Farmers in Gombe Pay Hunters N20,000 Monthly for Protection Against Hippopotamus Incursions.

On Friday, farmers in the Difa community in the Yamaltu/Deba Local Government Area of Gombe State voiced their worries about the ongoing hippopotamus attacks destroying their crops.

The farmers claimed that the government’s efforts to ensure food security were in danger and that the constant attacks exposed them to losses.

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Ali Umaru, a retired civil servant and farmer from the area, said the yearly effects of hippo attacks on farmlands in their community had grown intolerable and “extremely frustrating.”.

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Given that some areas of the community were on a river’s edge and that the Dadin Kowa dam was only two kilometres away, according to Umaru, the animal had found comfort there.

He claimed that the animals, who had arrived in great numbers, enjoyed invading their farmlands to eat and destroy the crops that farmers had sown, especially during the dry season.

“They (hippopotamuses) come at night, usually in groups of 10, to eat our rice, okra, watermelon, and other foods. By 6 am, they leave our farm and return to their hiding places.

The damage is making farmers poorer and less food available for human consumption, which is why it is so painful.

The problem is reducing efforts to ensure food security because farmers who planted 50 hectares of land may only end up harvesting 20 hectares, losing 30 hectares in some cases, he said on Friday to the News Agency of Nigeria.

Another farmer, Mrs Lois Joshua, said, “Last year, the hippos ate three hectares out of the 50 I cultivated, and they usually come close to harvest, and soon we will be gathering, and many of us are very nervous.

Amina Nuhu, a different farmer quoted by NAN, claimed that local farmers had resorted to paying N20,000 monthly to hire youths to guard their farmland, particularly at night when they chased animals away from their farms using torches.

Ibrahim Yakubu, the Gombe State’s Permanent Secretary for the Ministry of Agriculture and Animal Husbandry, reacted by stating, “This is the first I’ve heard of hippopotamus attacks on farmlands.

“You know a hippopotamus is a wildlife, so they can write to the Ministry of the Environment, and we can look into it; if they don’t, we won’t take action on the farmers’ complaint.“.

The Ministry of Environment’s Permanent Secretary, Abubakar Hassan, pleaded with the farmers to exercise patience while the government worked to find solutions.

And because the animals were endangered, he pleaded with them not to hurt them.

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