Delta ginger farmers knock Govt for paying lip service to non-oil sector

…Decry huge yearly revenue loss due to lack of funding

…Lament inability of govt to take advantage of ginger blight in the north to develop the commodity in the south

…”We are not able to meet local consumption”

Ginger farmers in Delta State are recounting how they have been losing huge revenue yearly due to what they described as government’s lip service paid to the non-oil sector, especially agriculture and the value chain.

By their calculation, they would have been planting 2,000 hectares of ginger by now, garnering massive revenue yearly from ginger production and processing since 2023 when the association was inaugurated in the state. That has however been impossible due to lack of funding and neglect of the sector by both state and federal government.

Delta State and the entire South-South have arable and fertile land, there are farmers and processors but they are constrained by funding as government continue to focus more on politics rather than developing the agricultural sector, lamented Harrison Oppiah, the chairman, Delta State Chapter of Ginger Association of Nigeria.

He said “Two tonnes of ginger is needed to plant one hectare of land.That is 40 bags of 50kg of ginger bought at market price of N600,000 x 40, which is N24,000 million spent in cultivating a hectare of ginger farm per season of nine months.

“Now, harvesting the ginger, the yield per hectare is minimum of 20 tonnes, which is 400 bags. If you sell at the same price of N600,000/bag, it is 240million. If help had come, by now, we should have had at least 2,000 hectares of land.cultuvated because we operated a model – cluster farming where all farmers will be in one place. It’s a critical crop where standard and best practices would be followed.

We made efforts to even get land from communities and these communities till today are reaching out to us, asking when are we coming to cultivate in large quantities? We told them that we are still working towards it.

All efforts we’ve made for government to take advantage of ginger blight in the north to develop ginger in Delta State and the south have failed as government is paying lip service to the entire agric sector, he said.

Oppiah made the revelations in an exclusive interview with BusinessDay, recalling that it is three years since the association was inaugurated in Delta State and South-South by the national body, to contribute to the development of ginger for local consumption and export.

That vision is far from being realized as the over 1,000 members of the association can only boast of individually farming just a plot or a garden of ginger. Some plant at their backyards. Ginger farming here is still in small-scale, he said.

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We had trained our members on ginger cultivation, processing and the value chain and had our demonstration farm through the contribution of members. Due to lack of funding, our members have not been able to go into commercial farming.

“We’ve not been able to meet local consumption talkless of exporting the commodity, thus, we are unable to contribute to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of our state and country.

Both federal and state governments are paying lip service to agricultural sector, especially ginger farming.”

According to Oppiah, the most painful aspect is government supposed to take advantage of the ginger blight in the north to develop ginger as a commodity in the South but nothing has been done.

“Some of us are processing ginger to powder, some to juice, tea and drinks and all that. Members are financially constrained because to get ginger seed to plant is expensive as a bag of 50kg is selling at over N600,000. Therefore,, we have not done it in commercial quantity because of the cost implication”, explained Oppiah.

He said efforts made to access funds from commercial banks have also plunged the association into huge debts arising from money used in processing collatral that was not used.

He disclosed that crises at the national level that has rendered the national body of the association non-existent seemed to have orphaned the state branches but Oppiah said Delta chapter had to domicile it’s own Ginger and Tumeric Association with a Cooperative in 2024.

From seeking for N1 billion loan for ginger farmers in the state, Oppiah said if only the state government can intervene and support them with even N200 million, the loan would be paid back after a season of farming because there would be more profit to sustain members’ businesses as local market alone is able buy off the commodity.

He also called on investors to come their way and provide the funding while they provide the expertise.

“Delta State is supposed to be ginger hub. Even the national body observed that, and stated that the state and South-South should be hub for ginger export but till date, access to funds remains a big challenge.

In this country, Nigeria, everything they (political leaders) are doing as regards to Non-Oil Export and Agriculture is lip service. They are not looking the way of the right people they should push resources to.

“Delta State has arable and fertile soil good for ginger but they are not giving attention to it. The state government and whoever is hearing my voice should give me N200 million for my association, then watch and see what we will produce in one year, on ginger.

“Let’s forget about export for now and talk about the local market.
In the north today, there is ginger blight and federal government sent people there to find out what affected the ginger. It was discovered that it was just longtime use of the soil and chemical fertilizers, because they did all those things to improve the soil.

“If you want to cultivate organic ginger without fertilizer, come to the south. I don’t need it in my soil. What I need is my local manure mixed with the soil.

“Ginger root sent to the soil by March sprouts up with the rain and grows and matures in maximum of nine months. I don’t need irrigation, except I want to plant all year round including in dry season, then, I’ll need irrigation. It’s so fantastic over here.

“So, the government of Delta State should come and he)p us because it would enable us contribute to the growth of the economy. Economy is about human resources and the activities they put in to generate revenue for themselves.

“When I cultivate ginger and make gain, I go back to the market and buy things from people. People that I’m buying from pay tax, I too pay tax and government gets revenue. Money is not going to circulate if people are not producing anything.

The reason the economy is not booming is because people are not producing anything. They only collect money from the government, put in their pockets, buy cars and build houses”, he observed.

The moment those monies find their ways into proper agricultural practice, they are producing something and making gains, they pay tax and that is how the economy should boom, Oppiah concluded.