Alhaji Mohammed Kaku, the Secretary Gashua Vegetables Farmers Union in Yobe, has warned of an impending scarcity of vegetables because of poor storage facilities in the country. Kaku said in Gashua,Yobe that the situation was forcing farmers to abandon the cultivation of vegetables. “Many tomatoes farmers on the Yobe/Kumadugu Basin and the Nguru Wetlands have abandoned their farms due to the lack of storage facilities. “It is the same predicament facing vegetable farmers in Borno, Gombe, Taraba, Adamawa, Benue, Plateau, Jigawa, Kano and all other states in the country,” he said.
Kaku said that there was gross decline in the number of irrigation farmers growing tomatoes, onion and pepper now, when compared to previous years. He said, The farmers had in the previous years been forced to sell their produce at give-away prices at the peak of harvests and, therefore, operating at a loss. “Vegetables are perishable commodities and farmers in most cases have to sell the products below production costs or risk total damage, as they do not have the means of preserving the harvests.” The secretary cautioned that Nigerians might experience acute scarcity of the commodities next year, because of the development. He said that tomatoes and onions farmers, who lost their products last year due to poor storage facilities, had abandoned their farms, while many others were cultivating less this season.
“The Yobe Basin and Nguru Wetlands alone have the capacity to meet the needs of the entire North-East and some other parts of the country, but farmers are leaving the trade due to storage challenges,” he said. The secretary, therefore, appealed to the federal and state governments to establish plants for the processing of excess vegetables to encourage the farmers. Such gesture, he said, would also boost the growers’ income, as well as the revenue base of the government. “Government should go into public/private partnership with vegetable farmers on preservations and processing of vegetables in the country to encourage farmers and boost local production,” he said.