20th June, 2018
Returnees to communities in Gujba Local Government Area of Yobe have embarked on massive cultivation of farmlands as the rainy season commences after destruction by the Boko Haram insurgents.
A News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) correspondent who visited the area on Wednesday reports that many farmlands abandoned for several years were being cultivated by the returnees.
Mallum Bukar, a displaced person who recently returned to Buni Yadi, said he was cultivating his farm after six years since he fled the area.
He said “though some returnees cultivated their farms last season, the number of people returning to the farms this year is higher.
“Some returnees have even expanded their farms: some of the farmlands abandoned several years ago even before the insurgency have been reclaimed and planted this year.”
Umar Ali, a resident of Gujba village told NAN that the increased engagement of returnees in farming activities this year was encouraging.
He said “if the yields are good, the people will no longer look for food support from humanitarian organisations.
“Farming is our major occupation: we are now back fully prepared to reclaim our economic lives destroyed by the insurgency.”
Muhammadu Bakoro of Sabon Gari village also in Yobe said what the returnees needed now were improved seedlings, herbicides and pesticides “with just a little quantity of fertiliser.
“We are optimistic we can cultivate our food needs this year and sell the excess in view of the massive agricultural activities going on in communities.”
Improved security in Yobe facilitated the return of Internally Displaced Persons to almost all the communities destroyed by insurgency in the state.