Abba Hamisu Sani
Africa-Press – Nigeria. As the new farming season is fast approaching, farmers of rice are not finding it easy due to the high cost of inputs like seed and fertilizer even though some reports indicate that the cost of paddy rice is coming down.
The development which is expected to affect the price of rice seedlings is found to be just on the pages of newspapers as some of the real farmers in different parts of Nigeria said it is just propaganda..
Benue Farmers lamented their present situation
Farmers from Benue state which is tagged as the Food Basket of the nation expressed fear over the high cost of paddy rice and the seed expected to be used in the upcoming farming season.
Some farmers, millers, and dealers of rice are worried about the continued hike in the price of paddy as they said it may spell doom for production in the coming season except steps are taken urgently to reverse the trend.
Available data shows that paddy, which stood between 65,000 and 72,000 per bag, had steadily risen in the past few weeks even in the local markets and is now sold between 76,000 and 110,000.
Vitalis Tarmongu is a high scale farmer. He expressed worry that the steady rise of paddy would portend danger for smallholder farmers, who may not be able to buy seed for production in the next season.
“I saw it in newspaper headlines that the price of the paddy was dropping but that is not so in Benue State. On the last Gbajimgba market day (about a week) in Guma Local Government Area, it was even sold at 95,000 per bag. At Naka market in Gwer West Local Government Area rice is about 110,000 per bag.
There is no place in Benue where the price of rice has gone down. The high cost of input might be responsible for the increase in the price.
As we speak, there is no input that farmers can access at 4000 naira. There is no Glyphosate that farmers can access at 4000 naira, they are all above that amount per liter. And the cost of production for a hectare now is being charged at almost 65,000 as against 35,000 before.
What this portends for rice farming is a great danger ahead as most peasant farmers wouldn’t be able to cultivate even one hectare of rice, except with government intervention. As I speak to you right now, the rice seeds are being sold at 1,800 per kilogram” The large-scale farmer stated in an interview with Daily Trust.
Farmers fear ahead of the 2024 farming season
Fidelis Iyorumgwa Akosu is a rice specialist and Chairman of the Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) Benue State chapter. He said that paddy had been on the rise in the state because of the high cost of diesel and other expensive inputs in the market.
The price of rice paddy is going up in Benue. They are now selling at 500 per kilogram. Depending on the quality, some are selling at 7,000 per bag. Paddy is available but the price is too high. Things are too expensive, but people are making an effort.
“Diesel is 1,700 per liter, so the issue of fertilization becomes high. People are thinking about 5,000 per hectare for plowing alone. And the traveling cost is very high. So, when one goes to buy rice as high as 76,000 and still talks about transportation, you can imagine what would happen. I produce seeds and I am selling at 1,200 per kilogram. My price is moderate, some people are selling higher.
The Federal government is expected to make things safer for people to have inputs at subsidized rates,” Akosu said.
In the same vein, a rice miller, Ichor Michael Tersoo, maintained that the high cost of paddy had forced many entrepreneurs to close shop in recent times because of thin profit margins.
Presently paddy is something else, not that it is scarce but the price is so high that the profit margin is very low for millers to break through. A bag of paddy is 80,000, and when you add transportation to your location, it would rise to 83,000.
When you look at the profit you are getting nothing because you parboil, get firewood, and water, and pay those parboiling, the profit margin is low, so not many people can cope.
There are bigger bags that could give one about four and a half tins of rice, that’s the one going for 95,000 and above. We are hoping that by June, the price may drop a bit as we move toward the planting season when people begin to sell their produce to use the money for farming.
The other day, I saw on the news that it was dropping in another state, but it is not reflecting in Benue. We are just hoping that it could be down here too. Even though now people are not so much buying paddy because of the high price, not everyone can afford it ” The RIFAN chairman said.
To end this piece is to advise the government at the state and national level to provide a means that will assist the rice and other commodities farmers in order to prevent the high inflation of food as input costs are getting higher day by day.
These interventions should be given on time so that farmers can use them for the coming season which has already begun even though it is coming late in places like North Centra which usually starts earlier.
More subsidies to all farmers is the only solution, if not the food insecurity presently experienced will be aggravated in turn will affect the fragile security situation at the moment.
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