Some ginger farmers in the Bwari Area Council of the FCT have lamented the scarcity of viable ginger roots/seedlings for planting following the 2023 infectious attack on the crop.
The farmers, in separate interviews on Wednesday in Bwari, Abuja, said the situation had left them skeptical and almost hopeless about producing ginger in 2024.
Recounting his loss, one of the farmers, Mr Philip Akuso, said the disease that ravaged the plant in 2023 left them with little or no yield to reproduce in the next planting season.
He said that since the causes and solutions to the challenge were still unknown, farmers like himself, who salvaged some seedlings, were unsure of the output to expect if they planted.
“Many of us have no hope of farming ginger this year.
“We would love to have what to plant because it is our source of income, but we do not have good roots preserved from our last harvest to replant.
“This is because of last year’s major attack on ginger that cost farmers a lot of losses.
“Very few of us were able to salvage something. At least, I got a bag as compared to over 30 bags I used to harvest in the past; some got nothing at all,” he said.
Akuso urged stakeholders to find an immediate solution before the end of the planting season to forestall a repeat of the incident on one of the nation’s major cash crops.
Similarly, another farmer, Mr Somo Yakubu, said he was hopeful that a remedy to the situation would soon be made available to farmers.
Yakubu, while recounting his experience, said some farmers in the area noticed signs of the infection in 2022 but did not take it seriously until it manifested in 2023.
“We noticed dryness at the tips of the ginger leaves sometime in 2022 but since we did not know what it was and it did not affect the roots, we did not take it seriously.
“Now, we don’t have what to replant. I couldn’t even save anything, and ginger is the only crop I have cultivated in the last 10 years or more.
“Some of us are really stranded because we are unsure of what to do at the moment,” he said.
Yakubu said that those who were able to harvest a good yield in 2023 now sell at exorbitant prices.
According to him, a bag of ginger that was sold between N45,000 and N70,000 in November and December 2023 is now being sold between N130,000 and N150,000 in Bwari.
Another farmer, Mr Silas Agwom, opined that the situation needed a swift response that should involve all stakeholders.
Agwom called for the funding of relevant agencies and research institutes to help in providing necessary intervention for the commodity, especially at the commercial production level.
An outbreak of a ‘fungi pathogen’ in southern Kaduna affected the production of ginger in the area, causing ginger farmers losses to the tune of N10 billion.
NAN
