The Chairperson of Ojo Farmers Community, Lagos State, Mrs Mayriam Ali, has identified transportation as a major obstacle to farmers’ access to markets.
Ali made this known in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.
She said many farmers had buyers for their produce but lacked affordable means of transporting vegetables from their farms to major markets.
According to her, the situation sometimes forced farmers to depend on intermediaries or reduce the quantity of produce taken to markets.
“Because of transportation, I have people buying from me at Mile 12 and Mushin, but the major challenge I have is the means of transporting it,” she said.
Ali said she currently had more than 120 beds of shoko and other vegetables that could be sold to buyers if transportation was readily available.
She said some potential buyers had also contacted her after learning that she had produce available, but transportation remained a major challenge.
According to her, affordable farm-to-market transport would encourage more farmers to sell directly to traders and improve their earnings.
Ali proposed that the government provide vans or other suitable vehicles to farming clusters under a leasing arrangement.
She said farmers could pay for the service while the government retained ownership of the vehicles and monitored their use.
“If we have a van and we are in a cluster, I will know that it is available in the morning and quickly go and pick the produce for them,” she said.
Ali said such an arrangement could reduce the cost of transporting individual bags of produce from farms to collection points.
She explained that farmers currently paid varying amounts to local transporters, depending on the distance between their farms and collection points.
The farmer also recalled that transportation had affected the success of some of her previous farming projects outside Ojo.
She said her group once cultivated watermelon on leased farmland but struggled to move the produce after harvesting.
According to her, only one of about 10 groups involved in the project succeeded because some members could not regularly monitor their farms or move produce out.
Ali urged the government to include farm transport in agricultural support programmes, especially for farming clusters producing vegetables for urban markets.
She said improved transport would strengthen the connection between farmers and traders while reducing difficulties in moving fresh produce to consumers.
Ali said better market access would also encourage farmers to increase production because they would have confidence that their produce could reach buyers on time.
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