Northern Nigeria is a vast arable land capable of feeding the entire country with enough left to export.
Yet millions of its inhabitants have been uprooted in their own country, victims of the advancing Sahara Desert moving southward at a rate of 0.6 kilometres per year.
The resulting land deterioration leaves formerly productive fields barren and unfit for human habitation, which threatens food security and economic and social stability.
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Nigeria is one of the most at risk, with 11 northern states at the front lines, including Kebbi, Zamfara, Gombe, Yobe, Adamawa and Bauchi.
Report gathered by Daily News 24 shows that Nigeria loses at least 35,000 hectares of its arable land annually to desert encroachment in the north. This is comparable to the size of Lagos State, Nigeria’s economic capital and its most populous region.
An Expert with the Geography Department Bayero University, Kano Malam Musa Tanko Haruna, said desertification occurs due to natural causes and activities of a human being (anthropogenic), including variability and excessive farming overgrazing, deforestation, burning of trees from their root, among others.
“You see this agent that causes desertification in the northern part of this country and Kano, in particular, is on the increase, which Government and nongovernmental organizations working towards preserving the good nature of our environment need to come up with drastic measures to stop it”, Malam Musa Tanko Haruna said.
The Expert added that the measures to avert the desert encroachment facing us are by afforestation, planting trees and preserving existing ones. Sustainable Agriculture planned to graze and stop using firewood as a means of fuel in rural areas.
Nigerian Erosion and Watershed Management Project (NEWMAP) Kano, an intervention project to stop the menace of desertification, preserving natural rivers in Kano, which is one of their functions, stated that the project records so many successes with regards to tackling desert encroachment in Kano.
“One major consequence of northern desert encroachment is the massive migration of the people due to the loss of farmlands, a situation that puts pressure on food production in the country.”
“The major socio-economic impact of desert encroachment is the loss of farmlands. Immediately following that is migration syndrome because once the local population loses their farmlands, the alternative option for them is to relocate, and unfortunately, they relocate to urban areas.”
“By moving to the cities, we are creating more mouths to be fed while farm produce is reduced. This is a big problem. No nation can survive if this is allowed to go on.”
Severally farmers within the Niger Republic border farmers complain that crop yields have been reduced by 80%. Farmlands used to produce over 10 bundles of millet now can barely produce two due to ravaging deserts that are leaving a trail of poverty in their path.
Jauro Ahmadu, a local leader in the farming community, said that further intervention is needed from the government. Research into quick maturing crop species, for example, is critical since the rainy season has drastically shortened to about three months per year.
“We are suffering here in Gogel village of Warawa area; here we face many environmental problems such as desert encroachment. This has caused a reduction in farm produce while some areas cannot be cultivated at all,” he said.
“Rainfall keeps reducing each year. Some 10 years ago, we used to witness rainfall for at least 6 months, and the farm harvest was impressive then, now we hardly get 4 months of rainfall”, Jauro Ahmadu said.
