Mrs Josephine Pattern spoke with Saturday Tribune after some hesitatioin. She’s one one of the industrious Urhobo women whose means of livelihood wholly centre on subsistence farming at agrarian Oviri Olomu, Ughelli South Local Government Area of Delta State.
According to her, apart from finding it difficult to provide one meal per day for her family of five children and a husband, the incessant destruction of her cassava farm by cows is a major headache.
At 50 years old, Josephine has been farming for as long as she could remember. “I have been farming since I knew what life is about,” she said.
Farming is her identity, a paradoxical source of both pride and frustration. She is a mother of five and the wife of a fellow farmer, and together they have spent their years cultivating the land to provide for their family.
Life for Mrs Pattern, according to her, has become far harder. Despite decades of hardship, she remarked that life is now more difficult than ever before.
“With the rising cost of living, eating one meal a day has become a struggle. The simple things that once provided sustenance, like garri and rice, have become luxuries.
“For us to eat garri now is a luxury, not to talk of rice: It is alarming how the prices of foodstuffs have skyrocketed in just a short time.
“As of January last year, you could get one cup of rice for N150, N200, but now, it’s being sold for N600.
“Beans was being sold for N150 but now you can hardly get it for N400. The inflation of basic food prices has left people, especially those living in rural areas in a constant state of struggle, trying to make ends meet with fewer and fewer resources.
“The increase in prices is not just figures for us, it is the difference between a full stomach and going to bed hungry.
“For farmers like us, where much of our produce is for subsistence, the idea of spending so much on food is alarming. Yet, the crops we grow are often insufficient to meet all our needs.
“My life as a farmer goes beyond economic hardship. The life of a farmer is never easy, but the additional burden of cows destroying my cassava has increased my difficulties.
“For over five years, Oviri has been plagued with the destruction caused by Fulani herdsmen and their cattle.
“The villagers and farmers have been suffering from destruction of our farms by cows and herdsmen,” she lamented.
Despite these overwhelming challenges, Josephine holds out hope that things can improve. She believes that the government can play a significant role in helping her and others in her community.
When asked what kind of support she would want from the government, her response was simple, but telling. “If the government wants to assist me, I would want them to open a shop for me where I will be selling foodstuffs.”
“I want to open a shop where I can sell foodstuffs that would provide me with a secondary source of income and help my family weather the current economic storm.
“While farming will always be my primary occupation, I have realised the importance of diversifying my means of survival in a time when food prices are soaring.
“The government should understand the human cost of its economic policies. I beg policymakers to consider the impact of their decisions on the most vulnerable in society, particularly farmers in rural areas.
“The government should know that the economic policies they are making are making life unbearable for the poor,” she added.
In her plea, Josephine highlighted a growing sentiment among many rural farmers: they are being left behind by policies designed without their needs in mind.
“With inflation rising and food insecurity spreading, families like ours increasingly feel the pinch of a system that seems indifferent to our plight,” the weary farmer concluded.
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