Farmers in Sokoto and Kebbi states have started smiling as rainy season eventually commences in earnest.
Compared to previous months when unsteady and scanty nature of rain water scared them, it has started raining in torrents.
Blueprint observed that farmers in the two states who anxiously waited for the rainfall to set in since early June this year, rushed to plant their crops with the first rain.
The intermittent seizures of the rain had forced many upland farmers to sow their crops again for the second time.
A visit to some farmlands shows that many farmers since last week returned to their farms hitherto abandoned. They continued the cultivation of their land in earnest while predicting bumper harvests at the end of the season.
A small scale farmer, Malam Abubakar Danfari, of Tungar Na Kalgo village, said: “Honestly, we were initially skeptical on whether the year will be favourable to us or not, because of the way rain water started dropping scantilly and as it used to be annually.”
He added that, “But now, we have reason to smile as God in his infinite mercy has send down the rain. Now, you can see that everybody, including the children are back to the farm.”
He stated that what remains is for government to assist them with farm inputs such as fertilizers, insecticides, pesticides and varieties of crops and seedlings before the season runs out.
Similarly, Fadama farmers along the River Niger has expressed gratitude to God for sending rain and breaking what would have been a drought in the far northwest region.
A retired senior agricultural officer in Kebbi state Ministry of Agriculture, Malam Tambari Abubakar, attributed the late commencement of this year’s rainfall to climatic change.”
