By PETER UWUMAROGIE

Farmers in Difa Community, Yamaltu Deba Local Government Area of Gombe State, now stay on their farms to keep watch due to increasing hippopotamus attacks on their crops.

A Correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), who visited farms in Difa on Tuesday, observed the presence of several makeshift houses built with guinea corn and sorghum stalks, which the farmers now use as shelters.

Signs of prolonged stays were evident, with burnt stalks, cooking pots, plates, and mosquito nets scattered around the area.

Meanwhile, several hippopotamuses were seen surfacing briefly to breathe while their bodies remained submerged in the river.

In separate interviews with NAN, farmers shared their ordeals of risking their lives against the second-largest land mammals to protect their farmlands.

Mr Hassan Abdulateef, a 40-year-old farmer, said he had been living on his farm since planting his crops three weeks ago.

According to him, he loses between 10 and 15 bags of crops annually due to hippo attacks, which significantly reduces his income and affects food security efforts in the region.

?In 2024 alone, I spent over N600,000 to pay youths to guard my 7-hectare farmland and prevent hippos from grazing on my crops,? Abdulateef told NAN.

?I usually harvest almost 80 bags of paddy yearly which gives me roughly N4 million annually.

?After taking out the cost of fertilisers and the money used in securing my farmland from hippos, I end up with around N2.5 million.

?Hippos have increased my cost of farming by nearly 50 per cent. I pay each youth N10,000 weekly to watch my farm and I have five of them on my farm,? he said.

For Mr Abu Ali, a 52-year-old rice farmer from the community, his story is a mixture of fear and courage.

Ali told NAN that he had to put on a brave face to scare away the huge animal he feared so much, guarding his farm every night for the past 60 nights.

He described the hippopotamus attacks on his farmland as unbearable due to the massive destruction they cause whenever they invaded.

Ali noted that the increasing number of hippopotamuses and their growing attacks had forced farmers to relocate to their farms from the planting season until harvest.

According to him, any farmer who plants crops without making provisions for their protection will have nothing to harvest.

?Three days ago I slept off around 4am after watching all nights, before I knew it, one of the hippos entered my farm and ate up my rice plant which is due for harvest in few days.

?I was so lucky that my son heard the sound and scared the animal away. If not for my son, I would have incurred heavy losses because the crop was ready to be harvested.

?I have been staying awake in the farm for 60 nights to watch the crop but just one night of sleep almost cost me my livelihoods,? he said.

Ali, who has been cultivating the land for over 25 years, said he paid N180, 000 to three youths to watch his farmland in three months.

?In 2024, I was expecting 50 bags but was only able to get 15 bags; this really caused me huge losses and that?s why many of us have had to relocate here from planting time to harvest.?

Similar experiences were shared by Mohammed Kalagar, Idris Ali, and other farmers who spoke to NAN.

They lamented that the hippopotamus population had grown to about 100, leading to an increase in attacks on their farmlands.

The farmers appealed for urgent intervention, stressing that their livelihoods were under threat due to the constant grasing of hippopotamuses on their crops.

Tales told by farmers in Malleri in Kwami LGA and Kupto in Funakaye LGA, when interviewed by NAN, were not different.

Contacted, Mr Inuwa Ahmed, Director of Forestry and Wildlife Management at the Gombe State Ministry of Environment and Water Resources, confirmed receipts of over 20 complaints on the hippopotamuses? attacks.

Ahmed revealed that the government, through the Agro-Climatic Resilience in Semi-Arid Landscapes (ACReSAL) Project, was working on establishing a hippopotamus sanctuary to protect the animals and their habitat while allowing farmers to cultivate their lands without conflict.

?We plan to plant grasses and other vegetation that hippos feed on, covering a 60-metre width along the riverbanks and extending 15 kilometres along the river within the sanctuary,? Ahmed said.

He acknowledged the farmers? concerns and urged them not to kill the animals, advising them to avoid planting too close to the riverbank.

NAN reports that the hippopotamus, also known as the ?river horse,? inhabits rivers and lakes across sub-Saharan Africa. Weighing up to 8,000 pounds, is the heaviest land animal after the elephant. (NAN)

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