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The Kaduna State Government says more than 500,000 hectares of farmland have been recovered from bandit control, allowing farmers to return to their fields after years of insecurity across some rural communities.
The state Commissioner for Information and Culture, Ahmed Maiyaki, disclosed this on Sunday at a Gala Night organised by the Kano Correspondents’ Chapel during its annual retreat in Kaduna.
Maiyaki said insecurity had previously become so severe in some communities that bandits allegedly controlled residents and agricultural activities, leaving farmers unable to access their farms.
He attributed the change to the government’s adoption of community-based security strategies and early warning mechanisms, with local stakeholders playing a role in identifying and preventing threats.
“It was so bad that farmers could not go to their farms. But today, with community-led security and early warning systems, peace has returned, and our farmers are back on the land,” he said.
According to the commissioner, 75 potential threats were identified between 2023 and early 2026, with 70 contained before they escalated into communal or religious crises.
Maiyaki said the improved security situation had also enabled the state to increase its agricultural allocation from ₦1.4 billion in 2023 to more than ₦100 billion in 2026. He added that the government had provided fertiliser to farmers at no cost, contributing to an increase in maize yields from about three bags per hectare to as much as 22 bags.
He also linked the return of farmers to improvements in rural transportation, saying roads constructed or rehabilitated across 12 local government areas had improved the movement of agricultural produce to markets.
Maiyaki said the security intervention formed part of a wider government strategy covering agriculture, education and healthcare, stressing that the state was assessing its programmes by their impact on residents rather than the number of projects completed.
