LOWER FOOD PRICES- Peppers

Peppers and tomatoes are staples consumed by majority of the world population especially Nigeria where almost every meal contains pepper. 

Peppers and tomatoes contain rich amount of nutrients including vitamin C and A which boost eye sight and immunity. It possess anti inflammatory, anti cancer properties and other amazing health benefits. 

Imagine what the absence of these essential nutrients will do to our bodies and the pressure it will put on our health sector as sick people flood in with diet deficiency related illnesses. 

The rising cost of peppers and tomatoes in the country since mid last year 2024 has now become a norm. Pepper that was retailed for ₦200 rose to ₦1,000 last year, during the Islamic festive season, surprisingly we witnessed a sudden drop back to normal prices the very next day after the festivals. It was clear that the rise in price was manipulated. 

Now that we are approaching another Islamic festival the prices has gone up, in fact prices started rising from the Muslim fast this year 2025. 

I had an opportunity to speak with three major food distributors in Lagos all having stores at the two major food hub in Lagos. These distributors go to the farms to buy foodstuffs themselves because it's cheaper. 

They explained that there is food in the farms but the main challenge is access roads! In fact there are vehicles to move the food but these drivers charge so much due to the damages on their vehicles using these bad roads Some roads are not even accessible. Since there are no roads, access to fuel station is also a challenge. A driver can ride kilometres on bike in search of fuel and diesel. 

Apart from other challenges farmers experience like the cost of fertilisers and pesticides, the construction of roads to their farms is definitely not within their control. 

Accessible roads will also give security agents access to protect farmers from attackers. These attackers take undue advantage of the lack of access roads to launch attacks on farmers in remote areas. 

The challenge of storage is also there since there is no access to power supply or steady power supply to power storage facilities for perishables, so it is safer for farmers to get their harvests into the markets as fast as possible. 

These major food distributors also said that farmers watch their foods go to waste due to delays in taking them to the markets. Distributors who get to them have to pay more using multiple bikes to move large amount of foods to the major roads which is kilometres away, then load them into a waiting truck thereby adding to the selling prices of food. 

The distributors I spoke to looked tired and stressed, a state that shouldn't be if these stressful conditions don't exist because the selling food item is quite lucrative but the stress levels take them to the hospital often. 

The state government will do well to face this challenges because it is not beyond them to construct roads into major farm areas in the country. They should create a centralised farmer's market near these major farms with accessible roads. 

The rising cost of food in the country has led to the importation of foods and other long term perishable items yet Nigeria has all the fertile land for producing her own food. 

Imagine if the government in other countries abandon roads leading to their farm lands and allow farmers to stress then there will be food scarcity all over the world. 

Our state government should take responsibility and do the needful before things gets worse. 

Lily-Rose.