Don Urges Post Flooding Impact Assessment For Farmers

With the  likelihood that
this year flooding may not come as predicted by relevant meteorological agencies, a lecturer with the University of Port Harcourt, Dr. Steve Wordu has said that farmers must be subjected to a post flooding impact assessment process.
Dr. Wordu who spoke to our correspondent yesterday in a telephone interview said as a matter of priority, there was need to do a post flooding impact sssessment to ascertain the effects on the average farmer.
He said this option would enable the appropriate authorities measure the level of adjustment the farmers had to last year’s flooding.
Dr Wordu who is of the Sociology Department of the University said it was also important to know the acreage farmers recovered just after last year’s flooding.
According to him, stock should be taken of the number of seedlings that were put back to the land after the flooding and the ones received as seedlings from rehabilitation.
He said there was need to know how far those seedlings yielded inorder to determine if what the farmers put back,  increased their yield.
He said a number of technicalities was used in doing a “back vision” of the rehabilitation of farmers.
He said since the flooding inundated the shield ie the farms, much of the farmlands that were recovered and put back for cultivation should be accounted for.
“During the flooding the farmers lost crops and seedlings, did they receive seedlings as part of their rehabilitation .
“If we did those seedlings, how far did it perform in terms of crop yield” ?he asked.