August 18, (THEWILL) – Farmers in Nigeria must be feeling relieved by the recent deployment of military and security personnel to secure farmlands against bandits and terrorists who have made farming a nightmare in recent times.
At a time that food inflation has reached an alarming rate at 39.53 per cent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics, and hunger is stalking the land, the decision could not have come at a better time.
Farmers had over the years of worsening insecurity become targets for bandits and terrorists who destroy their crops, impose tax on them and kidnap them for ransom.
In the first quarter of this year alone over 332 farmers were killed across the country, while farmers up North reportedly paid N139 million as farm levies. In some states such as Niger and Borno, many local governments have come under the control of bandits who have made farming a risky business there.
It is in the light of these threats to farming and the lives of farmers that these combined efforts by the army, police and civil defense corps to secure the farms across the country is laudable.
The National Security and Civil Defense Corps, NSCDC, in July said it deployed 10, 000 Agro Rangers Special Forces across the country.
The Inspector-General of Police, Kayode Egbetokun, said last Monday that police had started patrolling farms to boost farmers’ confidence. The Defence Headquarters said that troops had been deployed to farms in some states in the North-West and North-Central geo-political zones.
Although the Chairman, All Farmers Association of Nigeria, Kabir Ibrahim has confirmed the deployment of security personnel in farms across the country, there are still some hard-hit states like Benue and Zamfara which are appealing for security aid.
We urge the relevant authorities to urgently address this anomaly. After all, farming is seasonal and there should not be trouble mapping out the states where farmers are under severe threats from bandits.
However, we think that much more important to this exercise is the need to involve communities by way of winning their confidence through enlightenment on the aims and objectives of the security plan. One of the best ways is to have the security personnel participate in farming too rather than just stand sentry at the farms.
The reason is simply this: The immediate impact of this initiative is securing farms and the farmers. The long -term effect is making farming attractive and lucrative. Involvement of security personnel in farming will also restore and inspire confidence in the farmers, who have been psychologically bruised by unknown gunmen.
In addition, the whole essence of this initiative is food security. A country of an estimated 200 million persons with no secured source of food is a waiting time bomb as hunger and anger will become Siamese twins that can cause havoc without notice. Much of the lands in the country are arable. Everything must be done to cultivate them.
Thus, combined with the sustained military attacks and liquidation of bandits, this added initiative on securing the farms by security agents should make the war on insecurity extensive. And with time, the war against insecurity will be won.
