Good Day,
This week has been a fleeting one. The rains have been a welcome blessing but has hindered a lot of harvest. Talking of harvests, the food prices this year have been extremely erratic. Even with the high number of people that have engaged in agriculture this year, the food costs are still rising. Rice is becoming a problem with bags going for 16 – 18 thousand naira. Plantains are just beginning to show up at the markets and yams! Well let’s not even go there.
Vegetable though are offering a little respite to the community. The prices of tomato is down, Okro is very affordable and leafy greens are really enjoying the rains. After the rains come the hard the challenge. Irrigation still isn’t as widely practised by farmers across the country as it should be. Agriculture still has alot of way to go in Nigeria before we are touted as the solution to the economic recession we are currently experiencing. Talking of economies and agriculture, some mind-blowing facts I came across recently was how Brazil’s income from sugarcane this year has surpassed our income from oil sale. Seriously sugarcane!! Wal-Mart’s sales in a year is equivalent to a sum of Nigeria’s budget in a ten year period ! I would have to stop there. Statistics are dangerous when not treated with context. Even with Brazil’s enormous export from sugarcane, poverty levels are still high and developmental challenges still rife. Agriculture is important but so too is conducive economic environment created by policies that work. The erratic food prizes are a reflection of our economic reality. Until Agriculture is developed to incorporate cutting edge technology mixed with indigenous farming practice we would still find our children complaining of the same things we complained about.
On our farm irrigation has helped us extend the seasons even with significantly higher costs on fossil fuels to power our water pumps.
With our bio-intensive system in place we believe we would continue to be able to provide you with high quality affordable vegetables all year round. We pray you stay healthy, happy and blessed in this turbulent times and continue to support local farmers.
Kind Regards
Kabir O Ademoh
fresh daily 