Citrus farmers are worried over ripened oranges everywhere in Benue State without adequate buyers to curb spoilage.
Some orange farmers in Otukpo Local Government Area have lamented that their oranges are wasting away on the trees without anyone coming to price them, talk less of purchasing the fruit as in other years.
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Mrs Enewa Agbo of Obotu village in Otukpo LGA pointed at the orange orchard beside her compound as she expressed worry that the trees brought forth abundant orange fruits which are presently rotting away.
“In other years, those who retail oranges or middle men would have since bought all the fruits on the trees but since the past two years, precisely 2020 and 2021, we haven’t seen them come around to buy them.
“I don’t know what is responsible for this. It’s however worrisome to see these ripe oranges rotting away on the trees. Every morning, I wake up to sweep away plenty good and bad oranges which fell from the trees over the night,” she said.
Another orange orchard owner in Obotu village, Agnes Peter, said sweet oranges found everywhere in her vicinity are rotting away and if by stroke of luck, a buyer comes along, the oranges are sold at extremely cheap prices.
“If we get a buyer now, a tree could be sold for N1000 or N800. A bag of orange could be sold at some markets for N500 or lower when there are no buyers as well.
“This year, I haven’t found a buyer yet and that’s why the oranges are rotting away. It’s such a pathetic situation for us. Even if you transport them to the market, you will lose out at the end of the day when there are no buyers,” Peter said.
Similarly, Henry Iorkyase, who has an orange orchard in his home town of Buruku LGA of the state, disclosed that buyers for his already ripe oranges are scarce.
“My oranges had been due since December but we haven’t got any buyers. If it stays that way until February ending, the fruits will dry up for lack of water.
“I’m particularly worried because it appears to me that I have made a wrong investment,” he added.
On his part, an orange farm owner in Vandekiya who lives in Makurdi, Cephas Iornem, said that patronage for oranges had really dropped compared to four years ago when buyers came from all parts of the country including Maiduguri, Kano, Imo, Ogun, Taraba and Lagos states to make purchases in lorries from his farm.
He said that majority of the Vandekiya people own orange farms and have boys who worked as intermediaries to sell the produce to buyers from Nigeria southeast and northern states.
“But, in recent years, the patronage had dropped. Those people scarcely come to buy our oranges anymore,” he said.
The orange farmers across the state are indeed having a bad time as many of them see the lack of market for their produce, especially in recent years, as discouraging.
Benue State, being blessed with all manner of fruits such as mangoes, oranges, pineapples and so on, is undoubtedly the largest producer of orange in the country, especially in Ushongo Local Government Area which prides its self as the home of citrus, followed by Konshisha, Gboko and Vandekiya LGAs respectively, among others.
In these areas, nearly every household boasts of an orange orchard. It doesn’t matter whether they live permanently at home or are resident in other states and diaspora, what is important is that they own large or small orange farms of different varieties.
But, all of these appear to have changed with the dwindling fortunes of the orange farmers who are now worried that despite the availability of the fruit in commercial quantity, government has not been able to establish a special market for it in order to curb wastage.
“It saddens me to see oranges wasted in my farm and other peoples’ in the area. We produce all year round and people come with lorries from across the country to buy before now but yet, the produce usually waste for lack of market,” Iorykase emphasised.
Meanwhile, Chief Atsaga Anemba, the Benue State Chairman of Fruits Farmers Association, in a recent interview with our correspondent, noted that there are several opportunities for orange farming in the state as he noted that though orange farming provides opportunity to grow fruit for human consumption, it can also be taken to the industries for processing, which would yield good revenue for the farmers.
“That means orange farming can contribute to the establishment of cottage processing industries as well as create jobs and generate income for farmers. But, several factors have become a concern to orange production in Benue State.
“Maintenance of the orchard is a major challenge, because the cost is usually a problem. I’m talking in terms of acquiring agro inputs that are involved in the maintenance of our fruit’s farms. It is usually a challenge. And even getting good avenues to market farm produce is also a problem, largely due to the fact that there are no industries.
“Primarily, we expect the government to provide industries for us, so that it will ease the suffering of our peasant fruits farmers in the state. By building industries, there will be no wastages of our oranges and it will provide employment opportunities for the youths, it will also take care of the issue of market avenues,” he said.
Anemba explained that current data shows that the total number of registered fruit farmers in the state is about 22,000, stressing however that, fruits farmers in the state are more than that figure since some people have not officially registered with the fruits farmers association in the state.
He however assured that plans are in place to continue planting oranges, hoping that things will get better in the nearest future while measures are also being taken to designate agents across all the states of the federation to ease distribution of oranges and also source for market avenues in the process.
“We have so many varieties of oranges in the state. They include Ibadan sweet oranges, Valencia sweet oranges, Washington oranges, California fresh oranges, Tanjerine oranges, Tanjero oranges, Grape fruits, Lemon, Lime and Kings oranges.
“In boosting orange production in the state, the government will be less burdened in terms of over dependence on the government by her citizens. There would be increased payment of taxes to the government to boost Internally Generated Revenue (IGR), there would be provision of employment opportunities for the teeming youths in the state. It will enable farmers in taking care of their personal needs and also in the aspect of payment of children school fees. And it will provide financial support to the farmers for their upkeep and other expenses,” Anemba maintained.
However, some of the stakeholders have opined that Benue State is the number one producer of orange in Nigeria and that Nigeria is the second largest producer of citrus in the world.
But, they equally worry that farmers or other stakeholders in the orange business do not export but just allow the oranges to rot away and then use millions of naira to import concentrates into the country.
To this end, a former State Commissioner of Agriculture and Natural Resources, James Anbua, told our correspondent in Makurdi in the past that the state government had plans to revitalise citrus farming in the state so that more young people would be attracted to the sector in the face of dwindling oil economy and the imminent shift to agriculture-based fortune.
Anbua had stressed that Benue produces one of the best species of citrus but as it is, some of the local farmers have cried out that there are no market and storage facilities such that most of these fruits are wasted.
In the meantime, the farmers await the reality of promises made by the state government to revitalise the fruits production sector for the good of not only farmers but the economy of the state.
