Olusegun Ariyo
The Onion Producers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria has explained the reasons for the upsurge in the price of onions and the scarcity of the produce in the country.
National President of the Association, Mr Aliyu Isah, gave the reasons in an interview with newsmen on Sunday, January 5, 2025, in Lagos.
Nigeria witnessed a soaring rise in the price of onions from the fourth quarter of 2024 with a bag selling between N250,000 and N270,000 as against N70,000 and N90,000 per bag in previous months.
While a medium-sized bulb of the produce sells at N500 as against N50 per bulb.
Isah said that the reasons for the hike in onion price were multifaceted, leading to low production of the produce.
“What caused the scarcity and high cost of onions from the last quarter of 2024 till now is as a result of the flooding.
“The flooding of 202that ravaged all our onion farms, from the producing bed of Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara, Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, up to Adamawa states resulted in the scarcity of the produce.
“We also had the problem affecting onion production with the release of water from dams from the northern states.
In Sokoto, the water was released from Goroyo Dam, when it got to a certain level it affected the onion beds from Sokoto, Kebbi and up to Zamfara states.
“Also, we had the breakage of dams in Borno State which destroyed our onion farmlands,” Aliyu said.
He also blamed climate change effects resulting in extended rainfall and disease outbreaks on onion farms as another reason for the price surge.
“The second issue affecting scarcity and the high cost of onions is that we experienced an extended and high level of rainfall up north in 2024.
“So, the high amount of rainfall resulted in high humidity which resulted in a disease outbreak popularly called Downy Mildew, which destroyed most of our onion farms at various stages of cultivation.
“Some onion farms were affected at the seedling stage, some at nursery stage, some when we were even about to harvest the onion,” the association president said.
He added that the unavailability of the produce due to a lack of improved onion seedlings contributed to the development.
“The third is the issue of unavailability of the produce due to lack of improved onion seedlings.
The factors of flooding and climate change have affected and disrupted our local seed production system.
“We do have not sufficient and quality onion seedlings, so we now rely on hybrid seeds that we import from foreign countries.
“The issue of flooding affected onion seed production so local farmers could not get enough seed to buy. This situation also resulted in the unavailability of onions. From the fourth quarter of 2024 our farmers with their money, could not see seed to buy.
“This also culminated to a serious problem where some unpatriotic Nigeria imported adulterated onion seed into the country and now our farmers are counting their losses because they planted a seed that cannot produce a bulb,” he said.
Aliyu lamented that the surge in its price was due to the lack of storage facilities and technology for the produce at harvests.
“Another contributory factor to scarcity and price surge of onions is post-harvest losses.
“That even when we harvest enough during the season because we lack improved technology of onion storage, we are faced with more than 50 percent post-harvest losses.
“This is to say that more than half of what we produce, we lose it after harvest. So, all these are part of the problem making the onions expensive,” Aliyu said.
Aliyu said the association was working with the Federal Government on ways to boost production and tackle the surge in the price of onions.
