The Onion Producers, Processors and Marketers Association of Nigeria has explained reasons for the upsurge in the price of onions and scarcity of the produce in the country.

The National President of the Association, Mr Aliyu Isah, gave the reasons in an interview on Sunday in Lagos.

Report says that 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 told newsmen 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 2024 that 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 outbreak 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 disease outbreak popularly called Downy Mildew, which destroyed most of our onion farms at various stages of cultivation.

“Some onions farms were affected at 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 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 has  affected and disrupted our local seed production system.

“We do have not sufficient and quality onion seedlings, so we now rely on hybrid seed that we import from foreign countries.

“The issue of flooding really 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, and our farmers with their money, they 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 lack of storage facilities and technology of the produce at harvests contributed to the surge in its price.

“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 being faced with more than 50 per cent 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 that is making the onions to be 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.(NAN)