Video - At least 50 dead as violence erupts in Nigeria’s Taraba state

More than 50 people are dead after a weekend of violence between nomadic herdsmen and indigenous farmers in the eastern Nigerian state of Taraba. Amnesty International has condemned Nigerian leadership, saying weak governance in rural areas is fueling a surge in deadly confrontations. Al Jazeera’s Ahmed Idris has more on the aftermath, from the village of Mungalelau, Nigeria.

Al Jazeera

Related story: Civilians are stepping in to keep the peace in the deadly feud between herders and farmers

Video - ‘Tomato Ebola’ ravages Nigeria’s farms

Nigeria is facing a severe agricultural crisis as the "Tomato Ebola" pest, the Tuta absoluta, devastates key tomato-producing regions, causing massive losses estimated at over $800,000. As a result, both tomato traders and consumers are feeling the financial strain, with prices soaring and the nation's annual tomato supply falling short of demand.

CGTN

Nigeria has a food security problem as water for crops is harder to find

KWALKWALAWA, Nigeria (AP) — After two decades of working his farm in northwestern Nigeria, Umaru Muazu now struggles to find water for his crops.

A murky puddle is all that remains of a river near his 5-hectare farm and those of others in this community in arid Sokoto state. Because the 62-year-old Muazu can’t afford to dig a well to keep crops like millet and maize from withering, he might abandon farming.

“Before, with a small farm, you could get a lot,” he said.

Climate change is challenging agriculture in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country. With long dry spells and extreme heat, water bodies are drying because the arid season is becoming longer than usual. The wet season, though it can dump excessive rain, is short.

It’s fresh pain in a country where the World Food Program says 31 million people already face food insecurity. Efforts to recover from one climate shock are overlapped by the next, said WFP spokesperson Chi Lael.

The challenges faced by farmers in the north, who account for most of what Nigeria eats, are affecting food prices and availability in the booming coastal south that’s home to the megacity of Lagos.

More than 80% of Nigeria’s farmers are smallholder farmers, who account for 90% of the country’s annual agricultural production. Some work their fields with little more than a piece of roughly carved wood and their bare hands.

Farmers are facing low yields because the government has failed to develop infrastructure like dams to help mitigate the effects of climate change, said Daniel Obiora, national president of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria.

There is little data available on the drying-up of smaller water bodies across the north. But farmers say the trend has been worsening.

In Adamawa state, water scarcity caused by higher temperatures and changing rain patterns has affected over 1,250 hectares (3,088 acres) of farmland, disrupting food supply and livelihoods, Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency said last year.

Over-extraction of water and deforestation are other factors contributing to northern Nigeria’s drying rivers, according to Abdulsamad Isah, co-founder of local Extension Africa nonprofit that often works with farmers.

Elsewhere in Sokoto state, Nasiru Bello tilled his farm to cultivate onions without assurance of a meaningful harvest. With nearby rivers and wells drying up, he has resorted to pumping groundwater for the farm that provides the sole income for his family of 26. But the cost of pumping amid soaring gas prices has become unbearable.

“The plants do not grow well as it did,” he said.

Nigeria is forecast to become the world’s third most populous nation by 2025, alongside the United States and after India and China.

With Nigeria’s population expected to reach 400 million by 2050, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization has been encouraging climate-smart agriculture to help ensure food security, including drip irrigation, which delivers water slowly and directly to roots and helps conserve water, instead of traditional irrigation systems that flood entire fields.

“There should be more orientation for farmers about climate change,” said Yusuf Isah Sokoto, director of the College of Environmental Science at Sokoto’s Umaru Ali Shinkafi Polytechnic.

At least two-thirds of the trees in the state have been lost due to deforestation, contributing to rising temperatures, Sokoto said.

Data from the government-run statistics agency show that local agriculture contributed 22% of Nigeria’s GDP in the second quarter of 2024, down from 25% in the previous quarter. While the trend has fluctuated in recent years, experts have said agricultural production still does not reflect growing government investment in the sector.

Household food imports, meanwhile, rose by 136% from 2023 to 2024, government statistics show.

The decreasing farm yields are being felt elsewhere in Nigeria, especially the south.

In Lagos, the price of several items grown in the north have nearly doubled in the last two years, partly due to decreasing supplies. A head of cabbage grown in the north is selling for 2,000 naira ($1.2), nearly double its price a year ago and more than five times the price in Sokoto.

Nigerian authorities acknowledge the problem. Many farmers who once harvested up to 10 tons are hardly able to get half that these days, agriculture minister Aliyu Abdullahi said earlier this year.

Nigeria’s President Bola Tinubu and his government have touted agriculture as a means for economic prosperity. Shortly after he took office in May 2023, Tinubu’s government declared a food security state of emergency and announced plans to activate 500,000 hectares of farmland in Nigeria’s land banks, which are mostly in the north.

The land banks, however, are yet to be activated.

By Dyepkazah Shibayan, AP

Related story: Video - Nigeria food crisis deepens

Video - Nigeria food crisis deepens

Nigeria is in the grip of a worsening food crisis. Inflation is crippling farmers and traders, and millions face hunger. Despite a new emergency plan, critics say lasting solutions are still missing.

CGTN

Video - Digital soil mapping technique helps Nigeria’s farmers

Many small scale farmers in West Africa and the Sahel region have been struggling with low yields for years due to the poor soil quality on their farms or growing crops in unsuitable areas. However in Nigeria, farmers are now benefiting from digital soil mapping that's helping them maximize harvests and identify best areas to grow different crops.

CGTN

Video - Nigeria deploys 10,000 armed rangers to protect farmers from insurgents

The farrmers say they can no longer tend to crops and livestock out of fear of being attacked. The violence drove away farmers, leaving fields barren and causing ripple effects throughout the country, including driving up food inflation.

CGTN

Related story: Nigeria deploys armed rangers to protect farmers

 

Video - Experts in Nigeria call for more support to snake farmers to counter anti-venom shortages

Snake farming is not widespread, despite a high demand for venom due to frequent snake bite incidents and related deaths.

CGTN

Video - Nigerian farmers working to prevent the extinction of Indigenous varieties

In local vegetable markets across the country, many traditional vegetables are gradually disappearing. However, one farmer, Emmanuel Thomas is on a mission to collect and cultivate rare species of traditional Nigerian and African vegetables.

CGTN

Video - Nigerian farming community loses crop due to toxic emissions from oil refinery

Environmental regulators linked the issues to a hydrogen chloride leak at a refinery in Kaduna State. They added it could take between 5 to 10 years to reverse the effects of the acid released into the soil.

CGTN

At least 10 farmers killed by gunmen in northern Nigeria

Gunmen in Nigeria killed at least 10 farmers on Wednesday in an attack on a village in the northern Niger state, residents said.

Armed gangs, known locally as bandits, have frequently raided communities in northwest Nigeria, kidnapping residents, farmers, students and motorists for ransom.

Residents told Reuters on Thursday that the gunmen had attacked some farmers in Allawa community of Shiroro local government area in Niger late the previous day.

"The farmers were trapped and 10 killed yesterday evening in their respective farms," said Hassan Abubakar.

Another resident, Indamishe Auwal, who helped remove the corpses, lamented the incident and the general insecurity in the area.

"Shiroro is bleeding. Our people are suffering and bandits have taken over our farmlands," Auwal said.

Niger state police spokesperson Wasiu Abiodun didn't immediately respond to a request for comment.

By Ahmed Kingimi, Reuters

Related story: Nigeria deploys armed rangers to protect farmers

 

Nigeria deploys armed rangers to protect farmers

As attacks on farmers intensified across Nigeria, Fatima Bello from Sokoto abandoned dry season farming.

The smallholder farmer of rice, millet and beans shared her experience of farming under constant threat.

'During the dry season last year, I did not even plant anything because of this issue of insecurity,' she said. 'What I would have produced that I would have used for my family and also take to the market, other people are going to benefit from what I will sell. They will buy, but now it means if I don't produce anything, then it means I will not have been able to have something to use.'

Violent attacks, land levies and kidnappings have forced many farmers to abandon their lands, driving up food inflation. In response, the government declared a state of emergency on food security in 2023 and recently deployed 10,000 agro rangers across 19 states and the Federal Capital Territory. Their mission is to safeguard farmland and mediate conflicts, especially in areas hit by farmer-herder clashes.

Bello sees this as a positive step.

'I think it is welcomed development,' she said. 'It has just been started, so we need to see, maybe take some time. Then we will be able to know the impact.'

Affirming the rangers' readiness to restore safety across the food belt, Babawale Afolabi, a spokesperson for the Nigeria Security and Civil Defense Corps, says all hands are on deck.

'Our operatives have been on top of the game since the commissioning of the agro rangers squad nationwide. ... The agro ranger is a well-seasoned, trained and formidable special force, and we thank the federal government for providing necessary logistics so far,' he said.

'We have increased and upskilled our intelligent base so we can tackle head-on rising challenges,' he said. 'We are all for engaging the communities to create awareness on how to give credible information.'

Plateau, Zamfara, Niger and other states considered hot zones for farmer insecurity are supporting the squad with logistics.

While praising the government's intervention, farmer and agricultural economist Retson Tedheke stresses the need for more personnel.

'It's a very good thing,' he said, 'but 10,000 is a very small number. If you ask me, there are over 150,000 polling units. Multiply that by five, that should be the agro rangers we have. And not just in the agro ranger level - if you are sending five agro rangers in a particular location, send five extension workers.'

Tedheke warns that addressing the root causes of insecurity in farming communities requires sustained effort.

'Nigerian farmers should be getting loans at between 5% and 7%,' he said, 'because we are producing food. ... Food security is a major component of political development, governmental development and leadership development."

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization says that 22 million Nigerians could face food insecurity in 2024, with projections rising to 82 million by 2030.

VOA 

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Video - Farmers in Nigeria plead with government over insecurity

Video - Farmers in Nigeria grapple with soaring transport costs

Transportation expenses in Nigeria have surged by over 200 percent in the past year, severely impacting the agricultural sector and escalating food prices, according to farmers and analysts.

CGTN

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Video - Thousands of farmers in Nigeria still displaced three months after Bokkos village attacks

Many villages in north-central Nigeria remain deserted nearly three months after a series of coordinated attacks. Gunmen targeted over 20 villages in the Bokkos local government area of Plateau State over several days in December 2023. Thousands of people remain displaced.

CGTN

Related stories: Nigeria is also losing control of its troubled northwest region

Scores Killed In Massacre Of Farmers In Nigeria

Nigeria considering state policing to combat growing insecurity

 

 

Video - Bandits force farming communities in Nigeria to pay hefty levies

According to a report by SBM, an Africa-focused geopolitical research firm, farmers in northwestern states like Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara and Jigawa, where banditry is widespread, often pay bandits twice just to be allowed to use their land during the planting and harvesting seasons. The situation has adversely affected Nigeria's food security.

CGTN

Related stories: Civilians are stepping in to keep the peace in the deadly feud between herders and farmers

Dozens killed in ‘barbaric, senseless’ violence in Nigeria

Video - Bandit extortion fuels food insecurity in northern Nigeria

A report by an Africa-focused geopolitical firm highlights cases in banditry-ravaged states like Kaduna, Katsina, Zamfara, and Jigawa. Farmers say the bandits' actions have forced many to abandon their farms, which leads to decreased food production.

CGTN

Related story: Video - Insecurity in Nigeria's northern regions hampering food production

 

Video - Nigerian palm farmers eye lucrative opportunities in domestic market

While Nigeria consumes nearly three million metric tonnes of palm oil annually, domestic output is only around 1.3 million metric tonnes, with a considerable portion being imported. Recognizing the immense potential, Nigerian palm farmers believe that with proper support, the sector could significantly contribute to the country's earnings.

CGTN

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Video - Cocoa grown illegally in rainforest in Nigeria heads to companies that supply major chocolate makers

Video - More security personnel deployed to Plateau state in Nigeria after December attacks

The additional deployment follows attacks by gunmen who invaded communities in Plateau state on Christmas Eve, killing over 150 people. Analysts believe the government needs to employ more than just a heavy hand to bring peace to the area.

CGTN

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Villagers missing in Nigeria two days after suspected nomadic herders kill 140

 

 

Video - Nigeria mourns the brutal murders of at least 160 people

Communities in Plateau state, Nigeria are in mourning after at least 160 people were killed in a series of attacks by armed groups over the Christmas weekend. The gunmen targeted about 20 villages across the Bokkos and Barkin Ladi areas.

CGTN

Related story: Villagers missing in Nigeria two days after suspected nomadic herders kill 140

 

Video - Insecurity in Nigeria's northern regions hampering food production

According to the Food and Agricultural Organization, as many as 26 million Nigerians could face severe hunger by next year. The UN agency says several issues, but mainly insecurity, contribute to the problem. Experts have called on the government to address these concerns to safeguard food production.

CGTN

8 Killed, 10 Abducted by Islamic Extremists in Nigeria

Islamic extremists killed eight farmers and abducted 10 in an attack in northeastern Nigeria, officials said Friday — the latest in a volatile region that is a key part of the country's breadbasket and where militants have threatened food supplies.

The farmers were ambushed in the bush in the Borno state's Mafa district Thursday. The attackers slit their throats, authorities said.

Babagana Zulum, the state governor, said the attack was an attempt to "sabotage the successes of the government" as it struggles to have those displaced in Borno return to their villages and rebuild their lives.

He said the security forces need to rise to the challenge but also urged residents to take individual precautions.

"We must rise to our responsibility and address the situation," Zulum said. "I've told the people to be resilient, and they should be security-conscious and avoid remote locations."

Islamic extremist rebels launched an insurgency in Borno in 2009 to establish their radical interpretation of Islamic law, or Sharia, in the region. At least 35,000 people have been killed and more than 2 million displaced because of the violence by the militant Boko Haram group and a breakaway faction backed by the Islamic State group.

Borno's farming communities have been frequently targeted in recent months, raising fears of extreme hunger as U.N. agencies continue to warn of famine.

On Friday, local villagers are mourning the slain farmers while also decrying inadequate security measures in remote and volatile areas.

Modu Ibrahim, a resident, said there were no security forces where the farmers' bodies were found. The extremists spared one teenager whom they asked to "deliver the message" about the attack to other villagers, Ibrahim said.

The Islamic insurgency in the northeast has also overstretched Nigeria's security forces as they continue to battle other crises across the country, including continuing clashes between nomadic cattle herders and farming communities in northwest and central regions of the West African nation.

AP