After learning farming under his father, Alpha Shonvo, 29, started his farm in Kakulu village, Zing Local Government Area of Taraba State, when he was 12 years old.
He dreamt of cultivating a much larger yam farm, but there was a hurdle: he had no capital. To overcome the problem, he settled for gigs, such as carrying loads for people in markets and working as a sales assistant in shops in the nearby Adamawa State to earn more money to fund his dream of becoming one of the biggest commercial farmers in the Northeast region.
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However, this aspiration took a big hit in May last year when a severe heatwave resulting in drought destroyed his planted yam seedlings.
“That morning, I joined other farmers in the village to check the status of my farm only to see it in a bad condition — the yams were rotten,” he told PREMIUM TIMES in August.
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The climate crisis hits hard
In the early months of 2024, Nigeria experienced prolonged, severe heat waves, especially in the northern parts of the country, with temperatures rising to a record 41°C.
As the situation worsened, it resulted in a severe drought, culminating in the reduction of agricultural productivity. This sector contributes about 22 per cent to the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP) and accounts for more than a third of its total employment.
A report by EOS Data Analytics draws the link between extreme heat and farm productivity. “When plants are subjected to high temperatures for a long time, they might experience stress. If farmers don’t take precautions against high temperatures, heat stress has negative effects on plants and reduces harvests,” the report reads, adding, “Heat stress triggers dehydration in plants, which stunts their development. It leads plants to lose water and wilt.”
Climate change amplifies heat waves and high temperatures by increasing greenhouse gas emissions. These emissions trap more heat in the atmosphere, disrupting natural weather systems and intensifying extreme heat events.
Tolulope Gbenro, an Abuja-based climate activist, explained that an extreme heat event like drought can eliminate or drastically reduce crop productivity, as Taraba State farmers experienced.
She said it also affects livestock. “When there is no food for animals to eat, they will die, which is why food is a necessity that humans, animals and plants require for survival.”
Saving interventions
But is there a way out of this? Ms Gbenro said that the state government can help the yam farmers in many ways, including providing infrastructure, adequate capacity building, and other forms of support.
Such infrastructural support includes providing an irrigation system to optimise water use and improve crop yields. Experts say the government should provide farmers with drought-resistant crops that have a high tendency to resist heat during extreme weather conditions.
Many farmers that PREMIUM TIMES spoke to in hard-to-reach communities of Taraba State were poor and could not afford the necessary facilities or have access to the right kind of seeds without government support.
“Teaching farmers about climate change adaptation and mitigation while incorporating indigenous knowledge will go a long way towards supporting them. But I am afraid there is a low reaction from relevant stakeholders in addressing this recurring issue,” the climate researcher said.
The shared ordeal
A devastated Mr Shonvo shared his ordeal in an August interview with PREMIUM TIMES, attributing his losses to the unusual weather patterns.
“The first rain of the year fell in April, and there was no rain for a long time. By June, most farmers in this area had concluded that it was a bad year for us,” he said.
Mr Shonvo’s ordeal was not isolated. Hundreds of yam farmers in the region suffered a similar fate. When Husseini Manzo visited his farm one Thursday morning in May, his harvested yams showed signs of rottenness.
“I felt sad that day because all my hope for the year was lost. But since I couldn’t kill myself, I had to be patient and embrace the situation as it was,” Mr Manzo said.
Standing amidst the ruins of his farm, Mr Manzo reflected on the past. He had assumed the headship of the family after his father’s demise years ago. This meant he would lead the family’s farming as the only male among his 11 siblings.
Since then, 41-year-old Mr Manzo has tirelessly shouldered the responsibilities that come with it. To make ends meet after marriage, he banked on farming as his primary source of livelihood.
“I have relatives, friends and others that I support whenever I make a good harvest from the yam farm. Yam is something that you can give out even to strangers passing by. All these years, cultivating yams has taught us that giving and sharing is good and will not reduce us in any way,” he remarked.
The process of cultivating yams begins every September with the farmers ploughing the soil using hoes or a tractor—for those who can afford to buy or rent one. They make soil ridges by October before planting the yam seedlings in November and December.
“Yam is something that takes a longer period to harvest. It could take almost a year. In a good season, we will start harvesting it from May,” Mr Manzo added.
Counting losses
During the harvest period 2023, Mr Manzo had a disappointing yield, losing about 480 tubers. He did not allow this to discourage him. He planted over 800 yam seedlings for the planting season that began in September 2023, an investment of around N180,000. He also hired a tractor at a cost of N70,000.
“There was also money for other things. I think I spent more than N300,000 on the farm. But you see, it is all gone,” he said.
Similarly, Mr Shonvo said over the past two years, he has faced poor harvests from his farm. He planted 1,000 yam seedlings this season, all of which were ruined. “The heat and drought contributed to that. I lost over N400,000,” he told this newspaper, his face showing frustration.
Jesangwa Bulus, 35, said that the issue of zero yields attributable to the drought complicated his life. “I can’t even take it to the market. I lack the funds to buy many seedlings and fertilisers like other farmers. So, I can’t compete with them.”
“In this spoiled yam farm you’re seeing, I spent about N270,000, and it’s now a huge loss for me. If I had enough money, I would go to another distant location to try another farm,” Mr Bulus said in August last year.
Blows from all sides
PREMIUM TIMES interviewed more than a dozen farmers in the area who expressed apathy about the next planting season.
The effects of the drought are not going away anytime soon, as their efforts to plant other crops, such as maize and cassava, are hampered by the same arid conditions that ruined their yams.
The maize he replanted died due to the drought. With many dependents, he feared what might befall his home.
Like Mr Bulus, Mr Manzo took a deep breath as he stood on his farmland, which had turned into a landscape of dried maize and sorghum leaves. He had planted these crops in June to compensate for the losses from the yam, yet they had also failed due to the lack of rain.
“It was challenging having to switch to the other crops [referring to maize and sorghum] because I struggled to raise money for the seedlings. I had to borrow the money elsewhere, and you see this maze; it’s difficult to get good seedlings here,” he narrated.
When PREMIUM TIMES visited his farm in August, he lamented that his community had not seen rain for more than a month. He was unsure if his maize crops would survive the drought but hoped for the best. By December, their fate had been sealed. Mr Manzo and other farmers in Kakulu said the maize did not survive the heat onslaught.
