National president of Yam Farmers Association of Nigeria, Prof. Simon Irtwange, has attributed insecurity, increase in fuel price that led to unprecedented rise in the cost of transportation as well as economics of production to the high cost and scarcity of yams in Nigerian markets.
Prof Irtwange in a telephone conversation with our correspondent explained that the persistent attacks on the farming communities, especially in the Sankera axis comprising Katsina/Ala, Ukum and Logo local governments by armed bandits is also a contributory factor.
“The sustained attacks and killing of farmers in that part of the state have made many farmers to abandon their farms midway, some even planted and could not go back to weed or harvest for fear of being killed and some have even fled their communities, so insecurity has contributed immensely to the hike in price of yams.
“Another contributory factor which is the removal of fuel subsidy that sparked an unprecedented increase in the cost of transportation, the cost of transporting farm produce to markets has tripled and a result of this, most farmers prefer selling their produce at home where buyers, mostly middlemen, locate them in remote places and buy off their produce.
“When we talk about economics of production we are referring to the cost production which includes farm inputs like fertiliser, seedings, pesticides and herbicides among others and most of them, especially the weed control and pesticides are imported, that is why you hear farmers talking about exchange rates.
“All these variables, including the cost of labour are being calculated by the farmer before putting his produce for sale, and these are the contributory factors to the cost of yams in the market.
“You can imagine that the production cost of one hectare of yams which was before now N1.5 million has now tripled the previous amount, so with all these a yam farmer has to recover his or her production cost before talking about making profit and most of them incur losses.”
Yam farmers who spoke to our correspondent including Oryina Ihwakaa, Ternenge Sev and Mseer Maa added that lack of storage and processing facilities leading to post harvest losses was bringing setbacks to yam farmers in the state even as they appealed to the government to look into the issue.