Report Says Nigerian Farmers Lost N700b To Floods In 2022

A report published by the National Agricultural Extension and Research Liaison Services (NAERLS), Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria has disclosed that Nigerian farmers recorded N700 billion losses to 2022 floods.

This include the loss of 8.4 million tonnes of 14 crop varieties output, valued at N384.4 billion with the fish sector accounted for the loss of N100.2 billion, while over N93.04 billion was also lost in the livestock sector.

The overall loss to floods on agricultural structures and farmlands was quoted to have amounted to over 120 billion naira with 863,648 hectares of farmlands affected.

The survey showed that Kebbi, Delta, and Cross River states were the most severely affected by the flood while Nasarawa, FCT and Oyo were the least affected among the 30 states selected for the study.

In their assessment, a team of three multi-disciplinary scientists, including one experienced staff from each of the respective states’ Agricultural Development Programme (ADP) and State Emergency Management Agency (SEMA) were deployed using field visits, focus group discussions, key informant interviews, and individual farmer interviews involving 1,180 respondents nationwide.

Their findings revealed that 1,798 communities were affected by the floods in 263 local government areas and the major causes in South-East and North-Central were releases of excess water from Lagdo Dam, Cameroon, and excessive rainfall in South-west, while the occurrence of flood in North-West and North-East was due to heavy rainfall and blockage of existing drainages.

Presenting the assessment report to the minister of agriculture and rural development, Dr Mohammad Mahmood Abubakar in Abuja, NAERLS executive director, Prof Emmanuel Ikani said their findings showed that Akwa Ibom, Cross River, and Taraba reported that early warning information about the flood was not shared among farmers in their states.

While recommending solutions, he said, “The Federal Ministry of Water Resources should urgently consider building at least one dam on the Benue River for flow regulation… River Basin Development Authorities should be mobilised and facilitated to undertake river training and desilting of major rivers within their catchment.”