The Nigerian Defence Academy (NDA), Kaduna, please kindly provide the host community land to farm as usual. The members of the community have been farming on the land before the federal government acquired it for the school, despite this some of the farmers continued farming up till last year. The NDA management registered the farmers and issued them dentity cards. Unfortunately, that was not done this year as the farmers were denied access to the farmlands.
If the staff and retired staff are considered what about the host community? The management should know that an hungry man is an angry man and at the same time an idle man is the devil’s workshop. We are, therefore, appealing to the management to provide us with land for farming, no matter how small it may be. We know the security challenge, but there should be a way out just like the Nigerian Air Force (NAF), Kaduna did to those farming on their premises. They instructed them to plant crops that are not more 3ft, such as beans, soyabean, pepper, onions, groundnut, etc.
The farmers appreciated NAF for the support to farmers despise the security challenge. Majority of us are farming to save our souls not for commercial purposes. Give conditions, we are ready to follow. The famers around the area need your assistant, the commandant, kindly adopt NAF’s strategy; this is rainy season. We have no other farmland. Some of the farmers are retired staff of NDA – retired soldiers and civilians. Save our souls and implement policies that will help us.
We know that it is the insecurity in the country that is adversely affecting us, in terms of farming on the premises. But with your policies and provision of security, the management can task the farmers a token for the period of six months (June to December) of farming season.
Raji Sule Ayinavo,
Kaduna
