Bad Roads Hinder Evacuation Of Farm Produce

Tomato farmers in Hawul Local Government Area of Borno have appealed to the state government to provide them an access road to evacuate their produce to the market.

The spokesman for the farmers, Alhaji Adamu Ali  made the appeal on Monday in an interview with newsmen at Sabon-Kasuwa village market in Hawul.

He said farmers in the area produced large quantities of tomatoes daily but that most of the harvest was wasted because of difficulties in transporting the produce to the city.

“The farmers produce large quantities of tomatoes daily, especially during the rainy season.

“An average farmer produces a minimum of 10 baskets daily, while the community produces hundreds of baskets, but most of these get wasted for lack of transportation and storage facilities,” he said.

Ali said a minimum of 200 baskets of tomatoes were taken to Sabon-Kasuwa market daily.

“The problem is that only about half of the produce is sold, the rest get wasted for the lack of storage facilities.

“Few buyers come from neighbouring towns, like Gombe, Damaturu and even Maiduguri, but the poor conditions of the roads discourage them from coming regularly,” he said.

Ali said transport owners attributed the hike in the cost of transporting the produce to other areas to the poor condition of the road.

He urged the government to provide storage facilities for the farmers to check their losses.