A cross section of wheat farmers in Jigawa on Monday lamented the drop in prices of wheat in markets across the state. The farmers told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Dutse that the fall in prices was worrisome.
Sadiku Kafin-Gana in Birninkudu local government area of the state told NAN that a bag of wheat had dropped from N26, 000 to N14, 000. Kafin-Gana explained that the sharp reduction in prices was due to the increase in supply of the product in the markets.
According to him, this development is affecting them seriously because a lot of resources were invested in production. Sanusi Adamu at Warwade village in Dutse told NAN that if government did not intervene, they would be discouraged from cultivating wheat in the area.
Adamu said that the the story was however different in the case of rice as rice farmers were making money from the sales of their produce. Another farmer, Sani Ringim of Sintilmawa village, said a bag of wheat had dropped in his area, from N27, 000 sold last year, to N15, 000 presently.
Ringim urged both state and Federal Government to quickly intervene to save wheat farmers from huge loss. He disclosed that buyers from various places had been coming in droves to buy wheat at cheap price to create artificial scarcity with the intent to selling at high price in future.
Meanwhile, a large scale farmer in the state, Abdulmum Godito, had expressed optimism that the prices of wheat would stabilise over time. Godito however appealed to government to help the farmers control the price to prevent them from incurring loss.
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