Prices of paddy rice, maize and other food items may not come down this year despite good harvest being expected at the end of this farming season in Taraba State.
The Chairman of Taraba State Rice Farmers Association, Tanko Bobbo Andami made this prediction in an interview in Jalingo.
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He said the Tiv/Jukun crisis in the southern and central parts of the state had forced thousands of farmers out of their farms.
According to him, activities of kidnappers and armed bandits across farming communities in the state equally prevented many farmers from going to the farms.
Tanko Bobbo stated that in addition, all federal food reserves centres were emptied and distributed as palliative due to COVID-19.
He said with these situations there might likely be a shortage of paddy rice and maize in the state, which would cause a hike in the high price of food.
According to him, both grain merchants and rice processing companies in the country rely heavenly on Taraba for maize, paddy rice and other foodstuffs.
Tanko Bobbo said already grain merchants were in some rural markets in the state making bulk purchase of newly harvested maize and paddy rice.
He, therefore, advised that proper arrangements should be made by both federal and Taraba state governments to expand the scope of dry season farming.
The chairman stated that irrigation farming if given the desired attention, would address the shortfall of paddy and Maize.
Also speaking on the issue, a large-scale farmer, Alhaji Garba Inusa said this year many farms in parts of Karim-Lamido, Ardo-Kola, Gassol and Bali Local Government Areas were not cultivated because of fear of kidnappers and bandits.
Inusa called on security agents to address the security problem across farming communities in the state.
He said rural communities should also initiate ways to curtail activities of the criminal elements because most of the criminals reside within the areas they carried out their criminal activities.
North East Trust reports that a 100kg bag of newly harvested paddy rice now sells for N15,000 as against N6000 sold last year.
Similarly, a 100 kg bag of newly harvested maize now sells at N14,000 as against N5,000 sold during the same period last year.
The spokesperson for Taraba Police Command, DSP David Misal told our correspondent that the command was doing its best to curtail activities of armed bandits and kidnappers in the state.
He said most of the kidnapping incidents were not reported to the police and called on people to always report suspicious persons to the police.
