"We live in a relatively hilly area with most of the land infertile. We

are however lucky to have a very broad flat-bottomed fertile valley we have over the years been cultivating for our survival".

The petition said with the discovery of limestone in the area, the company started mining the mineral about five years without any proper lay down community enhancement programmes.

It said the company removed the vegetation cover by the side of the hills and constructed and directed all the large volumes of drainage water at the mines towards the direction of their farms.

"Anytime it rains heavily, run-off from the quarry site flows downstream to flood our farms and this leads to the destruction of all the crops on the land where we have been farming from time immemorial".

It said on May 24 last year, during the major farming season, all the crops that they planted were flooded as a result of the drains from the quarry and the incident was reported to officials of the company but they failed to respond.

The petition said they contracted a legal advisor to help them pursue the matter and the company agreed to meet them for the necessary negotiations.

It said at the first meeting on the matter on September 18, 2009, the company proposed a compensation amount which was less than the cost involved in farming an acre of land.

The petition said many of the farmers could not pay back the loans they had contracted from banks since all the crops were destroyed by the activities of the construction company.

The petition therefore appealed to the regional minister to intervene and compel the company to pay them the compensation for the crops destroyed in the 2009 major and minor farming seasons as well as the 2010 major season within the shortest possible time.