AGRICULTURE VALUE CHAIN IN BENUE STATE
BENUE FARMERS DECRY WASTED FARM PRODUCTS
Benue Farmers Decry food wastage
Raphael Mbaiorga
Benue State is Nigeria’s “Food Basket.” The state produces varieties of tubers, crops and fruits. According to Food and Agricultural Organization, Nigeria is the largest producer of yams in the world. The country accounted for over 65% (with 38 million metric tons) of the world production value at $7.75 billion and cultivated about 2.9 million hectares of land in 2012. Depending on the variety of yam products, its yield potential ranges from 20 to 50 tons per hectare. .
Many farmers cite food security and income generation as their reasons for engaging in yam farming. For 55 year old Shighsha Denen, he started his yam farm at the age of 17. He however regretted that in all these years, he can hardly take care of his family because of the poor economic value of the product.
He added that “Once it is harvesting season, off takers come pricing it very cheap and because this is our major source of income, all our family needs depend on whether we sell or not, and the children are waiting at home, so we must sell at poor prices.
Many yam farmers are worried that the products are usually sold too cheap and far too early to generate wealth even for those that may have engaged in the farming activities for decades. “The major problem has always been processing. Lack of processing facility in the state has denied the farmers good income.”
To Sena Ayangelumun, a yam farmer in Kwande who has being in the farming business for over thirty years, government can make life better for farmers. He said in all these years: “I have not received a single seedling or a bag of fertilizer as a palliative from the governmentt.”
Aondona Dura is a father of four, he said: “many of us here eat yam all day round. Yam is the main food we produce and is available for consumption and trading, especially during the harvest season.”
Yam production can be enhanced through mechanization. This has increased yield but the lack of machinery to process yam into finished products makes the chain unattractive for farmers.
According to the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture IITA, yam is an annual root tuber bearing plants with more than 600 species out of which six are economically viable for food, cash and medicine.
Yam is one of the most harvested crops in Nigeria alongside cassava, maize, guinea corn, and beans/cowpeas. According to the National Bureau of Statistics, yam and cassava are the most commonly harvested tubers in the country. It is very unfortunate that Benue State, the highest producer of yam in Nigeria does not have an industry that process yam. In the first four years of Mohammadu Buhari, then Minister for Agriculture Audu Ogbeh attempted exporting raw yam to Europe, but that did not go beyond trial.
It is proper if industries are established for yam processing to complete the agricultural value chain for the good of farmers, traders and consumers. As it stands, the farmers are operating at a lost in respect to the wasted yam products on yearly basis.
