COVID-19 impact on us huge to bear – Angwa Jaba Farmers

Farmers at the Angwa Jaba community in Keffi Local Government Area of Nasarawa state have said coronavirus pandemic has made them poor and hopeless.

The farmers said the pandemic stopped buyers of their farm produce from coming to patronize them, making them suffer abject poverty and deep predicament.

The farmers who spoke to the Media Advocacy West Africa Foundation team, at the community Emir’s palace, explained that their customers come from Kano and Niger to buy their farm produce which is mainly rice, yam, and cassava.

They, however, said that since the coronavirus pandemic started all their customers have stopped coming to buy their farm produce which has made life difficult for them and their families.

Mr. Nuhu Umaru, the Emir of Angwa Jaba, told the MAWA Foundation team that since the coronavirus pandemic began, farmers in his community are finding it very difficult because buyers of their farm produce have since stopped coming.

“People come all the way from Kano and Niger to Angwa Jaba to buy farm produce, since the coronavirus lockdown began, they have all stopped coming,” Umaru said.

Other community farmers, who joined MAWA at the Emirs palace, narrated how the coronavirus pandemic has put them in a deep mess since their customers from Kano and Niger stopped coming to buy their farm produce.

One of the farmers told MAWA that apart from their customers from Kano and Niger that have since stopped coming, other persons who come from Abuja to buy land from them have also stopped coming.

He lamented that has caused them more pain as they are dying in poverty and suffering.

The farmers have since called on the Nigerian government to quickly find a lasting solution to the pandemic, pointing out it will destroy the community and other parts of the state with poverty and hunger.

They also said they are not the only community suffering the consequences of coronavirus, pointing out that other farmers within the Keffi local government are suffering since the coronavirus pandemic began.

The community Emir, who told MAWA they believe that coronavirus is real, disclosed that the Nigeria Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) officials visited the community to carry out a Coronavirus test and nobody was found carrying the virus among his subjects.

This report is supported by the Open Society Initiative for West Africa OSIWA

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