Pepper farmers blame climate change for low yield

Taraba farmers decry high cost of inputs

Climate change has adversely affected the fortunes of pepper farmers in Bauchi, North East Trust reports.

An irrigation farmer who is into pepper production, Ishaq Mailabu Zango, told North East Trust that many farmers suffered losses from their farms due to flooding and extreme weather caused by climate change.

“Sometimes when the river overflows into our farms, one has to replant again if seeds are available but in the event that seeds are not available, one has to bear with the situation.”

Zango explained that there are many other factors affecting their production during the dry season but the major challenge they have is recurring flooding.

“The moment we see the sky gets pregnant, (cloud) we have our hearts in our mouths out fear of the unknown. Even this year, I learnt that there is a prediction of possible flood in the state.”

Another farmer who had been practising irrigation along the Gwallaga stream for the past 20 years, Malam Ibrahim Baraza said global warming has already knocked on their doors and gradually crippling production of many agricultural products in the state.

“We use to hear about global warming mostly on foreign media but it has now knocked on our doors. The effect of the climate is fast changing the

Farmers in Taraba state have complained over the rising cost of farm inputs.

The farmers said prices of farm inputs were much higher than last year and it has increased the cost of farming.

A farmer, Mallam Manu lware, said last year a bag of NPK and Urea fertilizer sold at N8000 and 10,000, respectively but it is now going for N12,000 and N15,000.

Manu also said that the prices of agrochemicals, including pest and weed chemicals, had increased.

He said a litre of pest chemicals was sold between N700 and N1200, which now goes for fortunes of pepper farmers and their families. These ugly trends spelled doom in the coffers of the farmers owing to low and poor yields particularly at this time when the economy bites harder,” he said.

Baraza explained that the nature of the soil on which they have been practising the age-long business has altered from being black fertile to poor sandy soil which is not good at moisture retention.

He said he now spent a lot of money to buy fuel he uses to water his farm at an interval of not more than two days because of the loamy nature of the soil he irrigates.

He also revealed that pests are oftentimes on the spat because the weather has become between N1200 and N2000.

Another farmer, Auwal Bello, said the rise in the prices of farm inputs would affect the cost of production.

According to him, the rise in the prices may be a result of more people going into agriculture this year.

He said fertilizer and agro chemicals are in high demand and dealers are exploiting the farmers by increasing prices.

Auwal stated further that the cost of hiring tractors has gone up this year.

A dealer in fertilizer and agro chemicals, Musa Haruna, blamed the dealers in Kano, Lagos and Port Harcourt for the increase.

He also attributed the increase to the hike in transportation cost. conducive for them to survive on their pepper leaving them with no option but to expend more resources on pest control through the application of herbicides and pesticides to save what was planted to avoid total failure.

Baraza further disclosed that the climate change had compelled them to change the planting period. “The time at which we plant pepper now is not the same we were planting in the past.

``In those days we used to transplant pepper to the site from the nursery around February but today you cannot dare try that because you will end up wasting your time, energy and resources without getting anything,”

The state Chairman of all Farmers Association, Mr.Bala Aji confirmed that the cost of farming inputs has gone up this farming season.

Mr Aji stated that the lockdown as a result of COVID-19 resulted in the closure of agrochemicals industries and also stopped movement of ships into the country.

He said there is also a high demand of agrochemicals because of increase in the number of people that are into farming.

He said the increase in the price of farm inputs will increase the cost of production, which at the end will further cause high prices of food stuffs in the country.