Delta Commissioner for Agriculture and Natural Resources, Dr Godfrey Enita, has expressed concern over the extent of damage wrought by flood on rice farms in the state.
The commissioner spoke with newsmen after inspecting a 100 hectares rice farm taken over by flood at the Benin-Owena River Basin Authority in Ngegwu, Ajaji – Illah, Oshimili North Local Government Area of the state said the damage to the rice farm is colossal, huge and massive. “In fact, when the report got to me, I did not know that it was of this magnitude. “When I first saw the video, most of the farm was above the water but as you can see, more than 70 per cent of the entire rice farm land is under water. “That tells you how massive the loss but I must commend the farmer; he is a dogged person because of his commitment. “These are people the government should encourage, particularly for someone who had invested much and only to experience this huge loss due to flooding.”
On his part, the Managing Director, Merrybell Rice Farm, Mr Felix Okonti, who lost 50 hectares (about 250 metric tonnes of rice) farm to the flood, said that his total loss was about N72 million. According to Okonti, the total hectarage under the river basin land development is 100 hectares which was leased to the Delta State Government Ministry of Agriculture Assisted Rice production.
“Out of this, I own 50 hectares, and because we are mindful that there will be flood, we first planned planting faru 44, but due to delay in inputs, we opted for flood resistant variety, called Buga rice variety from Jos which we planted in this field.
“We did not envisage that the height of flood will be this high, normally, this variety is supposed to withstand the flood but this is not the situation. “As you can see, it has covered all the plants and going by the average of five to seven tonnes of rice per hectare, the gravity of loss is colossal. “It takes about 120 days (three months) for this variety to mature, and these have reached 72 days when the flood came and as you can see, there is nothing to salvage from the farm.
Okonti, who encouraged himself said that in spite of the loss he would venture into dry season rice farming from November. “According to him, the farm is insured and given the current market price, the total loss is put at about N72 million. He, however, advised the Federal Government, as the manager of river basins and inland waterways, to construct the needed dams along the River Niger/Benue Basin to absorb the waters that cause havoc along the states in the area. NAN
