Ohaji-Egbema and Oguta Local Government Areas, otherwise known as the food basket of Imo State, have sustained the food needs of the state including agricultural and animal produce. Gigantic cassava and yam tubers, as well as lush green vegetables and grains were a common sight in the agrarian communities that dominate the two council areas.
From outside the state, traders troop into the local markets in Ohaji-Egbema to buy agricultural produce like cassava, yam, vegetables, plantain, fish among others at a relatively cheap price.
Also, 80 percent of food items and other farm produce sold in major markets across the state are from the two council areas. This is so because the people are predominantly farmers and are blessed with fertile soil that boosts agriculture.
This was before the monstrous flood that swept through the communities, washing away massive farm settlements together with the farms and fish ponds.
Today, what used to be massive farmlands is now a large pool of water, such that one can hardly differentiate between the original ocean and what used to be farmlands.
The loss is monumental as crops, fishes worth millions of naira were swept away by the ravaging flood, but the greatest and current challenge is the imminent threat of possible food scarcity in the state.
There are early signs of food scarcity in the state. The prices of food items have risen tremendously in the last two months as supply steadily diminishes.
At the markets, the prize cassava and yam tubers that announce Ohaji-Egbema in markets within and outside the state have all vanished. The farmers are already groaning, gone with the flood are their sweat and means of livelihood.
Ossemoto, Oguta, Eziorsu, Orsuobodo, Opuowa, Mmahu and Etekwuru communities are yet to come to terms with the fact that all they labored for in a whole farming season have all been submerged by flood.
For Izunwnanne Paul, a renowned yam farmer, it is still like dream to see his large farm with all the yams and cassava that were all ripe for harvest go under water.
Speaking with The Nation, the middle aged farmer lamented that, “I lost everything I worked for in a whole season. We tried to harvest the yams as the flood came but it was too late. We were only able to harvest a little of the yams before they were covered with water. If you go to my farm today you will not even believe that there was any farm on that spot before, it is now an ocean.
“My family is facing serious food scarcity and other challenges because farming is our only source of livelihood. The flood has also put me into serious debt, because I borrowed money from cooperative society to cultivate the farm, now everything is gone and I don’t know what net to do”.
A coordinator of one of the flooded farm settlements in Oguta, Ignatius Amanze, estimated the loss at over N100 million, adding that they have never experienced such calamity.
According to him, “we are yet recover from the shock of that havoc, all our farms and fish ponds were washed away almost at the time of harvest. Though some of the farmers were lucky that they have started harvesting before the flood came, but people like me were not that lucky, I lost everything.
“We are now living like refugees, we are appealing to the state and Federal Government to come to our aid, otherwise we may not survive this. We have been feeding the entire state from what we produce in our farms but now that everything is gone, I foresee hunger in the land”.
However, Evans Ugoh, the Coordinator Imo-Abia Operations Office of the National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA), said that the scarcity will be average and may not be fierce as predicted.
He disclosed that only about 30% of the farm settlements were affected by the flood.
In his words, “I think food scarcity in the state will be relatively average because it is not all the agrarian communities that were affected. Only 30 percent of the communities are in swampy areas”.
The NEMA boss advised the farmers in the other settlements that are located in flood prone areas to relocate.
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