Abia farmer loses hectares of cassava farm to fire

Eze Philip Ajomiwe, the immediate past chairman, Umuahia North Council of Traditional Rulers, and a foremost farmer in Abia State, has lost over four hectares of cassava farmlands to fire.

Eze Ajomiwe has a cassava farm (about 1.5 hectares with 419 specie, when harvested will yield about 30 tons) near Ubani-Ibeku market in Umuahia North L.G.A, and another one (about 2.5 hectares with yellow root specie, when also harvested would yield about 60 tons) at Amakama near Pacesetter FM in Umuahia South L.G.A, of Abia State.

While conducting select journalists in Umuahia around the razed farms, Eze Ajomiwe, who is the chairman/managing director of De-Philajoms Agro and Allied Industries Limited, lamented the level of damages from the ugly incident and wondered how he would pay back the loans borrowed from the bank to cultivate the cassava farms.

“I am the only farmer that plants yellow root in Abia State and only a few farmers plant and process yellow root into cassavita because it has 40 percent provitamin A. When you use it to produce garri, you do not need to add palm oil. Also, a tuber of the 419 cassava is equivalent to or even more than a big tuber of yam.

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“We lost about 90 tons in these farms. A bundle of the stems of this yellow root costs about N2,500 and we need 60 bundles for one hectare, when you calculate N2,500 times 60, you will see how much we have lost. We have been suffering from the herdsmen menace but we thank God that this time, they did not invade our cassava farms and we are still in a jubilation mood when the information filtered in that my farmlands have been razed by fire. How can a sensible human being do this evil”, the royal father decried.

Eze Ajomiwe, the traditional ruler of Oriendu autonomous community, Ohuhu clan, therefore passionately appealed to the Federal Government, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, and Abia Governor, Okezie Ikpeazu, to come to his rescue, as all the monies he spent got lost and no other left to buy stems and replant.