A new report by SB Morgan Intelligence has revealed that farmers across Northern Nigeria pay as much as N100,000 to access their farmlands during the planting or harvest season.
Failure to do so usually results in forfeiture of harvest, abduction or even death.
This revelation mirrors the security situation across Northern-Nigeria where non-state actors hold sway in the absence of state security officials.
According to the report, bandits in some communities in Kaduna, farmers have been forced to pay between N70,000 and N100,000 for permission to farm. This reality not only compounds the food security situation in the country but the general security of the region where abduction have become rife.
- The report stated, “In Kaduna, communities like Kidandan, Galadimawa Kerawa, Sabon Layi, Sabon Birni and Ruma have been significantly impacted. Residents in these areas have reported paying substantial sums ranging from N70,000 to N100,000 to bandits for permission to farm, with additional payments required for harvesting. Those who resist these demands face severe consequences, including abduction, murder or confiscation of their produce.”
Different forms of payment to bandits
In Zamfara, payments to bandits depends on the type of crop being planted with more expensive crop’s farmers paying the highest. For example, rice farmers in some LGAs according to the study coughed out around N120,000 as farm levies to bandits while guinea corn farmers were made to pay just N50,000.
Furthermore, the report noted that payments to bandits could either be in cash or from proceeds of harvests as during the harvest season, the levies are usually higher. Bandits have also engaged tacit slavery forcing communities to grow crops and sell crops for them.
Between November 2020 and November 2023, farmers across the North-west states were levied around N224.92 million by different groups of bandits operating in the region. The abductions and in some cases deaths of victims have forced many to flee their home communities.
Insights
The dire insecurity situation across North-west Nigeria- one of Nigeria’s major food belts reverberates across different aspects of the economy. First, it leads to increased food prices and shortfall in food supply and also deters further investment in agricultural ventures across the region.
- In recent times, Nigerians have been battling a food security crisis with food inflation soaring to 35.41% as of January 2023. With significant population living below the poverty line and wages staying stagnant, hunger have become rife with protests and attacks on food trucks and warehouses becoming more common especially in the north.
- Cadre Harmonisé (CH) in its analysis projected that around 26 million Nigerians will face hunger during the lean season of 2024 (June to August) while the World Bank in its food security report stated that seven states across the North will experience severe food crisis in 2024.
