Farmers, marketers lament hike in diesel price

By Omotayo Edubi

Farmers and marketers have complained about the low patronage and decrease in their profits in the past few weeks due the continued rise in the price of diesel, which has soared between N720 and N730 per litre.

A tomato and cabbage farmer in Jos, Joshua Dadi, in an interview with journalists on Wednesday said most perishable food had been abandoned at their farms due to the high cost of transportation.

Dadi said off-takers could no longer afford to pay them to off-take produce since the cost of transporting commodities had doubled.

An onion farmer in Kano, Ahmed Idris, who called on the government to savage the situation, said Nigerians might not be able to afford any product in the market in the coming days.

“The situation will be terrible if nothing is done because very few of us are farming now due to insecurity and banditry.

“If this continues, I doubt if people will still be able to buy our produce because the cost of transporting them from the farm has doubled compared to what we were complaining about previously.”

A bean marketer in Abuja, Ojo Ibidemi, expressed concern over the high cost of transportation of the commodity.

He said: “What we used to transport from here to Lagos for N100,000 is N200,000, there is no way we can make profit. I have decided to put a temporary end to every form of business for now to see how the coming weeks will be.

“If nothing is done about this, what we witnessed last year about the high cost of commodities will be a child’s play compared to this.”

A transporter, Ifeanyi Obodo, a marketer, said increase in food prices were imminent as transporters were also not making profits ferrying goods.

He said: “Earlier, I bought diesel for N780 per litre, which means, what we used to transport for N200,000 will be N500,000. Nigerians should prepare themselves for what is coming, if urgent steps are not taken to address this.”