Lai Mohammed attributes increase in price of Tomato to Boko Haram insurgency
Thu Jun 02, 2016 01:23:pm Politics
2.1K By Buchi Obichie
For some time now, Nigeria has been faced with a shortage of tomato, leading to extremely high prices of the scarce commodity. The Minister for Agriculture, Audu Ogbeh, had initially blamed the shortage on a tomato pest known as Tomato absoluta, which destroys the tomato fruit, causing what some have termed 'Tomato Ebola'.
But in a recent interview with Channels tv, Minister for Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed ascribed the problem of Tomato shortages to the insurgent group, Boko Haram.
Lai Mohammed said insecurity in the North-east had forced many farmers out of the zone.
According to him, "People talk about the price of tomato but they forget one thing; that the price of tomato today is a direct result of the fact that we have lost two years harvest to Boko Haram insurgency. Most of the people you see riding Okada (motorcycles) in Lagos are people who would have been in the farm to produce consumable items.
When asked if he was convinced that the tomato scarcity could be attributed to insurgency, he said: "Absolutely! Do you farm where there is war? We have lost two seasons of harvest, in addition we have had very poor rainfall last year and this year. These are the combined factors responsible for the scarcity of tomato. Go and ask economists and agriculturists, they will tell you."
The Minister also spoke on the increased spate of clashes between farmers and fulani herdsmen; which he ascribed to climate change.
"When you look at the herdsmen and farmers clashes, I think it is neglect of many years. More than 15, 20 years ago, we were warned all over the world that as a result of climate change, there could be conflicts and we should take steps to avert such clashes, but we did not listen," he said.
"What is happening is that there is a gradual reduction in natural resources. If you take Lake Chad for instance, it has lost almost 90 per cent of its waters over a couple of years and Lake Chad sustained and supported livelihood of farmers and fishers, with the loss of waters, you see a migration southwards. Now Governments all over the world were warned that these were the consequences of climate change."
But in a recent interview with Channels tv, Minister for Information, Alhaji Lai Mohammed ascribed the problem of Tomato shortages to the insurgent group, Boko Haram.
Lai Mohammed said insecurity in the North-east had forced many farmers out of the zone.
According to him, "People talk about the price of tomato but they forget one thing; that the price of tomato today is a direct result of the fact that we have lost two years harvest to Boko Haram insurgency. Most of the people you see riding Okada (motorcycles) in Lagos are people who would have been in the farm to produce consumable items.
When asked if he was convinced that the tomato scarcity could be attributed to insurgency, he said: "Absolutely! Do you farm where there is war? We have lost two seasons of harvest, in addition we have had very poor rainfall last year and this year. These are the combined factors responsible for the scarcity of tomato. Go and ask economists and agriculturists, they will tell you."
The Minister also spoke on the increased spate of clashes between farmers and fulani herdsmen; which he ascribed to climate change.
"When you look at the herdsmen and farmers clashes, I think it is neglect of many years. More than 15, 20 years ago, we were warned all over the world that as a result of climate change, there could be conflicts and we should take steps to avert such clashes, but we did not listen," he said.
"What is happening is that there is a gradual reduction in natural resources. If you take Lake Chad for instance, it has lost almost 90 per cent of its waters over a couple of years and Lake Chad sustained and supported livelihood of farmers and fishers, with the loss of waters, you see a migration southwards. Now Governments all over the world were warned that these were the consequences of climate change."
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