Onion Farmers in Yobe lament Poor Storage Facilities

Some onion farmers in Geidam Local Government Area of Yobe on Friday said that the dearth of storage facilities in the area was affecting their business.

The farmers said this in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Geidam.

Malam Bukar Usman, an onion farmer in Kyelluri village, told NAN that the farmers had no storage facilities to preserve the vegetable for a long time.
“Farmers are forced to sell the onions at giveaway prices due to the lack of storage facilities in our area,’’ he said.
Usman appealed to the federal and state ministry of agriculture to construct storage facilities that could preserve the crop in the area.
Malam Aliyu Hassan, a farmer in Kalgeri, said: “We have just started harvesting the onions and the price is now crumbling due to increased supplies.

“The price will keep dropping until when a bag of onions is sold at N3,000 due to the lack of storage facilities.
“As a farmer with large harvests, you are compelled to dispose of your harvests or else you risk massive crop damage and financial losses due to lack of storage facilities,’’ he said.

However, Malam Mohammed Mustapha, a vegetable merchant, said that the onion harvests would continue until around April when the harvest period would be over.
“The agricultural institutes in Nigeria should take up the challenge and invent onion storage facilities in order to boost sufficiency in production,’’ he said. (NAN)