Heavy Floods Destroy West Africa Farmlands

In Nigeria, the north of the country suffered from devastating floods that destroyed farmland across the region – so Adamu Garba, a rice farmer from Gombe State, went barefoot through his paddy fields to survey the damage for himself.

Africa’s worst floods in 15 years are ravaging farms like Garba’s rice plots, wiping out crops and risking worsening food insecurity in a region already struggling with the economic fallout from the Ukraine war.

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Nigeria has been hit by the worst flooding in a decade, killing more than 300 people since the start of the rainy season and displacing at least 100 thousand people.

“It is devastating but there is nothing we can do, we just have to be strong,” Garba told AFP at his farm near the city of Kano, where he normally harvests 200 bags of rice.

“Now in the condition, we find ourselves we are not sure we will harvest half a bag here.”

Nigeria’s National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) spokesman Manzo Ezekiel said flooding has been unprecedented due to continuous rainfall with 29 of the country’s 36 states affected. It also has caused billions of dollars in damage to infrastructure, homes and businesses.

“Thousands of farmlands have also been destroyed. The figures will rise further because we are still experiencing torrential rains and flooding,” he said.

Nigeria has been releasing water from its dams, but neighbouring Cameroon’s release of excess water from a dam and the submersion of villages in the north of the country is largely responsible for flooding that has killed at least 75 people and left more than 1 million people homeless.

Parts of Nigeria, from northern farmlands to the coastal economic capital Lagos, are prone to flooding in the rainy season, though NEMA says this year is the worst since 2012, when 363 people died and more than 2.1 million were displaced.

Heavy rains falling in Niger since June and the severe floods have claimed 159 lives and affected more than 225,000 people, making this rainy season one of the deadliest in history, emergency officials said earlier this month.

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“According to our studies, we can link these rains to climate change in general,” said Katiellou Gaptia Lawan, Director General of National Meteorology of Niger.

“The rains are becoming more and more intense and the extreme precipitation is increasing.”

Rains in Niger this year have also totally destroyed or damaged more than 25,900 homes, and impacted farmland and cattle, authorities said.

The June to September rainy season regularly kills people in Niger, including in the northern desert areas, but the toll is particularly heavy this year.