BWARI (FCT) – Mrs Amina Haruna, the Chairman, Yam Traders Union, Bwari Central Market on Saturday decried the increase in transportation cost of farm produce, saying it would adversely affect their sales.
Haruna made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Bwari in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT).
She said that the sale of yams had substantially dropped from what it used to be in the area due to increased cost of transportation from the farms to the market and that had affected the price.
She said that the high cost of transportation was the cause of traders hiking their prices in the bid to avoid losses and make some profits.
“Yam is our main food; we cannot continue to meet the growing demand at present within the area due to increased cost of transportation.
“It takes time to transport yams from the farm to the market; by the time we arrive they would have gone bad, thereby reducing the value in the market.
“Even when we get the opportunity to transport them, the prices are always on the high side, we buy truck load of yams, which contains 100 tubers for N300, 000.
“As such the market price of a big size-tuber of yam that used to sell for N500 now goes for N1, 500 due to the difficulty we often experience to convey them to the market.”
Haruna said that although yam was a major agricultural farm produce mostly cultivated by farmers in the area, the traders in the market lacked adequate means to transport them cheaply to ensure profitable sales.
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“Yam is the king of agricultural crops; it can perish if not well preserved, especially when it is not taken to the market for sales in due time.
“This business is our only means of sustaining livelihood, especially at the home front of all the 150 members that make up the Yam Traders Union in this market.
“August is always the period for harvest of new yams, but many tubers can be damaged if we don’t transport them to where they could be preserved or sold early enough.
“Lack of means to convey our yams to the market has always been difficult for our businesses to thrive,” she said.
Haruna urged the local council authority to assist them through the provision of adequate tractors to transport their yams from the farm to promote the growth of the business.
She said that yam could be consumed as boiled yam or fried, it could also be pounded into a thick paste after boiling and consumed with soup. (NAN)
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