Some tomato and pepper farmers and dealers in the Bula community, Akko Local Government of Gombe State, are facing economic challenges as tomato prices drop by 90 per cent in two weeks.

A correspondent who visited the community on Thursday observed that hundreds of baskets of tomatoes and bags of pepper were displayed for sale in the market.

Farmers and dealers were observed persuading customers to patronise their commodity.

As of Thursday, a big basket of tomatoes in the community was N1,000 as against N10,000 two weeks ago; this represents a 90 per cent drop in price.

A bag of bell peppers (Tatashe), sold for N40,000 two weeks back, is now N10,000, representing a 75 per cent drop in price.

The scotched bonnet (hot pepper), which was N50,000, is now N16,000, representing a 68 per cent drop in the commodity’s price.

Saleh Maikudi, the chairman of the Tomato Farmers Association from the Bula community, said farmers were incurring huge losses daily.

According to him, a farmer or dealer loses N9,000 per basket of tomato, N30,000 per bag of bell pepper and N34,000 per bag of hot pepper daily compared with the commodity’s price two weeks back.

Mr Maikudi, a 35-year-old farmer, said the situation was frustrating as his members had resorted to begging buyers to patronise.

He said the fear of incurring huge post-harvest losses had made farmers and dealers beg customers despite the low price.

“This is why we are begging the federal and the Gombe State governments to come to our aid by providing processing facilities to prevent these losses and cut post-harvest losses.

“We have tomatoes and pepper in surplus now; why not process and store so we don’t experience scarcity of the commodity like we saw a few months back?

“Farmers are now frustrated and apprehensive because the prices are not showing any good sign that they will get returns on their investment in view of the huge cost of farming,” he said.

Khalifa Bello, the chairman of the Vegetables Sellers Association in the community, decried the huge monetary and post-harvest losses farmers were facing.

He appealed to Governor Inuwa Yahaya of Gombe State and private investors to assist farmers with mini-processing facilities to process tomatoes into paste or powder and package them in sachets or cans.

According to him, farmers will not make enough profit from the vocation until the tomato value chain from planting, harvesting, processing, packaging and storage is harnessed.

Mr Bello attributed the price drop to the large quantities of the commodity being harvested from different farmlands as they were at the peak of harvest.

He said more than 1,500 baskets of tomatoes and 2,000 bags of different types of pepper were transported from the Bula community to various parts of the country daily.

A big basket of tomatoes was sold for as high as N150,000 in May.

(NAN)