The National Ginger Association of Nigeria bemoaned on Thursday that the 2023 ginger season in Southern Kaduna had been adversely affected by an unidentified ailment that had cost the state’s economy more than N10 billion.
The national president of the association, Squadron Leader Nuhu Dauda (ret. ), announced this in Kachia, Kaduna State, and he asked the federal and state governments to take the required action to stop the disease from wreaking further havoc on the state’s ginger growing.
The association, along with a group called the Non-Farmers Initiative, also provided N50,000 to each of the 18 ginger farmers in the state’s Kachia LGA.
In a press conference, Daudu urged governments to give palliatives to lessen the pandemic that is now destroying ginger fields in Kaduna’s southern region.
The head of NGAN further revealed that Nigerian ginger was unable to command competitive rates on the international market since there were no ginger processing facilities.
Therefore, he continued, “It makes sense to establish a ginger processing facility in order to fulfil the global quality standard. Our beloved country has performed far worse than expected in terms of exporting ginger around the world due to the quality of our processed ginger and its packaging.
The Chairman of Kachia LGA, Hon. Aaron Bako, also spoke, stating that ginger continued to be the main source of income for the residents of Kachia.
“These poor ginger farmers have equally contributed to the GDP of Nigeria,” he declared. In light of this, we are requesting that governments assist our people who have been severely impacted by this odd disease.
A representative of the Non-Farmer Initiative, Captain Maikano Abdullahi Sara (retd), revealed that the N50,000 supplied to ginger farmers was intended to help them mitigate the impact of the epidemic that is destroying ginger plantations nearby.
