14th December, 2018
Onion Farmers in Kirikasamma Local Government Council of Jigawa on Friday attributed poor sales of onion in the area to the deplorable condition of the Kukadabu-Gayin-Matafari road.
Speaking in Kirikasamma, they said that the poor state of the 5-km road had hindered the easy movement of the commodity to the market.
Mallam Hassan Mohammed, one of the farmers in Gayin, said a large chunk of onions often got rotten because there were no vehicles to transport them to the market in Hadejia and Dutse.
“As you can see, we produce a large quantity of onions here, but the commodity often gets rotten as truck drivers do not like coming here because of the bad road,” he said.
Another onion farmer at Kukadabu, Ismaila Jaji, said the quantity of onions dispatched to the market from the area was below its potential.
“This road is very important to us because at least 15 trucks of onions are dispatched to the market every week.
“But the figure is grossly inadequate because we have the potential of dispatching between 30 to 35 trucks to the market weekly.
“Again, dispatching the 15 trucks I talked about is only achievable because the rains have stopped falling otherwise the condition of the road will be worse and fewer trucks will come here,” he said.
Yahaya Musa, another onions farmer in Matafari, said the deplorable state of the road caused unnecessary delay in moving the goods as the trucks often broke down, especially during the rainy season.
He appealed to government at all levels to urgently rehabilitate the road.
“If the road is renovated, it will assist the farmers in transporting not only onions to the market, but also rice, sesame and maize, which are produced in large quantities in this area,” he said.
When contacted, the Council’s Vice Chairman, Alhaji Alasan Matafari, acknowledged that the road needed urgent renovation to open up the agrarian community.
He, however, said the council had no sufficient funds to embark on such project.
“Unfortunately, executing a project of this magnitude is beyond our capacity.
“Nevertheless, we have informed the appropriate authorities about the state of the road and it is our hope that they will come to our aid soon.
“Let me once again appeal to both the State and the Federal Governments to rehabilitate this road to minimise the suffering of our people,” he said.