The Onion Producers, Processors and Entrepreneurs Affiliation of Nigeria attributed the numerous rise in onion costs and shortage throughout the nation to floods and local weather change.
In an interview with the Information Company of Nigeria on Sunday in Lagos, the Nationwide President of the affiliation, Mr. Aliyu Isah, defined the elements behind the excessive price of onions.
NAN reviews that as of the fourth quarter of 2024, onion costs have skyrocketed, with a bag promoting for between N250,000 and N270,000 – up from N70,000 to N90,000 in earlier months. The worth of a medium-sized onion additionally elevated from 50 to 500 kilos.
In keeping with Issa, the sharp enhance stems from a mix of floods, dam discharges, and local weather change, all of which have considerably hampered manufacturing.
Issa stated: “What precipitated the shortage of onions and the rise of their costs from the final quarter of 2024 till now’s the results of the floods.”
“The 2024 floods that destroyed all our onion farms – from the manufacturing basins of Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, Kano, Kaduna, Katsina and even Adamawa – have led to shortage of manufacturing.
“We additionally confronted the problem of affect on onion manufacturing with water launch from dams within the northern states.
“In Sokoto, water was launched from Goroyo Dam. When it reached a sure stage, it affected onion farms in Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara states.
“As well as, the collapse of dams in Borno State has destroyed our onion farms,” he defined.
Issa additionally highlighted the position of local weather change in exacerbating the scenario, citing extended rainfall and illness outbreaks as main contributors to water shortage.
“The second concern affecting the shortage and excessive price of onions is that we have now seen a protracted excessive stage of rainfall within the north in 2024.
“Heavy rainfall has led to excessive humidity, resulting in illness outbreaks – popularly often known as mildew – which have destroyed most of our onion farms at varied phases of cultivation.
Issa stated: “Some onion farms had been affected on the seedling stage, some on the nursery stage, and others simply earlier than harvest.”
He attributed the scarcity to the dearth of improved onion seedlings, which led to the disruption of native manufacturing.
The third downside is the unavailability of the crop as a result of unavailability of improved onion seedlings.
“Floods and local weather change have affected and disrupted our native seed manufacturing system.
“We wouldn’t have enough and high quality onion seedlings, so we now rely upon hybrid seeds imported from international international locations.
“The flood downside has severely affected onion seed manufacturing, stopping native farmers from accessing seeds. By the final quarter of 2024, even with funds obtainable, farmers had been unable to search out seeds to purchase.
“This led to a major problem, as some unpatriotic Nigerians imported adulterated onion seeds. Now, our farmers are counting their losses as a result of they planted seeds that can’t produce bulbs.
Issa additionally cited insufficient storage services and expertise as an extra contributor to the excessive costs.
“One other issue contributing to the shortage of onions and their excessive costs is post-harvest losses.
“Even after we harvest sufficient onions throughout the season, we lack improved expertise to retailer onions, leading to post-harvest losses of greater than 50 p.c.
“Which means that greater than half of what we produce is misplaced after harvest. All of those elements contribute to creating onions costly,” Issa stated.
He revealed that the affiliation is cooperating with the federal authorities to boost manufacturing and mitigate the rise in onion costs.
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(tags for translation)Local weather change
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