Herdsmen scare us off our farms, destroy produce – Kwara state farmers
Herdsmen have limited the rate of farm produce in Kwara state by repeatedly destroying farms, thereby causing economic losses, farmers in the state have claimed.
The herdsmen, who have been widely accused of causing unrest in several parts of the country, have reportedly caused farmers to flee their farms.
“My farm is located in Bacita area, but herdsmen have frustrated me to the point of abandoning the farm,” a cassava farmer, Mr Kehinde Fagbemi, told NAN.
“They even threatened to harm me when I challenged them for intruding into my farm,” he said.
They invade farms with their cattle and attempts to stop them usually turn violent, the farmers who are seeking government’s intervention, alleged.
“My entire beans farm was ravaged by their cattle. I wept the day I got to the farm and met the herdsmen grazing their cattle on my beans farm,” another farmer, identified as Malam Abubakar Mohammed, said.
“They have no conscience and are always ready to fight anybody that have the courage to challenge them.”
The herdsmen, for some reason, have been made to operate freely and act above the law and Mr Musbau Akanni who has farm in Jebba said he could no longer go to his farm for fear of attack.
“Also, farmers here are afraid of them because we are no more safe from their evil act,” Akanni said.
“There was a time they stabbed one of my friends whose farm was not far from mine, just because he challenged them.”
Akanni called on the government to check the activities of the herdsmen so as to promote the development of agriculture, which is the mainstay of the nation’s economy.
