NCX’s trading floor will boost farm produce sales – Farmers

Farmers in some parts of Northern Nigeria have expressed hope that the commodity market being introduced to them by the Nigeria Commodity Exchange (NCX) will aid the sales of farm produce and boost their incomes.

The farmers, mostly from Benue, Plateau and Jigawa states, bore their minds after receiving capacity training on the use of commodity market through the NCX’s trading floor.

The training, organised by the NCX, was sponsored by some members of House of Representatives as part of their constituency projects and it aimed at exposing the farmers to more convenient and profitable ways of selling their farm produce.

One of the farmers in Benue, who gave her name as Blessing, said she was not aware of the existence of the commodity market prior to the training but expressed joy that with such trading platform, farming would be great again in the country.

A mother of two, Mrs Joseph, who was at the training, commended the NCX for the awareness and urged relevant authorities to support the leadership of the Exchange to make it more vibrant.

NCX’s head of communication, Mr. Chris Echikwu, in his presentation at the Benue training said the commodity exchange would help to protect farmers against inherent risks in agricultural produce marketing through hedging in the exchange as well as address the problem of products quality while the opportunity would increase funding for agricultural activities and at a reduced cost.

One of the farmers, who participated in Plateau training, Pengvel K. Sandra from Dertend Ward, Shendam Local government, said she learned how to set up warehouse and trading system operations under NCX.

A farmer at the Jigawa training centre, who gave his name simply as Mohammed, said with what he learnt at the training, it was better for farmers to trade at the NCX’s trading floor to avoid been short changed.