Nigerian Farmers Displaced by US Company’s Land Grab

Nigerian Farmers Displaced by US Company’s Land Grab

Thousands of Nigerians are being kicked off their land in the North-eastern Taraba State for US-based food and agriculture company Dominion Farms, a new 300 square-kilometre rice plantation in the area, according to a new report released this week.

According to the report, the massive project is backed by the federal government and G8’s New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition in Africa, a project that is meant to enhance food security and livelihoods for small farmers in Nigeria and the rest of Africa.

However, two Nigerian non-government organisations (NGOs), Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) and the Centre for Environmental Education and Development (CEED), have argued that the land being offered to Dominion Farms is still being used by thousands of Nigerian families for agriculture, water resources, fishing ponds and grazing areas.

“Initiatives like the New Alliance seem to be more about providing opportunities for agribusiness to carve up the resources of African countries rather than trying to address poverty or hunger,” said Heidi Chow, food sovereignty campaigner from Global Justice Now.

Approximately 45,000 people use the land and will be gravely affected by the large-scale rice farm project, according to the report released by GRAIN, an international rights group that supports small farmers, along with Global Justice Now, ERA/FoEN and CEED.

“Our land is very rich and good. We produce a lot of different crops here like rice, beans, guinea corn, cassava, soya beans, millet, yam as well as fish farming and the rearing of animals like goats, sheep and cattle,” said local farmer Mallam Danladi K Jallo.

“But since Dominion Farms people arrived... we were asked to stop our farm work and even leave our lands as the land is completely given to the Dominion Farms project.”

According to the report, some of the local people had been promised adequate compensation for their lands, and that new schools, roads, hospitals and a farm training centre would be built. However, none of these promises have been kept.
Development of the massive agriculture project began without community consent, while affected Nigerians remain in the dark about what, if any, future compensation plans may be.

“We were happy when we heard of the coming of the Dominion Farms not knowing it was for the selfish interest of some few members of the state, federal government and the foreigner in charge of the Dominion Farms,” said local farmer Mallam Danladi K Jallo.  

Nigeria has been vulnerable to large land grabs in the past few years since the government has prioritised attracting international investment in the country’s agricultural sector.

Both the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and the Federal Ministry of Trade, Industry and Investment say the investments will increase national food production and make Nigeria a food exporting country.

But the report contradicts these government claims. “Through this policy, vast tracks of agricultural lands have been identified by the government for large scale projects by foreign companies.

“This increases the risk of land grabbing, a process where local communities are displaced from their land and lose their ability to grow food and their livelihoods,” reads the report.

Thousands of Nigerians are being kicked off their land in the North-eastern Taraba State for US-based food and agriculture company Dominion Farms, a new 300 square-kilometre rice plantation in the area, according to a new report released this week.

According to the report, the massive project is backed by the federal government and G8’s New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition in Africa, a project that is meant to enhance food security and livelihoods for small farmers in Nigeria and the rest of Africa.

However, two Nigerian non-government organisations (NGOs), Environmental Rights Action/Friends of the Earth Nigeria (ERA/FoEN) and the Centre for Environmental Education and Development (CEED), have argued that the land being offered to Dominion Farms is still being used by thousands of Nigerian families for agriculture, water resources, fishing ponds and grazing areas.

“Initiatives like the New Alliance seem to be more about providing opportunities for agribusiness to carve up the resources of African countries rather than trying to address poverty or hunger,” said Heidi Chow, food sovereignty campaigner from Global Justice Now.

Approximately 45,000 people use the land and will be gravely affected by the large-scale rice farm project, according to the report released by GRAIN, an international rights group that supports small farmers, along with Global Justice Now, ERA/FoEN and CEED.

“Our land is very rich and good. We produce a lot of different crops here like rice, beans, guinea corn, cassava, soya beans, millet, yam as well as fish farming and the rearing of animals like goats, sheep and cattle,” said local farmer Mallam Danladi K Jallo.

“But since Dominion Farms people arrived... we were asked to stop our farm work and even leave our lands as the land is completely given to the Dominion Farms project.”

According to the report, some of the local people had been promised adequate compensation for their lands, and that new schools, roads, hospitals and a farm training centre would be built. However, none of these promises have been kept.
Development of the massive agriculture project began without community consent, while affected Nigerians remain in the dark about what, if any, future compensation plans may be.

“We were happy when we heard of the coming of the Dominion Farms not knowing it was for the selfish interest of some few members of the state, federal government and the foreigner in charge of the Dominion Farms,” said local farmer Mallam Danladi K Jallo.  

Nigeria has been vulnerable to large land grabs in the past few years since the government has prioritised attracting international investment in the country’s agricultural sector.

Both the Federal Ministry of Agriculture and the Federal Ministry of Trade, Industry and Investment say the investments will increase national food production and make Nigeria a food exporting country.

But the report contradicts these government claims. “Through this policy, vast tracks of agricultural lands have been identified by the government for large scale projects by foreign companies.

“This increases the risk of land grabbing, a process where local communities are displaced from their land and lose their ability to grow food and their livelihoods,” reads the report.