Farmers in Benue State have expressed happiness that they are recording bumper harvest as a result of high demands for sesame seeds.
Reports have it that farmers in benue state are elated about the returns they will get from the sales of sesame seeds due to demands from within and outside the state.
The State Chairman of All Farmers Association of Nigeria (AFAN), Mr. Aondona Hembe Kuhe, was joyful that beniseed harvest this year was good and quite higher than last year’s.
Kuhe said, “the demand for beniseed is higher this year. A 100kg bag is now sold for N32,000 as against last year when it cost lower.”
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He also added that middlemen are taking advantage of the high demand to mop up harvest so they will resell at an exorbitant rate the following year.
A beniseed farmer in Ogobia-Otukpo L.G, Victor Abu, said he recorded bumper harvest and he sells a 100kg bag of beniseed for N36,000.
Another farmer, Mrs. Margaret Onu, said buyers were ready to mop up her beniseed harvest for N30,000 per 100kg bag.
However, the Chairman of Beniseed Farmers and Sellers Association, Mr. Lordye Charles, lamented the harvest that was recorded this year saying that the season was not a good one.
“Our farmers planted the crop late, and the rain caught up with them. We didn’t have good harvest as expected, especially with the appearance of armyworms and aflatoxin which disturbed early germination of the crop as well as early stoppage of rain,” he said.
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He stated further that it was not a lie that buyers were manipulating beniseed farmers at the market and were purchasing the product for N30,000 for the unclean 100kg bag of beniseed and the clean one for N36,000 or N37,000 per 100 kg.
