Farmers in Nasarawa, Plateau, Kaduna and Federal Capital Territory, have recorded a huge loss of N12bn following the outbreak of blight, a fungi disease also known as ginger tuber rot disease which affects mainly underground tubers.
This was confirmed by the Minister of State Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security Sabi Abdullah on Monday in Abuja during the inauguration of a multifaceted National Ginger Blight Epidemic Control Taskforce.
Abdullahi said the international market demand for ginger from Nigeria in 2030 stood at $6.29 billion from the $ 4.16 billion demanded in 2013. However, he lamented that an N12bn loss was recorded in southern Kaduna which produces 85 per cent of the country’s ginger exportation.
According to him, this may affect the country’s position as the world’s second-largest producer of ginger. The pandemic, if not properly tackled, would affect the subsector’s contribution to the agricultural gross domestic product earnings.
He said, “Our preliminary estimates suggest that ginger farmers from Southern Kaduna lost over a billion”, adding that 85 per cent of ginger production takes place in this region.
Abdullahi further appealed to Nigerian farmers to avoid the importation of seeds without going through the Nigeria Agricultural Quarantine Service(NAQS), to forestall the importation of crop diseases into the country.
The minister assured that the government would support ginger farmers to prevent future recurrence, adding that the livelihoods of the affected farmers would be provided with relief materials to cushion the impact of the damage on the commodity.
Revealing the support, he said, N1.6 billion Recovery Funds would be launched on Wednesday, March 27, 2024, in Kaduna State to support farmers in the ginger-producing states.
Assuring the task force’s commitment to tackle the pandemic, the Chairman of the National Ginger Blight Epidemic Control Taskforce, Abubakar Abdullahi, who is also the Director of Federal Department of Agriculture, said “It is of necessity and great urgency that various subcommittees are put in place to forestall these negative effects,”.
The National Taskforce is made up of researchers, extension service agents, farmers and other critical stakeholders drawn from the agricultural value chain.
