The Major Cause of High Costs of Farming Inputs and Farm Produce
Agricultural stakeholders have blamed the rising cost of farm produce, livestock feeds, and other commodities, on the worsening security in the country.
They also lamented that many farmers, especially in the North, no longer sleep in their farms, but live in Internally Displaced Persons (IDP) camps due to fear of being kidnapped or killed by bandits and insurgents.
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The stakeholders, who stated these in separate interviews with reporters in Abuja yesterday, however, said the prize of many farm produce, especially beans, could drop by half if peace was returned to the North.
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A commercial maize farmer from Benue State, Tarnongo Vitalis, warned that the high costs of farm produce could persist if nothing was done to make farmers return to their farms.
Vitalis said that the situation had led to an increase in the price of a bag of maize from less than N18,000 to over N30,000 and a bag of soybean from N 22,000 to over N40,000.
He also noted that farm inputs such as fertiliser and chemicals have become very expensive for farmers to afford.
His words: “For the first time in history, a bag of maize has gone over N30,000 from less than N18,000 because farmers cannot access their farms again due to high increase in banditry, kidnapping, and terrorism.
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