Over two hundred thousand bags of onions worth over N2.5 billion naira have been destroyed by fire at the ramin kura local onion storage farm in Sokoto state.
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President Onion producers, and marketers association of Nigeria Aliyu Umar revealed this to newsmen when he visited ramin kura for on the spot assessment of the damage done to the facility.
He says the farm contained over twenty local storage facilities that each has the capacity of carrying ten bags of onion, which amounts to two hundred thousand bags and with the current market price of twelve thousand naira per bag, this amount to two point five billion naira.
According to him, storing onions at a local farm like ramin kura comes with risk such as this, but for lack of modern storage facility farmers and traders are left with no option than to use what is available to them.
Mr. Umar expressed fear this may lead to onion crisis in the country like the one experienced in 2020 during the outbreak of Corona virus and the ENDSARS crisis that affected some onion traders.
He appealed to the federal and state governments to assist farmers and traders to enable them cushion the effect of this great lost.
The president also called on private business owners to take advantage of the benefit in the onion value chain and invest in modern facilities that will boost onion business in Nigeria and provide alternative revenue generation to all the tiers of government.
