[420 Girl]

The cultivation of food and cash crops in Ondo State is being threatened by the attractiveness which cannabis cultivation holds for young farmers, a NEXT investigation has shown.

It has now become a norm for farmers in the ‘Sunshine State’ to jettison planting of staple foods and cocoa for Indian hemp plantations, owing to the huge profits accruable from the sale of Indian hemp.

One factor that might have lured these youths into this illegal business is fertility of the mostly forest land, which makes cannabis to germinate even better than other crops. Also, the youth are lured into planting cannabis because the product is easy to preserve, unlike tomatoes and other crops, which require technology before they can be processed.

The young farmers are being assisted by cannabis growers, who are mainly from Delta State, the former NDLEA commander in Ondo State, Shedow Gaura said.

Mr. Gaura, who was recently promoted to the zonal headquarters of the agency, said Ondo State is one of the leading growers of cannabis in the country, with Ogbese, a town in Akure North Local Government Area as one of the key areas.

“My utmost fear now is that some farmers have stopped planting cocoa and other crops and they are now going into farming Indian hemp. Despite all efforts to stop this trend, these youth are carrying out their illegal business with impunity,” he said.

The statistics from the NDLEA show clearly that the activities of Indian hemp cultivators is still booming in spite of the command’s determination to get rid of them. For instance, the command made a seizure of 5,538kgs of cannabis in Ogbese in 2009. The seizure is the largest singular arrest this year.

The command is also battling with the influx of some growers from other states.

“We have discovered that the majority of the Indian hemp farmers are coming from Delta State, particularly from Kwale area. In all the arrests we have made, most of them are from Kwale area,” he said.

Visits to Ogbese, revealed that these ‘foreign farmers’ come to the area and procure large tracts of land - often inside the government reserved forests - and then hire farm supervisors who also hire labourers to do the actual farming. Most of the farms in Ogbese are not accessible by vehicles.

“You can trek about 12 hours before you get into these farms,” said a member of the community. “That is why it has been difficult for security operatives to flush them out and these farmers are always armed. They work on the farm with armed men surrounding them.” The NDLEA say the only way to control the spread is to work with traditional rulers and land owners; especially to encourage them to desist from giving out their land to these unscrupulous people.

Work with community leaders

Mr. Gaura warned that the agency was ready to discharge its duties by making sure that no highly placed individual is allowed to undermine the fight against Indian hemp cultivation.

“The command is in possession of intelligence reports to confirm the backing of community leaders in this show of shame and we are determined to deal with anybody caught, without being biased,” he said. “It is important that we also must remind our community leaders of our collective resolve to bequeath a drug free society for our children, as no development will sink deep if the interest of those it is meant to serve is of unsound mind as a result of drug use.

“In the face of insecurity to lives and properties in our society, kidnapping, armed robbery, rape and violence, all other security agencies in the state and the nation will have more work to do.” He also appealed to government at all levels to assist the command with operational vehicles to enable it cover the state effectively and efficiently.

“It is not funny. We only have one patrol vehicle to cover the whole Ondo State,” he said.

“That is why we are appealing to the state government to please come to our aid so that we can perform efficiently and effectively. With the necessary logistics in place, we at the command are ready to make sure that the state is not safe for drug dealers and cultivators.”

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