Food prices fall but farmers union says poor storage risks hike
A market survey by PTCIJ shows that a full bag of onions that sold for N70, 000 now sells for N15, 000. 2 min read
Prices of key food items, including onions, tomatoes and pepper, have fallen after a seasonal price surge late last year, but the farmers’ union warns of a possible repeat without improvement in storage.
The
All Farmers Association of Nigeria said although many factors were responsible for the scarcity, the main problem was the lack of storage facilities to preserve food during boom.
“Onion is a seasonal food; we harvest it during the dry season. That is why there is enough onions now in the market. The price may go up again during the rainy season due to scarcity of the produce, although it may not be much like what we experienced last year,” said Nana Bashir, vice president of the All Farmers Association of Nigeria.
The Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism (PTCIJ), through its
Natural Resource and Extractive Programme (NAREP), is pleased to invite journalists, media professionals, researchers and analysts in the oil and gas sector to apply for its flagship 2021 media fellowship.
NAREP aims to strengthen the capacity of media and civil society to demand transparency and accountability in the extractive sector by enhancing media and civil society collaboration in the reporting of activities in the industry. It seeks to highlight issues, and help set the agenda for the government in designing strategies for revenue diversification by looking beyond oil. This fellowship aims to advance natural resource journalism in Nigeria.
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In this last segment of a two-part report, ADETOLA BADEMOSI relates the health risks associated with the oil spill on farms and water bodies in Ekorinim community in Calabar, Cross River State.
To further verify claims of water contamination in the community, test analysis was conducted on two water sources – borehole and river. Borehole samples were taken from a tap in one of the houses located around Amphibious Training School while water was also taken from the Ekorinim River within the community.
Both water samples were collected using a glass cup and amber bottles and taken for analysis within three days of collection.
7 min read
Ochochepo Isa cast his net upon the water. It was a late September morning and the second time that day he was fishing at the Ikere Gorge Dam in Iseyin in Oyo State.
He looked forlorn. His catch had been poor, only 11 pieces of tilapia fish as of 2 p.m. “No fish in this river anymore,” shrugged the fisherman, an Idoma from Benue State in the north central region of Nigeria.
How can a 565 million cubic metres reservoir, the biggest in Southwest Nigeria, run out of fish?
Ikere Gorge Dam is one of the major dams constructed by the Ogun-Osun River Basin Development Authority to tap the water resources of the Ogun River basin.
Participants at the workshop
In the world over, media plays a critical role in sustenance of democracy. However, hundreds of journalists have been killed, harassed or threatened while performing their duty as watchdog of the society.
A free, uncensored and unhindered press or media is essential in any society to ensure that the people’s right to information is not tampered with, but politicians and government officials often abuse blasphemy and defamation laws to gag the media.
According to a report by the Premium Times Centre for Investigative Journalism (PTCIJ), about 160 journalists were attacked in Nigeria alone, in the last two years.