Consumers across the country have been lamenting over scarcity of some agro-commodities since about two months ago and there is no sign of any remedy in sight yet. Although tomato is the major and highly expensive commodities in the market presently, others such as groundnut oil, rice, garri, cassava flour and others.
For tomato, it is not only expensive but also unavailable in the market. As the consumers continue feeling the impact of the commodity, they have started lamenting seriously on the prices of little available tomato and other agro-commodities, which have jerked up beyond affordability of many average Nigerians. The pepper retailers across major agribusiness markets in Lagos State linked the high increased price to the scarcity of the commodities in the market. They said the commodities were now supplied in smaller quantities from the Northern part of the country, being the major supplier of pepper. The marketers lamented that due to the non-availability of tomatoes and pepper, the prices of the little available ones have been highly inflated.
For instance, a basket of tomatoes that normally sold for N3,500 before is now sold at the rate of N32,000, also a basket of pepper which is now sold at the rate of N17,000 was initially sold at the beginning of this about N6,000. Only onion out of all the species of pepper in the market is relatively cheap for now. To some Hausa pepper sellers in the major markets in Lagos and consumers, the situation might be due to dearth of rain. However, the farmers declared that the scarcity was due to a disease affecting the products in their various farms, which has been going out of their control. They maintained that it was the direct consequence of the destructive activities of a pest known as the ‘tomato leaf miner’, saying the operations of this moth was responsible for the drastic reduction and, in some cases, extirpating of tomato supplies from the north.
The moth, scientifically known as Tuta Absoluta, has a reputation for swiftly ravaging tomato cultivation in a little above 48 hours, prompting farmers to nickname it Tomato Ebola. It can breed between 10 and 12 generations in a year with the female capable of laying between 250 and 300 eggs within its lifecycle. National Mirror gathered that the story was the same in and around Makarfi, Hunkuyi, Soba and Zuntu villages of Kaduna, in Danja Katsina State and in Kadawa, Dakasoye and Kura villages in Kano state as tomato farmers within the last month have recorded a minimum of 40 per crop loss to the menace. However, a farmer and wholesale, Alhaji O. Aminu, noted that the effects of climate change have also weighed against the crop. According to him, there was a widespread stunting of tomatoes due to the excessive heat recorded this year. Another farmer Mallam Abdullahi Umaru said all his effort to prevent the outbreak in his farm came to no avail.
His use of insecticide had not yielded any result as the pest seemed to have developed some resistance to the chemicals. Mallam Inusa, another local farmer in the North, lamented the losses suffered in production with complete wipe out in some farms, pointing to the bare nature of assistance received from the government so far. Meanwhile, the Managing Director of AgroNigeria, Richard-Mark Mbaram, said he considered the action of the government on this issue to be downright unacceptable. He said that the nature of the response, by states such as Kano and Kaduna, which saw the government going into exploratory talks with chemical producing companies, should have attained national prominence by now. According to him, companies like Russell IPM – a UK based outfit with size able expertise and experience in combating this pest should have been formally contracted long before now to provide ideas and solutions to the problem.
“It is high-time we truly approached agriculture as a business. That will mean going about it with the mindset of the private sector. Here, we look for efficiency and timeliness coupled with solution. Problems need to be solved, not created. One begins to wonder whether the FMARD has lost its recently recovered private sector cladding”. “There is too much at stake for the Nigerian economy. That is so much the case when considering that Dansa Agro-Allied Ltd, has just commissioned a mammoth tomato processing plant in Kano, and deserves to have constant and qualitative tomato produce to feed its machines. Inaction on the part of government will only result in the failure of its policy thrust aimed at ensuring local production of tomato paste – a key foreign exchange drain. Should the Dangote tomato processing business collapse, one can only imagine what that will portend in terms of dampening of private agribusiness investment appetite.
“Given the high stakes, it is clear that lethargy, whether perceived or actual, cannot be condoned. Our government must act now, and decisively too,’ he said.
He further said that the Minister of Agriculture needed to understand that there was a national food crisis in the offing and so he should naturally assume the reins of control – in real terms – and report to the Vice-President who will in turn keep the President updated about developments in the sector.