Farmers in the Difa community, in the Yamaltu/Deba Local Government Area of Gombe State on Friday expressed concerns over continued attacks by hippopotamuses ravaging their farmlands.
The farmers said the incessant attacks exposed them to losses and threatened the food security effort of the government.
A retired civil servant and farmer from the community, Ali Umaru, said the yearly impact of hippo attacks on farmlands in their community had become unbearable and “extremely frustrating”.
Umaru said the animal had found comfort in the community because some parts of the community were on the bank of a river and just two kilometres away from the Dadin Kowa dam.
He said the animals which came in large numbers were fond of encroaching on their farmlands to eat and destroy crops planted by farmers, especially during the dry season.
“They (hippopotamuses) come in the night mostly in a group of 10 to eat our rice, okro, watermelon, and others and retire from our farm by 6am and go back to their hiding places.
“This is very painful because the damage is pushing farmers into poverty and reducing the food that should have been sold to humans.
” The menace is reducing efforts at ensuring food security because farmers who cultivated 50 hectares may end up harvesting only 20 hectares, losing 30 hectares in some cases,” he told the News Agency of Nigeria on Friday.
Another farmer, Mrs Lois Joshua, said, ” Last year, the hippos ate three hectares out of the 50 I cultivated and they normally come close to harvest and soon we will be harvesting and many of us are very nervous.”
NAN quoted another farmer, Amina Nuhu, as saying that farmers in the community had resorted to paying N20,000 monthly to hire youths to guard their farmland, especially at night by chasing the animals from their farms using torchlights.
Reacting, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry, Gombe State, Ibrahim Yakubu, said, “This is the first time I am hearing of hippopotamus attacks on farmlands.
“You know a hippopotamus is a wildlife, so they can write to the Ministry of Environment and we can investigate, else we will not act on the farmers’ complaint.”
However, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Environment, Abubakar Hassan, appealed to the farmers to be patient as the government was doing its best to resolve the issues.
He also urged them not to harm the animals because they were endangered species.
