Two weeks back, I couldn't make my regular pot of stew because heck! There were no tomatoes available at the local market. I'm not even playing, I have this woman I buy tomatoes from at the market and two weeks ago her shop wasn't open. That was quite strange, she was hardly ever missing. I asked one of her neighbors of her whereabouts and I was told she couldn't get any tomatoes to sell, that was why she didn't open. I checked around the market, still there was no sign of tomatoes. Now last week, I thought everything was going to be over, I went back to the market to buy tomatoes again and it was a different story. Tell me why I was told 4 tomatoes was worth 1k, I mean 1,2,3,4 tomatoes! Things are out of hand already
It's not just about tomatoes though, food items in general have gotten outrageously expensive in recent times. Coming online, you'll see that the issues have also been making rounds. Some tweeted that everyone should get a little garden for growing tomatoes and pepper and another replied, "growing tomatoes for months only to use the whole harvest for a pot of stew". In his point of view, it's not all that worth it.
Coming from the Eastern part of Nigeria, I noticed that a lot of the food items that are available at the market are mostly coming from the North. Anytime the Northerners are having their festivals or holidays and they don't come to market to sell, it will be harder to get some food items, especially root crops like potatoes, yam and the likes. People over here are more business-oriented than they are at agriculture. We have people who are also into Agriculture from the East, but it's just a minimum percentage.
If there can be more people who farm and produce food crops, then I think more food will be available at the market. For example, cassava is the most grown plant in the East because we eat garri and fufu so much over here. During the harvest season, garri becomes significantly cheaper because a lot of farmers will be bringing in their goods for sell. Therefore if, more people produce more food crops, then more food will be available at affordable prices.
Another thing that makes food appear to be expensive at the market is very poor road networks. For example, farmers in rural areas who may want to transport their goods to towns for sell may pay a lot of money for transport if the roads are bad. I've had a seller vent to me how hard it is for them to transport both their good and themselves to the market, causing them to add the cost to the things they sell, and there you have it, things become more and more expensive. During weekends like this over here, we always see big trucks filled up with tubers of yam, tomatoes and the rest. Most times, some of these trucks have no way of conveying these items to the market because the roads are so bad that they can't even think of it.
A lot of local farmers who produce food crops in large quantities often face the breakout pests most of the times and may not have the knowledge of the right pesticides or other pest control methods to keep the situation regulated, leading to a great loss during the harvest season. Other arising problems may be from the lack of improved seeds or fertilizers for plant to yield more produce. The government can organise empowerment programs to help large scale farmers gain access to the knowledge of these new methods of farming and also equip them with the right modern technological equipments for more efficient agriculture.
The reason why a lot of people are not venturing into agriculture is because they see it as a layman's work, forgetting that without food survival will be very difficult. How are we supposed to get the food if nobody wants to do some farming? During my days in highschool, we had days where we do practical agriculture on our teachers farmland. It was a government owned school, so it was very normal for teachers to have their own piece of land. That was where I got more experience with farming aside from the little garden we have back home. Therefore, promoting agricultural education in school will help to change the regular mindset people have that agriculture is a work for the poor.
We may still need to keep running low on food and getting the available ones at expensive prices at the market, if individuals are not willing to take a part in growing some food either for themselves or for commercial purposes. If the government refuse to provide good roads for farmers and empower them through training, then maybe things may not get any better. For a food secure future, work needs to be done on both ends.
Images are mine
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