A commercial farmer in Akoya community in Ibarapa North Local Government Area of Oyo State, Mr. Kayode Olaitan, has lamented the destruction of his eight-hectare farm by herdsmen who grazed their cattle and damaged maize worth N3 million planted on the farm.
Olaitan, the Manager of Fempanath Nigeria Limited, made his grievances known in an interview published by Vanguard on Friday.
According to him, more than 40 tonnes of maize was destroyed by the herd of cattle.
He said:
“These are crops that were already developing the cubs. The cubs were already forming. There are several of them that were due for harvest in the next three or four weeks, but we have nothing left to harvest. We have invested a lot of money here. It cost us thousands of naira to bulldoze this land; we spent a lot of money to plough this land; we got seeds that were planted; we paid workers to plant these seeds; and we have a sprinkler irrigation system that we are using. These cost us a lot of money. We are commercial farmers, cultivating hundreds of hectares of land.”
Calling on the police and judiciary to intervene to save farmers, Olaitan said:
“We are willing to embrace compensation. We are commercial farmers, cultivating hundreds of hectares of land. We also expect the cattle herders to invest and acquire land, own their own ranches where they can own and keep their own cattle, as it is done in several parts of the world. They should also be able to lease, or purchase land to ranch their cattle without incurring losses for other farmers.”
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