Lagos-Ogun rural dwellers say they cope better

A cross section of the dwellers told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), in Lagos said that they were better poised to survive the high cost of food items being experienced in cities.

Mr Daniel Anthony, a towing vehicle operator who resides at Muti, Lagos said he had converted his undeveloped plots of land to cassava farms, rather than allowing them to be overrun by wild animals.

According to him, his subsistent cassava farm has been producing enough food for his family in the last three years.

“I can count the number of times I bought Garri from the market since 2014 and I take Garri and eat Eba regularly."

“I harvest my own cassava which my wife makes into Garri and other edibles we can get from this crop,’’ he said.

A trader who resides at Ereko, Ogun, Mrs Ramat Momoh, said she bought Ewedu and other vegetables from neighbours around her house.

“Those who sell home-grown vegetables make quite a lot of money doing so."

“At least, these families can make what they can use to get by and buy other necessary things to survive the times,’’ she said.Momoh, the Treasurer, Ereko Community Development Association, said there was the need to go into subsistence farming as a way of safeguarding against food insecurity.

“We the common men have to do with the little we can to survive and not wait on government all the time,’’ she said.According to Mr Femi Oredemu, a resident of Igboolomu, Lagos, mothers in his locality are forming cooperatives to support their husbands and families.

He further said housewives in his area earned income from small farming and also by belonging to farm cooperatives to increase their dividends from land utilisation.

“It is as if the situation of the country has told our wives to return to agriculture which used to be the mainstay of the economy of the country."

“Nigerians need to take a look backward to find out how our forebears coped with hard times by extracting valuables that our vast land resources can give,’’ he said.

Mr Ayo Atomise, a commercial bus driver residing at Elepe, Ogun, told NAN that most families around him supplement their meat intake by feeding on their free-range chickens.

He said families that reared goats and sheep in his locality had upgraded the security of their homes against would-be poachers of their domestic animals.

“It is funny we don’t hear of car hacking or house burglary again but stolen goats and sheep,’’ Atomise said.

“Artisans, especially in my area, combine farming with their main means of livelihood now.’’

An account officer with a micro-finance outfit, Mr John Iyadi, urged Community Development Associations (CDAs), in areas with many undeveloped plots should encourage their members to convert the open spaces into farms.

“This hard time call for ingenuity, innovation and sacrifice on the part of us and at the lower strata of society too,’’Iyadi, who stays at Agbede area, Ogun , said.

Iyadi said countries that had experienced recession had turned to subsistence farming and traditional practices that modernisation had eroded.

A government worker, who did not want to be mentioned, said he had converted his other plots of land into farms to grow corn, yam and coco yam.

The officer, who stays behind the Odogunyan Barracks at Ikorodu, told NAN that his subsistence farming supplemented his salary he said was not enough to fund all his family obligations.

“I have been eating fresh corn from my lands in the last two years."

“I have equally stacked yams in my make shift barn that I also use as gift to other family members staying in urban areas,’’ he said.

"The government worker urged the local government authorities to send farm extension officers to suburban areas to give more education to residents on how to use farming to cope in this recession."