By Zainab Sanni and Alaba Adeyemi
In recent years, food security in Nigeria has been threatened by incessant farmers-herders conflict, fueled by climate change. A key feature of this conflict is the targeted attack on farmers and their farmlands. According to the African Development Bank, Nigeria women contribute 70 percent of the total agricultural workforce in Nigeria. The United States Agency for International Development (USAID) puts the percentage of women smallholder farmers at 37 percent.
Despite their immense contribution to agriculture and food production in Nigeria, women have become easy targets for kidnappers, robbers, rapists, and killers on their farms across Nigeria. Even in the South West which is considered by many Nigerians to be relatively peaceful, women get attacked frequently and sometimes killed on their farms frequently.
Oluwafemi Oni, leader of the Ayetoro community in Akure South Local Government, Ondo State narrowly escaped death for defending a woman.
Narrating how his resolve not to allow the herdsmen to continue having a field day by targeting women almost cost him his life, Oni revealed that many women have abandoned their farmlands.
“A widow’s farm was constantly invaded. They harvest her yams, cassava, and cocoyams for their cattle. They also threatened to kill the woman. When I intervened the herder attacked me with his cutlass but I was able to overpower him. The woman no longer farms. There are many women farmers in the community who had abandoned farming completely”.
Abiodun Akinwalere,a farmer and a school teacher in Idanre described how farmers, mostly women, had to abandon their farm settlements due to constant attacks by Fulani herdsmen.
“In farm camps like Itedo Anuu, people have been chased away from their farms. I lost a lot of money there as my farm was burnt down by Fulani herdsmen who have made it a habit to burn down people’s farms to give way for fresh grass to grow. Women were affected and they all had to flee. A boy who resisted them was macheted mercilessly”.
Damilola Dibiagwu also narrated how her mother, grandmother, and grandfather were all chased away from their farms in 2022.
“My mother was chased away from her cassava farm by Fulani herdsmen in Aaye community. They fed her farm produce to the cows, my grandpa and grandma also have farms in Eleyoowo they were also attacked and chased off their farms by the same herdsmen”.
In Irun Akoko, Akoko North West Local Government Area of Ondo State, Apalowo Ajibola a student whose parents are also farmers narrated their ordeals.
“Here we have many women farmers who grow yams, cassava, melon, pigeon peas, and so on but their greatest challenge is the herdsmen who come to destroy their farms with cows”.
Ifeoluwa Issac in Omuo Ekiti told a DNN reporter about how a widow who was a family friend was killed on her farm for refusing to let the herdsmen feed on the crops on which she depends to feed and pay her children’s school fees.
“There used to be many women farmers in this community, but it’s no longer the same. A widow who was close to our family was killed on her farms by herdsmen. She went to the farm alone”.
Rebecca Oyebimpe, a woman who has been farming in one of the government farm settlements in Iseyin Oyo State for over forty years narrated with tears how she can no longer go to the farm to harvest her farm produce on her 50 hectares farmlands for fear of being attacked by Fulani herdsmen.
“An old woman in a neighboring farm was attacked, raped, and murdered on their farm, people now have to go to the farm in groups guarded by able-bodied men. We used to sleep on the farm for days but now we have to go to the farm settlement and return before dusk”.
Adeoti Jacob who was for many years the leader of the farm settlers in Ipapo Iseyin farm settlement and still one of the farmers’ leaders in Iseyin told DNN that attacks on farmers are still regular occurrences in many farming communities in the area. “Recently a farmer harvested his corn while waiting for the vehicle that will convey the produce to the market was attacked and butchered”.
One of the women farmers in Iseyin who spoke to this reporter on the condition of anonymity described the plight of many women. “I have yam on my farm yet I have to buy yams because I’m too scared to go to my farm to harvest it”.
Cashews are a major cash crop in Oyo state but Afolashade Amodu described how she had to let her cashews go to waste because of the fear of being attacked. She said, “Last year we couldn’t harvest our cashews on my farm because of fear of these people, and those who used to work as farm hands are too scared to go with us”.
Weak Or Compromised Security Agencies?
Oluwafemi Oni opined that the Southwest Security Network’s efforts are insufficient to protect farmers, and called for State Police
“We demand the establishment of a State Police and a security outfit at the local government level to safeguard the life of our women and children”.
Rebecca Oyebimpe accused the Amotekun of compromise. “In the beginning, the outfit was doing well but it later got compromised as some known persons of Fulani ancestry joined the corps, after which these attacks went on unabated”.
Amodu Modupe indicated that women traders in farm produce were also attacked. “There have been cases of Fulani herdsmen attacking vehicles of traders who have come to buy goods, beating, rapping, and stealing from them. In one of the robberies they even came with point-of-sale machines POS with which they withdrew the money of those who traveled with an Automated Teller Machine, ATM card.
The speaker of the House of Representatives Tajudeen Abass, in August 2023, put the number of persons that have been killed in farmer-herders clashes at 60,000. Almost half of this figure are women.
“Amotekun Corps are trying but they are few and they can’t be following us everywhere, especially on large farms. Most of our women have abandoned farming for trading. Some are doing nothing”.
“If they feed their cattle with your crops and you take them to the police, the police will collect money from them and ask both of you to go and discuss how much the offender will be paying back. Most of the time the amount the herder will be paying back will be so ridiculous that the farmer will give up” Adeoti said.
Hike In Food Prices
According to the Nigeria Bureau of Statistics Food inflation between December 2022 and December 2023 rose by 33.9 percent. It also stated that 133 million Nigerians (63 percent of the population) currently live in multidimensional poverty.
“We are using money to buy what we produce, many women farmers are now living in serious lack”, Oyebimpe lamented. Adding that “Women in farm produce trade used to put money together and send one of them to buy palm oil, cassava, yams, and soya beans but they get attacked, robbed, beaten, and raped so often that they have abandoned the business”.
An agricultural economist, Busayo Owolanke pointed out that the farmers-herders clash is one of the major factors increasing both rural and urban poverty in Nigeria “They get attacked so often that they have to abandon the farms, those that stay back in the community without farming become poor, those that go to the city too, become poor, there is no job for them”.
A young farmer Ajayi Oluwatosin, who abandoned his farm in Elegbeka, Ose, Ondo State narrated how the economy of the community has been destroyed by the Fulani herdsmen who constantly abduct, rape and kill farmers after destroying their farms. “People get shot, abducted, and wounded regularly, this has greatly discouraged many of us, especially women”.
“We are using money to buy what we produce, many women farmers are now living in serious lack”, Oyebimpe lamented. Adding that “Women in farm produce trade used to put money together and send one of them to buy palm oil, cassava, yams, and soya beans but they get attacked, robbed, beaten, and raped so often that they have abandoned the business”.
An agricultural economist, Busayo Owolanke pointed out that the farmers-herders clash is one of the major factors increasing both rural and urban poverty in Nigeria “They get attacked so often that they have to abandon the farms, those that stay back in the community without farming become poor, those that go to the city too, become poor, there is no job for them”.
A young farmer Ajayi Oluwatosin, who abandoned his farm in Elegbeka, Ose, Ondo State narrated how the economy of the community has been destroyed by the Fulani herdsmen who constantly abduct, rape and kill farmers after destroying their farms. “People get shot, abducted, and wounded regularly, this has greatly discouraged many of us, especially women”.
This report was published with support from Civic Media Lab