The 50-year-old father of 12 is one of an estimated 4 million individuals in more than a dozen nations in West and Central Africa who have had their crops completely destroyed by exceptionally intense floods. Many of them are modest subsistence farmers.
The flooding has ruined the season’s crop, and roughly 1 million hectares of farmland in the area are still underwater. The nutrients in the soil are being wash away, which will lead to even lower agricultural output the next year.
Most of Nigeria’s food is cultivated in the north-eastern and middle belt regions. However, crops like rice, maize, and minor grains are lost there.
Preliminary indications indicated that up to 30% of the maize harvest in the two areas may have been lost to flooding, according to Edwin Chigozie Uche, president of Nigeria’s Maize Growers and Processors Association, who warned of potential food shortages. Farmers won’t be able to resume cultivating right away, according to Uche.