Cassava growers seek compensation for insured farmlands damage by herdsmen

Nigeria Cassava Growers Association, NCGA, has appealed to the Nigerian Agricultural Insurance Corporation, NAIC, to compensate farmers whose insured farmlands were destroyed by herdsmen in various states.

President of the association, Pastor Segun Adewumi, made the appeal in an interview in Lagos, yesterday.

Adewumi lamented that most of the destroyed farmlands were set up with huge loans from banks collected by some members of the association.

According to him, those loans are due for repayment but the farms which were supposed to yield returns for the offset of the loans have been destroyed by herdsmen.

The national president said the association had written to NAIC for compensation but had yet to receive positive reply.

He said: “We insured our farms across the nation with NAIC. We wrote to NAIC and presented those whose were affected by the clash but they wrote to us and told us that the insurance does not cover malicious damages.

So we are on our own and then the banks are expecting the repayment of the loans,” he said.

He said that flooding was also one of the major setback being experienced by some cassava growers across the country.

Adewumi said the association was yet to enumerate the level of damage caused by flood to their farms in 2016.

The national president appealed to the Federal Government to urgently tackle the issue to encourage more yields.