Fertiliser: Cow dung sellers make brisk businesses in Gombe

Cow dung sellers are making brisk businesses in Gombe State due to the high demand of the commodity occasioned by the hike in fertiliser prices as the cropping season sets in.

A check by the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) at the Gombe Central Abattoir on Monday showed that prices of cow dung had shot up by about 100 per cent since the commencement of the rainy season in the past few weeks.

NAN reports that farmers within and outside the state trooped to the abattoir in search of animal dung to be used as manure for their farmlands.

Also, there had been significant increase of digging activities around waste dump sites in Gombe and its environs, to extract sands which were being sold to farmers to nourish their farms.

A 100 kilogramme bag of cow dung was sold at N2,000 as against its old price of N1,000 before the rainy season.

A 50 kg bag of fertiliser was sold between N18,000 and N25,000 depending on its quality as against N10,000 it sold during the previous cropping season.

Traders at the abattoir attributed the hike in prices to increased patronage of cow dung by peasant farmers as most of them could not afford the exorbitant fertiliser prices in the markets.