 but now sells at N67,000 while the price of wheat also increased from N31,500 to N45,500.

Though there are other reasons for the hike, many of the farmers who spoke to PREMIUM TIMES said insecurity was the major cause.

“If we produce food in bulk, who will be talking about the price? The produce will be available everywhere you go. If this one is not ready to sell at a low price, there will be an (alternative) option. Now that farmers’ numbers are on a decline, why won’t there be inflation?” Mr Ibrahim said.

“There is poverty in the land because farmers are not going to the farm due to insecurity,” a village head in a displaced community in the Gujba area of Yobe said. The man sought to remain anonymous because of security concerns. He said the communities are now relatively safe because security operatives are in some villages but things need to improve more to boost agricultural practice.

“Anything after two kilometres (from town), they (insurgents) will abduct you. My farms are a bit far from the community so I can still not go to those places,” he said.

Food Insecurity

The United Nations said due to the security situation and other factors in the North West, 4.3 million people are expected to be food insecure in Katsina, Sokoto and Zamfara states alone this year.

“It is a projection I agree with. The figure may be so if effective action is not taken. The population is increasing yearly and the projection covers infants as well. Katsina State alone has been recording births of about 400, 000 to 700, 000 annually,” Yusuf Abdullahi, a teacher at the Federal University, Dutsin Ma in Katsina, told PREMIUM TIMES.

The Country Director of the World Food Programme, David Stevenson, said some 4.4 million people are projected to face acute hunger at the peak of the lean season this year in Yobe, Borno and Adamawa states alone, while two million children are projected to be acutely malnourished in the North-east states.

Despite a reduction in reported cases of Boko Haram attacks in recent months, the terrorists continue to attack residents, especially farmers in places far from towns or major communities. Travellers still use local and major roads in fear of gangs of terrorists lurking around the bush paths.

Thirty-nine-year-old Abdulkadir Ibrahim of Turo kura, a community in the Gujba area of Yobe State owned four farmlands. He said he produced over 100 bags of beans, millet, and groundnut before the insurgency began.

“I now live here (Damaturu) and work as a fuel pump attendant. I used to employ people to work for me on my farms; now I am a labourer,” he said.

In some areas in Yobe, farmers are barred from cultivating grain because such tall crops offer terrorists hideouts for ambushing travellers and security agents on patrol.

In Katsina State, leaders of the farmers association said the activities of bandits have affected their operations.

“Things have been difficult for our members, especially in the central and eastern parts of Katsina State due to bandits’ attacks. We are happy that the attacks are declining now. But these bandits have done more damage to our activities than anyone could imagine. The consequences are there for everyone to see. Farmers are still scared to go to farm because of the terrorists,” Yau Gwajo-Gwajo, the state chairman of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) told PREMIUM TIMES in Katsina.

Agriculture ministry officials in Katsina refused to comment on this story, citing the absence of a commissioner and permanent secretary for the ministry. As of press time, permanent secretaries in the state had been asked to supervise ministries because the state governor was yet to appoint commissioners.

But in a 2021 interview with PREMIUM TIMES, the immediate former special adviser on agriculture, Abba Abdullahi, said the activities of bandits have affected farm produce output by 30 per cent.

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“Last year (2020) alone, we recorded 5,884 abandoned farmlands covering over 58,330 hectares. There were also 590 cases of kidnapping while 159,613 cattle were rustled. It is heartbreaking,” he said.

Malnutrition Concerns

As in every conflict, children are bearing the brunt of the collapse of security in northern Nigeria.

“Banditry has led to food insecurity, which in turn leads to malnutrition and other issues. You need to consider two things: food availability and food quality. Children need food with the required nutrients but we are in a situation whereby they can’t even get carbohydrates because of the decline in food production being witnessed,” Yusuf Abdullahi, a lecturer at the Federal University Dutsin Ma, said.

Mr Abdullahi, who has conducted research on food and nutrition, said banditry has led to a drastic reduction in food production. “The poor farmers who have been displaced by bandits no longer have farms or money to buy food for their families.”

According to the United Nations, about two million people cannot return to their homes in the North East. Since many residents are displaced, children find it difficult to get healthy food.

Auwal Garba, the officer in charge at the Katarko Primary Healthcare in the Gujba area of Yobe told PREMIUM TIMES that cases of malnourished children increased during the lean season this year.

“Here (at Katarko PHC), we record about 40 new cases of children suffering from moderate acute malnutrition and 20 severe acute malnutrition every week. In the three months that I have been here, we have treated more than 270 children suffering from malnutrition,” he said.

The increase in malnutrition, according to Mr Garba, is worsened by lack of food, which he said was caused by the Boko Haram insurgency.

The UNICEF Kano field office chief, Rahama Mohammed-Fara, said out of the over two million children in the state, 1.2 million were stunted, 574,200 were moderately wasted, 250,151 severely wasted and 1,376,000 currently suffering from anaemia in Katsina State.

Mr Farah said poor agricultural productivity is also impacting nutrition in the state because 1.6 million people are suffering from hunger out of which 63,000 are suffering from acute food insecurity.

In 2022 alone, the Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders said it treated 107,000 children in their treatment centres in Katsina State.

Despite the worrisome numbers, Suwaiba Bello said the negative impact could be worse. Her daughter, Hassana, suffered from acute malnutrition and she said hundreds of other children in several villages suffer from the conditions.

“They said she is now recuperating but I still take her to the clinic every Friday. In our village (Shimfida) there are over 100 children suffering from malnutrition but mothers don’t have the means to come to Jibia because people are afraid of travellings,” Mrs Bello, who now lives in Jibia with her husband, said.

Every Friday, she takes her daughter to a government-owned clinic in Magama where she is given a nutritious paste to help her weight. When PREMIUM TIMES visited the clinic, hundreds of women were seen clamouring for the paste made from peanuts and soybeans. Officials barred this reporter from speaking with the caregivers because he needed to first get written approval from the State Health Ministry.

The level of food scarcity in the camps and households is increasing by the day. Aishatu, a malnourished child caregiver, said. Before the insurgents chased them out of their communities, her husband used to be a large-scale farmer.

“He took care of us. Now he has nothing because these terrorists have pushed us out of our houses. My daughter’s health started deteriorating when we couldn’t give her food three times a day,” she said.

Her daughter, two and a half years old Zahara’u, looks pale and malnourished, but the mother told PREMIUM TIMES that she was “recuperating already”.

“We don’t have anything to eat in the house which is affecting my three children,” Zainabu Abubakar, another woman whose child is malnourished, said.

Mrs Zainabu said she lives at the displaced people camp with her three children and husband, who was not around when PREMIUM TIMES visited. He was also a “large-scale farmer” before the insurgency, she said, but now they live on the proceeds from his menial jobs.

In Yobe State, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) said cases of children suffering from severe cases of malnutrition with medical complications increased from January to April this year by 22 per cent compared to the same period in 2022.

Many parents can also not take malnourished children to healthcare centres due to terrorist activities.

“A pregnant mother needs to eat healthy food because it helps in making the unborn child healthy. So a pregnant woman needs adequate care and good food,” said Zainab Bello, a nutritionist at the Turai Yar’adua Maternity Hospital Katsina.

“Unfortunately, it is not easy to get food these days,” she said.

The report was supported by the Centre For Journalism Innovation and Development (CJID)