The Onion Producers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria has attributed the recent hike in the price of Onions across markets the country to the 2024 floods and climate change.
The National President of the Association, Mr Aliyu Isah, disclosed this, in an interview on Sunday in Lagos.
During the interview, Isah explained that the floods that ravaged various parts of Northern Nigeria last year destroyed many onion farms, hence the upsurge in the price of onions and scarcity that was witnessed from Q4 2024 into the new year
Currently, a bag of onions currently sells for between N250,000 and N270,000 as against N70,000 and N90,000 per bag in previous quarters. In some locations, it goes for as much s N300,000. A medium-sized bulb of the produce reportedly sells at N500 as against N50 per bulb.
Isah blamed the hike in onion price on the low production of the produce as a result of the floods and other factors such as climate change.
“What caused the scarcity and high cost of onions from the last quarter of 2024 till now is as a result of the flooding,”he said. “The flooding of 2024 that ravaged all our onion farms, from the producing bed of Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, up to Adamawa states resulted in the scarcity of the produce,”.
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Speaking further, he said “We also had the problem affecting onion production with the release of water from dams from the northern states,”. “In Sokoto, the water was released from Goroyo Dam, and when it got to a certain level it affected the onion beds from Sokoto, Kebbi and up to Zamfara states,”.
On the effect of climate change, he said extended rainfall was witnessed last year and it affected onion farmers. He added that there was a disease outbreak that also contributed to the low production.
“The second issue affecting scarcity and the high cost of onions is that we experienced an extended and high level of rainfall up north in 2024.
“So, the high amount of rainfall resulted in high humidity which resulted in a disease outbreak popularly called Downy Mildew, which destroyed most of our onion farms at various stages of cultivation.
“Some onion farms were affected at seedling stage, some at nursery stage, some when we were even about to harvest the onion,” the association president said.
He further explained that onion seedlings were scarce last year and that also affected yields. He alleged that some “unpatriotic Nigerians imported adulterated onion seed into the country and now our farmers are counting their losses because they planted a seed that cannot produce a bulb.”
He continued: “The third is the issue of unavailability of the produce due to lack of improved onion seedlings. “The factors of flooding and climate change have affected and disrupted our local seed production system. We do not have sufficient and quality onion seedlings, so we now rely on hybrid seeds that we import from foreign countries.
“The issue of flooding really affected onion seed production so local farmers could not get enough seed to buy. This situation also resulted in the unavailability of onions. From the fourth quarter of 2024, our farmers with their money, could not see seed to buy,”.
Story was adapted from Nairametrics.
