Why beans price is high in Nigeria — CFAN

By Taiwo Hassan

The Cowpea Farmers Association of Nigeria (CFAN) has revealed reasons why the price of beans soared to the highest price ever recorded in Nigeria.

Malam Sale Maigari Tunfafi, Kano State deputy chairman of CFAN, said the high cost of beans being experienced in the nation recently was the aftermath of several issues, noting that the issues didn’t affect beans only, but that the beans issue was the worst.

He, however, said that with the association’s move, the price had started dropping.

He explained that one of the reasons behind the high cost was the drop in beans production last year. According to him, beans being one of the last farm produces harvested every year was affected by herders’ invasion of farmlands as the dry season set which resulted in serious damages to beans farms.

He also identified the high cost of agricultural inputs as another barrier that forced many beans farmers to reduce the size of their farms.

He further revealed that the issue of beans exportation by merchants to neigbouring countries.

“We have learnt that with the nation’s devaluation of its currency, many merchants found opportunities to export our agricultural commodities outside the country for foreign exchange. Initially, neigbouring countries did complement the nation’s beans demand because merchants did import beans to Nigeria, but with the naira devaluation, they found out that it was more rewarding to export instead of importing and this contributed to the rise in price as the demand increased heavily,” he revealed.

“We are currently holding a series of meetings with stakeholders in beans production along its value chain with the intent of arriving at a lasting solution to this alarming problem. It will interest you to note that, already our move has begun to yield positive results as the price of beans has started to drop,” he said.