Fungi threaten Nigeria’s position as second-largest ginger producer

Kaduna-South Senator, Sunday Marshall Katung, has warned that Nigeria may lose her position in the global market as the second-largest producer of ginger, if farmers are not compensated due to the fungal disease that inflicted their farmlands in parts of the country.

Recall that the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Aliyu Abdullahi, confirmed the outbreak of ginger blight epidemic in Kaduna, Nasarawa, Plateau, and the Federal Capital Territory, which negatively affected ginger farmers’ output. Katung said preliminary estimates showed that affected farmers in southern Kaduna alone lost over N12 billion.

The senator, who spoke at a one-day workshop, organised by the Senate Committee on Capital Market, in collaboration with Lagos Commodities and Future Exchange, lamented that ginger farmers might not return to farming as the rainy season approached, if they were not compensated for the loss they incurred during the outbreak of the disease.

Katung further expressed worries that if the ginger farmers were not encouraged  by way of compensation, Nigeria might lose her position in the global stage as second largest producers of the commodity.
[ad]