While cost of operation is no longer bearable for many, transporting crops from the farm gates to warehouses and markets has become a major challenge for others. And just as the development has caused an increase in the prices of farm produce, investigations showed that the farmers are also running into losses due to lack of patronage.
“Honestly, it has a very negative impact on farming activities because our operations in most cases centre on usage of fuel. For instance, you can discharge water from the pond in most cases by gravity but you cannot use gravity to bring in water into the pond or into the tank; you have to pump water.
“You have to aerate, and also provide oxygen; all these require use of fuel. The farm hands living on the farm have to reach out to their families, they need to charge their handset, they need to use fuel,” says the President, Tilapia Aquaculture Developers Association, Nigeria (TADAN), Remi Ahmed.
Ahmed noted that in terms of logistics, his farm workers, who usually use fuel of N600 for their motorbike from the farm to the market, now use fuel of N3, 000.
“To pump water, we normally use N2, 000 worth of fuel daily, we are now using N7, 000 fuel. Honestly, the development has made mess of our operations, we don’t even know whether to continue or not. I have been thinking of how to wind up a lot of our operations, it’s like working without making profit.
“We increased the price of the fishes, but we are still not comfortable. Though we are producing a luxury product – Tilapia, which is regarded as a big man’s food, buyers are no longer coming. As small as the 20kg that I took out for some people was, none was bought because we now fix the price at N3, 000 per kg, up from the previous price of N2, 000 per kg.
“The price increase does not even cover anything from our operations because the appropriate price for a kilogramme should be N5, 000, but we left it on N3, 000 because there is no buyer.”
Ahmed noted that in other climes, in this type of situation, farmers are given special prices because food must be available for everybody, noting that this is the reason government needs to place farmers in a special class.
“We have cut down our level of operation. In the morning, we normally aerate for between three to four hours, but we have reduced it to 30 minutes, we have also reduced the time in the evening too to 30 minutes, which as a matter of fact is not enough for these fishes, but there’s nothing we can do. Sadly, we have been recording a lot of mortality.
“Now, we have to scale down and if we scale down, it means we have to scale down the number of farm hands in the long run. I usually visit the farm daily; I have reduced it to once a week. All these are having negative impacts on our operations because there are lots of things that cannot be done on the farm without a competent hand.”
The TADAN President said unless something drastic is done urgently, he might be forced to quit farming, noting that many farmers are already closing down.
“Before this period, we have been battling with high cost of feeds. Just last week, I learnt that one of the brands has increased its price again because they were affected by the fuel hike; it is certain that all feed producers will follow suit,” he said.
The CEO/Founder, Pepperrest Farms Limited, Oluwatosin Johnson, said the effect of the development has been far-reaching.
“Though we have a renewable energy source at Pepperrest Farm, we have had to increase our budget for fuel purchases to cover instances where we can not utilise solar power. The implication of this is the slight increase in the price of our produce.
“It has also affected the cost of transportation to the open market. If you add the extra cost on the cost from the farm and the addition to the transaction cost, the consumer will have to pay a lot more for the produce than before,” Johnson noted.
While noting that the consequence of the pump price is high cost of food, which is already too high, Johnson said a kilogramme of coloured bell peppers, previously selling between N1, 700 and N2, 000, now sells for between N2, 200 and N3, 000.
“Although, raising the prices helps a little, but ultimately, profit per sale has reduced. Even more significantly, the buying power of end consumers has reduced. The result of this is a lot of produce in the market and not as many buyers as before,” he added.
