Nigeria: Desertification - Water Scarcity Hits Sokoto Farmers

8 February 2015

Sokoto — Green maize and tomato plants looked withered and insipid. The arid, cracked soil could not provide moisture to sustain the plants. Water at this desert village is scarce during the dry season but the people here have to eke our a living from their traditional occupation farming, which they love doing with a passion. Deep wells are scattered around the vast alluvial plains of Muwadata, a serene village southwest of Illela, a border town in Sokoto state.

Galadima Alkassan Muwadata, the village head, draped in his farmer's garb said a larger portion of the plains are unfarmed because of the scarcity of water. He said even those that farm most times incur losses because the plants droop and die or even when they survive, they yield just little.

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