Conflicts between herders and sedentary farmers threaten Bokkos, a community with great potential to grow Irish potatoes, beans, vegetables, bell peppers, and chillies.
In Plateau, the LGA is a well-known brand of Irish potatoes. The Milky Way Dairy Farm, a cooperative venture between Plateau State University, private investors, and the Plateau State government, is also located there.
Apart from being a major hub for potato production in both wet and dry seasons, it is likely also to be a significant wheat production centre as more farmers now add wheat production to their stables.
From being a significant hub for Irish potatoes, red beans, and one spicy crop, the habanero is now gaining traction among communities in the local government area.
A bag of the variety (habanero hot yellow pepper) now goes for ₦110,000, while other varieties, like the yellow bell peppers, are selling at ₦ 7,000 per kilogramme across vegetable markets in Jos, and buyers are everywhere in the market.
Daily Trust visited some communities in Bokkos and discovered that despite the sporadic clashes between herders and crop farmers, many reap benefits from dry season hot habanero yellow pepper production.
Although the seeds are more expensive, pepper farmers cultivate them to earn more money.
At Kuba/Maiyanga, Mbar, Tangur, and Mangar communities, young people make a living by producing spicy yellow and red bell peppers.
As hot as the habanero yellow pepper is, the money it generates for farmers is incredible, with a bag selling above N100,000.
With harvest done every week, poverty is far from the farmers.
“I have been doing this for five years, and it is worth doing. Even though it needs a lot of care, at the end of the day, you have something to harvest every week,” a young farmer, Richard Makop, told Daily Trust while opening the water channels to circulate the farm.
Matthew Weng, a potato farmer in the Baku/Maiyanga community, has shifted to pepper this year due to invasive diseases recently affecting potato production.
Although he said potatoes have good market value, the production cost is far higher than the pepper.
“What has helped us here in place of fertiliser is the chicken droppings, which can keep the soil fertile for about three years compared to the chemical fertiliser, which sometimes works for a few weeks, and the crop starts to turn yellowish again.
“For the pepper, I have learnt a lot from those who have been doing it for years because if you over-apply the manure, it could create problems for the plant, and if your water supply to the farm is too much, you will also have problems.
“I started harvesting in early February. Sometimes seven bags, sometimes 11, depending on how many days before harvest. If you have four days, you won’t get as much as you will get after seven days,” Weng said
According to him, the type of pepper determines the prices the farmers receive. The cost varies from ₦45,000 to ₦110, 000, contingent on the bag’s dimensions.
Presently, the price of the fiery yellow pepper is higher than that of tomatoes (which cost ₦10,000 per basket), onions, and red chilli, all of which have seen considerable price reductions in Jos.
Source: Daily Trust
Image Credit: FreePik
