2022 flooding: Farmers decry exclusion from N1.5bn relief materials

• We identified beneficiaries through SEMAs – NEMA

• Farmers need flood-resistant seeds – Expert

In the wake of the 2022 flood disasters, peasant farmers have continued to grapple with challenges as many of them, in the most affected states, say they were denied relief materials by the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA).

The Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management and Social Development had, in November 2022, estimated the total direct economic damage of the flood at $6.68 billion (equivalent of N3 trillion).

The ministry also noted that the worst affected states were Rivers, Taraba, Cross River, Jigawa, Bayelsa and Delta, with about 944, 989 hectares of farmland destroyed. This was besides the death of 665 citizens and the displacement of over two million others.

Farmers from the worst affected states, who said their dreams and aspirations of multimillion-naira prosperous harvests were drowned by the flood, claimed to have been ignored by the emergency agency.

This is despite NEMA’s claim that it worked with State Emergency Management Agencies (SEMAs) in the 36 states to share food and non-food relief materials worth N1.5 billion funded by the Presidential Committee on Flood Relief and Rehabilitation (PCFRR).

The PCFRR was inaugurated during the administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan following the flood disaster that ravaged the country in July 2012. It is co-chaired by Africa’s foremost industrialist, Alhaji Aliko Dangote and Dr Olisa Agbakoba (SAN) to address the plight of flood victims in the country.

The committee had in October 2022 approved N1.5bn for NEMA for the procurement and supply of food and non-food relief materials.

In Tai Local Government Area of Rivers State, Uche Akpe, who was affected by last year’s flooding and incurred heavy losses, said he had not received any relief materials.

“We are the true farmers, and also the victims of the 2022 flooding, and NEMA said they have distributed relief materials but we as farmers did not even know till after they finished distributing to those they wanted to give. We have not received any relief material, and I do not think there is any farmer who received these relief materials,” he said.

The chairperson of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN) in Rivers State, Ofiamaobari Igwe said, “Government’s intervention as palliatives shared by NEMA has not reached the farmers communities who incurred heavy losses from last year’s flood.”

In Bayelsa, another state said to be one of the worst affected, AFAN chairman, Patrick Weridongha said, “The federal government distributed palliatives through NEMA, however, All Farmers Association was not invited in the identification of any farmer to benefit from the palliatives. Farmers did not receive anything.”

Kano was not on the list of worst affected states, but the materials distributed by NEMA were meant for all states. However, Malam Nasiru Sani, 51, a farmer in Wudil town of Kano State, said he and several others who lost their farm produce had not benefited from relief materials.

“Since the flooding, I have not been able to cultivate anything. My brothers and I invested everything we had on our father’s farmlands but they were washed away. We have not received any relief materials and we do not have the money to cultivate the lands again,” he said.

The AFAN chairman in Kano State, Abdurrashid Magaji Rimin Gado, said the association of farmers has not received any relief material from the federal or state government.

However, in Delta State, AFAN chairman, Richard Asonime, said relief materials in form of grains and tractors were distributed to farmers through the Federal Ministry of Agriculture but not NEMA. “The state government also shared palliatives in the form of food materials,” Asonime said.

In Taraba State, the AFAN chairman, Bala Aji, said relief materials were shared to farmers by the North East Development Commission (NEDC) and the state government.

According to Aji, “Even though the flood affected food security, farmers have received palliatives from the North East Development Commission and state government in the form of farm inputs, food, rice and chemicals.”

However, the situation is different in Jigawa State where Alhaji Musa Muhd Hadejia, whose two hectares of farm were washed away in 2022, said they have not benefited from NEMA’s intervention.

“I lost nearly all my farm produce and 70% of the funds I used in the farm was a loan amounting to over N800,000. The flood has also distorted our arrangement for this year’s irrigation farming because many of us have not recovered from the devastation. We are now cautious about investing in agriculture this year due to possible flooding,” he said.

He said the state government, NEMA and the Hadejia Jama’are River Basin Development Authority distributed relief materials to victims of flooding, including farmers.

The AFAN chairman in the state, Alhaji Idris Ya’u Mai-Anguwa, said even though NEMA distributed food and non-food relief materials consisting of blankets and grains, it was inadequate due to the magnitude of the devastation.

We worked with SEMA to identify beneficiaries – NEMA

In response to the allegation of exclusion of farmers in the distribution of relief materials worth N1.5 billion, NEMA said it worked in close collaboration with states’ emergency management agencies to identify and verify the victims of the flooding and their locations.

NEMA’s spokesman, Ezekiel Manzo, said the agency “will not just give materials to everyone” adding that, “we conducted enumeration and verification of the farmers. We cannot just give the materials to just everybody, but only people that were enumerated.

“Most importantly, we do not conduct the enumeration on our own; we do it together with state emergency management agencies. So, if there are incidents and the people do not present it to the SEMA, and we are coming from Abuja here, we cannot know the detailed information of what happened in particular states,” he added.

Manzo further explained that: “We expect farmers to relate with SEMA because they provide direction for NEMA concerning where these incidents happened. That is the platform where we relate, and they are closer to the people in the states we carried out our interventions.”

‘Farmers need flood-resistant seeds’

Mr Abubakar Yahaya, a senior agronomist with INDORAMA Agricultural Development Centre (IADC), Kano, said the flood affected the fertility status of many farmlands and urged the government to intervene.

“The flooding has eroded the fertile topsoil which renders several farmlands less productive. Government should fund research institutes to produce flood-resistant varieties, especially for crops like rice that withstand submerged conditions to a certain extent and recover after the flooding,” he said.

“By providing early maturing varieties of crops like sorghum, millet, maize, cowpea etc, farmers can produce and harvest crops before the occurrence of flooding.”

He called for the use of extension agents to educate farmers on coping mechanisms against the effect of flooding.

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