Should Dangote be blamed for the ongoing tomato scarcity plaguing southern states in Nigeria?

Dangote

Consumers of fresh tomatoes in the southern region of Nigeria have been hit by what many are calling the worst tomato scarcity ever.
The price of tomatoes, a key ingredient for most delicacies of the south such as jollof rice, sauce and stew, has increased by 400 percent. People who sell tomatoes now buy a basket for twice the price. Five tomatoes, which used to be N50, are now sold for N200.

Funke Ogundiran, a seller of the fruit who has being in the business for over three decades, lamented that she has never bought tomatoes for this much.

“We used to buy a basket of tomatoes at N14, 000 but now it is being sold for N30, 000 at the popular Lagos mile 12 market which is the cheapest food market in Lagos. The Hausa sellers are saying that they don’t have enough tomatoes to send to the south while some are complaining about fuel scarcity.”

Should Dangote be blamed for the ongoing scarcity of tomatoes?
In March this year, the Dangote tomato paste factory in Kano, northern Nigeria, began operations in order to reduce the amount of imported tomato paste brands in the market and reduce waste. The $20 million facility will require masses of tomatoes daily in order to produce at its maximum capacity of about 430,000 tons of tomato paste, annually. In view of this, there are speculations that major tomato sellers in northern Nigeria have taken to selling their product to the factory instead of sending them down to the south where it is also needed in large quantities.

 Looking at the current economic situation, no business owner would want to sell their product at a loss. These tomato farmers have seen that selling their produce to the Dangote factory will help them avoid certain costs, including the cost of transportation form the north to south which is invariably the highest incurred by these farmers. They also do not have to worry about their tomatoes going bad again as a result of transporting their produce to the south. This is a good course for northern tomatoes farmers, however, the people in the southern parts of the country are being affected negatively.

Jenifer Adigwe, a resident of Kano notes that “[we have] also been affected by the tomato scarcity. We cannot buy fresh tomatoes again. Most of the women who bought tomatoes in large quantities have dried them and are now selling them to us dried.”

She also said that most of the villages where these tomatoes are planted are experiencing heavy rainfall. They have to stop planting because the rain has washed away some of their crops.

Mr. Mohammed Musa, a mallam in Kano said that “Dangote shouldn’t be blamed for the scarcity because farmers don’t have tomatoes in their farms and the ones who have prefer to sell to Dangote instead of allowing it to get bad.”

Furthermore, he stated that some of these farmers have abandoned planting tomatoes because they cannot afford the high cost of petrol to power the pumping machines to irrigate the farms.

Agriculture is still the bedrock of the country
The current situation plaguing southern Nigeria shows that the agricultural sector is still untapped. The country needs to do more to encourage Nigerians to get involved in the sector in order to be able to achieve its aim of diversifying the economy. This could also go a long way to help reduce the risk of food shortage in the country. However, President Buhari has expressed his readiness to help boost the agricultural sector. He has even stressed that it is time for Nigerians to go back to the land and face agriculture.

While each state has several priorities perhaps its time the agricultural sector becomes a top priority for the governors. Akinwunmi Ambode, the governor of Lagos state, which is currently the worst hit by this scarcity has shared policy initiatives geared towards infrastructure development with little focus on agriculture.

The state which boasts of being the commercial hub of Nigeria as well as the city with the largest population in Nigeria is yet to prioritize producing food for its residents. The state should look at the logistics put in place to ensure that there are less cases of food scarcity in the state. The state government could also provide storage facilities for some of these products being transported to the state.

We all see able bodied men in the streets of Lagos running after buses and bike men in order to generate money for the “Oniles of Lagos” – meaning land owners of the state and  local government chairmen whereas they can put their energy to use in farms.

Considering Nigeria can hardly boast of providing enough food for itself, it is no surprise that Nigerians doubt the country is ready to diversify its economy let alone generate revenue to grow the economy.