Food Shortage: Buyers Besiege Enugu’s Herder-Crisis Ravaged Community

Eha-Amufu community in Isi-Uzo Local Government Area of Enugu State recently became a beehive of activities as major food dealers from across most states in the Southeast and Southwest state now resort to the agrarian community to buy foodstuffs.

The community has been witnessing farmer-Fulani herder clashes, resulting in losses of human lives and property, including farmlands. It shares boundaries with Ebonyi and Benue states.

“We have witnessed a surge of traders from far and wide,” a farmer, Oliver Ede, told THE WHISTLER on Saturday. “They bring their trucks, buy up our farm produce and convey them to different parts of the federation. They are middlemen.”

A trader at Eha-Amufu’s Eke Market, Ngọzi Egbe, said, “I do buy rice from Eha-Amufu and then sell at Ogete Main Market in Enugu. The quantity of rice we buy at N14, 000 at Eha-Amufu suddenly became N26, 000. These buyers come in clusters, and buy everything they see.”

Ogbonna Eze, a native, said, “Suddenly our community has become the food destination of most traders. Some come from Lagos, Port-Harcourt, Onitsha, Aba, Enugu and other neighbouring states. We have the best and affordable species of yam, rice, garri, beans, bush meat, and fruits. Before the current high demands, the prices of these communities used to be at a give-away. Our farmers now get the value for their labour.”

Elder Jerome Chukwu is a community leader at Mgbuji, Eha-Amufu. He said, “Our farmers have been displaced by militant Fulani herders. They kill, rape and born our farmlands. We are endangered. Over 70 per cent of our farmlands are abandoned because of these clashes. We lost over 100 farmers to these Invaders last year and early this year.

“Another problem we have is bad road. The road to Eha-Amufu is almost the worst in the state. The routes are dusty, the bridges dilapidated. We do ask if indeed we belong to this state. Left for me, we should be asked to voluntarily join Ebonyi State. You can see that from Nkalagu axis, Ebonyi State government constructed her road up to the Enugu borders.

“We feel rejected and neglected. If all is well, I can assure you that Eha-Amufu can feed the entire South East. But it’s a pity that our farm settlements have been destroyed by herders both for economic and political reasons. Some people want us extinguished.

“The current hunger in the land points to the need to factor Eha-Amufu into the nation’s food production scheme. We have arable lands that span over millions of hectares of land. We need mechanised agriculture in Eha-Amufu, and then we lay a solid foundation for Nigeria’s food exportation.”