Some tomato and pepper farmers and dealers in the Bula community, Akko Local Government of Gombe State, are facing economic challenges as tomato prices drop by 90 per cent in two weeks.
A correspondent of the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) who visited the community on Thursday observed that hundreds of baskets of tomatoes and bags of pepper were displayed for sale in the market.
Farmers and dealers were observed persuading customers to patronise their commodity.
As of Thursday, a big basket of tomatoes is ₦1,000 as against ₦10, 000 which the commodity was sold at the community two weeks ago; this represents a 90 per cent drop in price.
A bag of bell peppers (Tatashe) which was sold for ₦40,000 two weeks back is now ₦10, 000; representing a 75 per cent drop in the price of bell peppers.
While scotched bonnet (hot pepper) which was ₦50, 000 is now ₦16, 000; representing a 68 per cent drop in the price of the commodity.
Alhaji Saleh Maikudi, the Chairman of the Tomato Farmers Association from the Bula community, said farmers in the community were incurring huge losses daily.
According to him, a farmer or dealer loses daily, ₦9,000 per basket of tomato, ₦30,000 per bag of bell pepper and ₦34, and 000 per bag of hot pepper when compared with the price of the commodity two weeks back.
Maikudi, a 35-year-old farmer said the situation was frustrating as his members had resorted to begging buyers to patronise.
He said the fear of incurring huge post-harvest losses had made farmers and dealers beg customers in spite of the low price.
“This is why we are begging the Federal and the Gombe State Governments to come to our aid by providing processing facilities to prevent these losses and cut post-harvest losses.
“We have tomatoes and pepper in surplus now why not process and store them so we don’t experience scarcity of the commodity like we saw a few months back?
“Farmers are now frustrated and apprehensive because the prices are not showing any good sign that they will get returns on their investment in view of the huge cost of farming,” he said.
Malam Khalifa Bello, the Chairman of the Vegetables Sellers Association in the community, decried the huge monetary loss and post-harvest losses farmers in the community were facing.
He appealed to Governor Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State and private investors to assist farmers with mini-processing facilities to process tomatoes into paste or powder and package them in sachets or cans.
According to him, until the tomato value chain from planting, harvesting, processing, packaging and storage is harnessed, farmers in the state will not make enough profit from the vocation.
Bello attributed the drop in prices to the large quantities of the commodity being harvested from different farmlands in the community as they were at the peak of harvest.
He said more than 1, 500 baskets of tomato and 2, 000 bags of different types of pepper were being transported out of Bula community to various parts of the country daily.
NAN reports that a big basket of tomatoes was sold for as high as ₦150,000 in May.