Wheat and tomato farmers in Rigachikun, Igabi Local Government Area of Kaduna State have cried out that inadequate water is threatening their crops.
Daily Trust reports that due to lack of water, the farmers are already apprehensive that they will encur huge losses.
Our correspondent observed that this year, the dry season came with many challenges, including water scarcity.
One of the local farmers in the area, Malam Usman Ahmed Rigachikun, while decrying how the shortage of water is affecting their crops, said, “Climate change has contributed immensely to the drying up of the sources of the water we use on our farmlands.”
“Majority of the wheat farmers have already abandoned their farmlands due to scarcity of water. All our crops are wilting due to the shortage of water, and it’s a huge loss to many farmers in the area. Therefore, we are calling on the state government to come to our rescue.
“As you can see, we cannot do anything with the dry crops, so we give them to cattle breeders. I am appealing to the state government to provide boreholes for us so that we can contribute our quota to the development of the state.”
Another farmer, Mr. Bulus Alhassan, who said he had been farming for over 20 years in the area, pointed out that not only wheat and tomato farmers were affected by the water scarcity.
He said crops like maize and rice, were also drying up due to lack of water and that farmers were incurring huge losses.
“We want government to come and construct boreholes where we will be getting water from. This year’s dry season is the worst and it is all because of the global climate change that we are hearing about through the radio,” he said.
By Maryam Ahmadu-Suka,
Daily Trust New
