Paddy price remains high despite early wet season harvests
Melon stays at all-time low
Despite the harvest of dry season rice and the beginning of the early wet season harvests across the country, the price of paddy rice is still high, heightening concerns that prices may remain so for months to come.
The price of 100-110 kg bag remains between N22,000 and N25,000 across major markets particularly in Nasarawa and parts of Benue and Kogi states.
These prices have been stable at that range since the beginning of COVID-19 lockdown, which affected agricultural production and shutdown of rural economies.
The pandemic pushed up the prices of rice to an all-time high in many decades and farmers who stored their rice witnessed a sudden change in their fortunes.
Ayuba Audu, who sold four bags of early wet season rice harvest last week, expressed extreme delight over what he realised from just four bags (N94,000) in Doma, Nasarawa.
“I regretted why I did not farm this rice plenty,” he said, adding that he had never got such a “huge” amount from just four bags of a crop in his entire life.
Reports from different rice production communities indicated that the price of paddy rice is still high- between N18,000 and N24,000 per 100 kg or 120 kg bag.
Melon farmers, aggregators weeping
While rice farmers make money, those who invested in melon are wailing as the price remains at record low.
The current price stands at between N16,000 to N25,000 per bag, depending on the size of the bag which ranges from 100 kg to 150 kg.
Those who stored last year are still struggling to find prices that will minimise their huge loses, but the harvest of new ones which began last month jeopardizes that prospect.
A farmer said he sold his truck and stored melon worth N3 million at N35,000 per bag. But the price collapsed to N17,000, and he could not sell till now.
“Sometimes, I feel like crying,” the 52-year-old said, hoping that the prices would go to even the cost he bought them in the months to come.
The good thing, he said, is that a farmer can store the crop for up to two years and it will still be in good condition.
Similarly, Mrs. Suzan Godwin and Caroline Abimiku bought melon last year at a high price but still could not sell because the current market value is very low.