{"id":5383,"date":"2015-07-29T09:09:38","date_gmt":"2015-07-29T09:09:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=5383"},"modified":"2015-07-29T09:09:38","modified_gmt":"2015-07-29T09:09:38","slug":"heavy-rainfall-threatening-crops-livelihoods-of-nigerian-farmers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/?p=5383","title":{"rendered":"Heavy rainfall threatening crops, livelihoods of Nigerian farmers"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"rain\"<\/a>Recent heavy rains are flooding farmlands and smallholder vegetable farmers in Ojo area of Lagos have been counting their losses and expressing reservations over the impact of the peculiar weather condition on their source of livelihood, Kayode Aboyeji writes.<\/p>\n

Night is approaching and Lagos housewife, Blessing Aina, prepares dinner for the family. Dinner is vegetable soup and semolina, but she toils with a heavy heart in the kitchen. As she shreds the ewedu leaves, she marvels at how increasingly expensive food items are becoming, and its implications for the family\u2019s dwindling economic condition.
\nBut Aina is not alone. Felicia Ayinde, a vegetable farmer in the Ojo Local Government Area of Lagos State, is worried over emerging trends concerning her business, which she is not comfortable with because of declining farm yield. Too much rainfall is flooding the farmland and Ayinde fears she may no longer depend on making a living from farming.
\nBesides the decrease in yield, the livelihoods of some 225 smallholder farmers operating under the aegis of the Ojo Vegetable Farmers Association is also being threatened as many of them are now exploring alternative means to support their family.
\nBlessing Aina says: \u201cI used to buy ewedu worth of N100 before which will be enough for my family for at least two to three meals, but now I spend close to N200 to prepare the same quantity.\u201d
\nShe explains that a bunch of vegetable that sold for N50 before is now selling for N100 or more depending on the area where you are buying from.
\nFelicia Ayinde laments: \u201cThings have changed. Before now, we used to harvest vegetables every four weeks. But now, if we manage to harvest once in six to eight weeks, we will be happy.\u201d
\nThe 56-year-old widow and mother of five continues: \u201cI have been practicing vegetable farming here for more than 23 years now, this is where I raised money to sponsor my first two children in school.”
\n\u201cThat time the yield from the farm was enough because every four weeks we harvest vegetables that we sell and make money, but now things have changed.”
\n\u201cVegetables do not like too much rain; they will not grow well. But, in the past few years, the rainfall is too much. It does not allow our vegetables to grow well.”
\n\u201cThe year 2012 was the worst year, the rainfall was so much that everywhere was flooded. We cannot plant vegetables inside water,\u201d she says.
\nAnother vegetable farmer, Idris Ayuba, also shares his experience: \u201cWe are just struggling to survive now. Flood is affecting this work. During the dry season we used to make more money because vegetables do not like too much rain.”
\n\u201cThe long period of rainfall these days is affecting us,” he says, “our yield has reduced greatly.\u201d
\nSamuel Bala, chairman of the Ojo Vegetable Farmers Association, stresses that members are still in the business just to keep body and soul together as the fluctuation and extensive rainfall is affecting them seriously.
\nAccording to him, market women come to the area to buy vegetables in large quantity both for local consumption and export to the United Kingdom and other countries overseas.
\n\u201cBut now we can\u2019t meet the demand because of the decrease in yield. Rainfall has increased in the recent time and the farmlands get flooded thereby affecting our vegetables,\u201d he discloses.
\nAsked how they are coping with the situation, he explains that farmers have resorted to raise the seed bed higher than what was obtainable in order to prevent flood from washing away the plants.
\nHe adds that at a time they had to introduce water resistant seeds in order to sustain their activities.
\nGabriel Akpan, a father of four who has been engaged in the vegetable farming for over two decades, offers: \u201cThe farming work is not like what it used to be before. Within a month before, I used to make close to N40,000 whenever I sell my products.”
\n\u201cBut now, it has reduced. If I manage to get N10,000 and N20,000 in a month I will be happy. To feed my family well and attend to other bills is now a problem,\u201d he laments.
\nAkpan adds that, with the perceived changes in rainfall pattern, the quality and quantity of their product is being threatened.
\nThe Ojo vegetable farming area comprises large concentration of smallholder farmers that engage in planting of vegetables such Corochorus spinach (Ewedu) and Amaranthus spinach (Tete), among others.
\nAlthough most of the farmers are smallholders, the majority of them depend on the farming work as their main source of livelihood to sustain themselves and their family.
\nVegetables, like fruits, are low in calories and fats, but contain good amount of vitamins and minerals. They are a rich source of calcium, magnesium, potassium, iron, beta-carotene, and vitamins B, C, A and K.
\nJust like fruits, vegetables are home for many antioxidants. These health-benefiting phyto-chemical compounds help protect the human body from oxidant stress, disease and cancers, while also helping the body develop the capacity to fight against these by boosting immunity.
\nBut the provision of these essential sources of nourishment in Lagos seems to be threatened with the changing climatic system.
\nA climate change expert, Professor Olukayode Oladipo of the University of Lagos, points out that the recent rainfall is heavily concentrated, leading to flooding that washes away vegetable farms.
\nHe adds that the farmers may not get the kind of rainfall they expected particularly this year because the rain does not start early.
\nHe urged the farmers to ensure that they raise their ridges to prevent them from being wash away by flood.<\/p>\n

Source: http:\/\/earthjournalism.net\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recent heavy rains are flooding farmlands and smallholder vegetable farmers in Ojo area of Lagos have been counting their losses and expressing reservations over the impact of the peculiar weather condition on their source of livelihood, Kayode Aboyeji writes. Night is approaching and Lagos housewife, Blessing Aina, prepares dinner for the family. Dinner is vegetable […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":5384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"spay_email":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[307,308],"class_list":["post-5383","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-environment","tag-earth-journalism","tag-lagos-farmers"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/rain.jpg","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4oswh-1oP","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5383","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5383"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5383\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5385,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5383\/revisions\/5385"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5383"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5383"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/newsroom247.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5383"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}