As Nigeria attains 61 years of independece, farmers in Galam, Numan Local Government Area of Adamawa State, yesterday, lamented over hectares of potato farms submerged by flood.
This was made known by the Secretary, Potato Farmers Association of Nigeria, POFAN, in Numan Local Government Area of Adamawa State, Abdullahi Abba, while appealing to Federal Government through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development to intervene in order to reduce effects of losses incurred by members of the association.
He said: “On August 21, 2021, flood submerged and destroyed our potato farms, which government had provided potato seedlings to us. The flood came on our farms as a result of Rivers Benue and Gongola overflowing their banks.
“We are sending Save Our Soul, SOS, message to the Federal Government, which is we need another set of potato seedlings and we known how it has helped us and spent a lot of resources to assist us before the flood came to devastate our farms.
“We have spent our resources as well by hiring labour, money and material to cultivate this farm, and these seedlings we received from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture were planted on this farm as to demonstrate the yield it will produce, and also it was to serve as our nursery for planting.”
He also added that the seeds have decayed and none was salvaged due to the raging flood.
As food prices continue to soar, there is no gainsaying that coupled with flood currently compounding challenges in the food production industry and frustrating farmers across the country food prices will continue to hit the roof, and that makes it scary as many Nigerians may face starvation if nothing is done urgently to tackle the problem as it is going now.
