The price of ginger has jumped six times in two years, rising from N50, 000 per bag in 2023 to N300,000 in 2025.
Farmers attribute the price hike to low supply created by the devastating effects of the 2023 ginger blight disease, which resulted in N12 billion losses for Nigerian farmers.
Ginger blight, also known as tuber rot disease, often harms underground tubers, resulting in the withering of the aboveground part of the diseased plant.
The disease wreaked havoc on ginger farms in Kaduna and other states, with farmers losing up to 90 percent of their harvests. Kaduna is Nigeria’s largest ginger producer.
Joy Bauna, a ginger farmer from Jema’a Local Government Area of Kaduna State, lamented the loss.
“The disease spoilt our ginger as everything we had was rotten. I lost over N200,000. I could not replant in 2024 because I did not have any seedlings,” she said.
“Some of us did not get any government support, so we didn’t farm. If the price is over N300,000 per bag now, it will surely get worse, except the government is able to support all smallholder farmers with seedlings in the coming planting season,” she said.
A Nassarawa-based farmer, Christian Daudu, explained that he lost nearly all his crop to the disease.
Read also: Ginger farmers lost N12bn in 2023 – Minister
“I lost every crop I planted to the disease. So many of us lost everything and we may not be able to plant in the next planting season.”
Aliyu Sabi Abdullahi, minister of state, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security, said at a recent event that Nigeria’s ginger farmers incurred losses amounting to N12 billion due to the catastrophic blight epidemic that decimated their crops in 2023.
“Ginger farmers in Kaduna suffered immensely from the outbreak of the ginger blight disease, losing over 90 percent of their total harvest for the season. Only a few of those ginger farmers who took our insurance protection received monetary compensation for their harvest losses,” he said.
Nigeria is among the world largest producers of ginger, according to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FOA). The nation produces almost 523,000 metric tonnes annually and has 14 percent share in global production, according to the Nigerian Export Promotion Council (NEPC).
The nation’s ginger output is projected to keep growing at six percent per annum.
Major export destinations are Middle-Eastern and European markets.
“Around 90% of our production is exported. Our ginger especially stands out because of its pungency and high level of oleoresin oil, the active ingredient most people look for in ginger,” NEPC said.
Challenges remain
The Centre for the Promotion of Imports said the crop is stifled by low yields and post-harvest losses.
“The Nigerian ginger sector has been facing serious difficulties over the past years: low yields, high post-harvest losses, a lack of tech and of infrastructure (and know how) to improve processing and product quality, fierce competition from Asia, price fluctuations, poor organisation and an ineffective enabling institutional environment,” it noted.
Government intervention
Mohammed Ibrahim, executive secretary /CEO of the National Agricultural Development Fund (NADF), said at a recent event that not fewer than 5,000 ginger farmers across seven local government areas of Kaduna State had benefitted from the federal government’s free agricultural inputs as part of efforts to rejuvenate ginger farming after the devastating effect of the blight disease in 2023. The seven beneficiary local government areas are: Kachia, Zango-Kataf, Kaura, Kagarko, Jema’a, Jabba and Sanga.
“Also, as part of the Fund’s intervention support, the NADF has also supported the Illaj Ginger Factory in Kaduna as part of their Ginger Recovery Initiative. The initiative follows the formation of the Ginger Blight Epidemic Control Taskforce (GBECT), aimed to mitigate the devastating effects of the Ginger Blight Epidemic and re-establish Nigeria’s standing as a leading ginger producer,” he said.
He warned that Nigeria lost the 2023-2024 planting season and is at risk of losing the 2025 planting season and the export market.
“So, we have now invested and we are going to harvest early this year,” he said.
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