Farmers Lose 1.7m Metric Tonnes of Grains to Drought in Katsina

Francis Sardauna in Katsina

No fewer than 60 per cent of farmers across the 34 local government areas of Katsina State have lost more than 1.7 million metric tonnes of grains as a result of drought orchestrated by climate change in 2021 in the state.

This was disclosed by the Special Adviser to Governor Aminu Bello Masari on Agriculture, Dr. Abba Abdullahi, in a chat with journalists at the Government House.

Abdullahi said that 500,000 hectares of farms were also affected by the drought within the period under review.

He explained that sorghum, millet, cowbeans, rice, soybean and maize were among the worst affected in the southern part of the state while maize and rice were mostly amongst the crops that were affected in the central and northern zones of the state.

Abdullahi said that 20 per cent of the farmers in Daura, Kaita, Mashi and Dutsi Local Governments lost 70 per cent of what they planted, mostly millet and sorghum while others lost about 40 to 90 per cent of their crops due to the shortage of rainfall.

According to him, based on the data that was collated from the field by the Katsina State Ministry of Agriculture, 60 per cent of the farmers across the 34 local governments experienced one crop loss or the other during last year’s farming season.

He said: “Farmers lost 158,000 metric tonnes of sorghum; 761,000 metric tonnes of millet; cowbeans, 200,000 metric tonnes; rice 92,000 metric tonnes; soybean, 105,000 metric tonnes; maize, 137,000 metric tonnes, among others.

“In all, there was a total loss of 1,754,000 grains in the 2021 wet season cropping due to drought across the 34 local government areas of the state.”

The special adviser, however, said that some strategic measures have been adopted by the state government to mitigate the impacts of climate change and other predicaments afflicting farmers in the state.

He added that the state government had agreed to follow the international best practice in allocating and ensuring timely release of 10 per cent of the state’s annual budget for agricultural activities to boost food production in the state.