Farmers in Funtua, Katsina State on Thursday complained of poor prices of their commodities as harvest of agricultural products peaks in the state, the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports.
A cross-section of farmers interviewed by NAN said that they had been selling their commodities at low prices and that they had been unable to recoup their investments.
One of them, Malam Mas’udu Wada, said that many farmers who spent much money to buy inputs such as fertiliser, agro-allied chemicals and labour to cultivate crops, could not get good price for their produce.
Mas’udu called on government to assist the farmers by buying their produce, especially the peasant farmers as a way of rekindling their interest in farming.
Another farmer, Malam Sama’ila Lawal, urged the State Government to facilitate the implementation of a scheme that would guarantee minimum prices for commodities, so that farmers could sell their produce to make profits.
He also called on the federal and State Governments to re-double efforts in the agricultural sector and find ways to reduce the bureaucracy militating against farmers’ desire to obtain loans from the Bank of Industry and other loan schemes to enhance agricultural production.
NAN checks showed that a bag of local rice was being sold at between N11, 000 to 12,000, bag of maize between N4, 700 and 5,300, a bag of Soya beans is N8, 600 while a bag of beans sells for between N8,500 and N9,200.
A bag of corn sells for between N4,000 and N9,000, millet goes for N6,400, a mudu of groundnut is selling for N320, with a measure of pepper selling for N220 while a bag of cotton goes for between N2,800 and N3,200.
The farmers said that the prices were far short of their expectations. (NAN)
Subscribe to this comment's feed
1. the cost of production which is just too high in Nigeria, and
2. the very low yields ( production per hectar) due to our farming system and methods.
for farming (especially arable farminf) in nigeria to be profitable, the above two challenges has to be overcome.