Farmers and marketers in different parts of the country have cried out over low patronage and a decline in their profit margins in the past few weeks.
They attributed the decline in patronage to the continued rise in the price of diesel which sells between N720 and N730 per litre.
In a chat with The Nation, a tomato and cabbage farmer in Jos, Joshua Dadi, said most of their perishable foods have been abandoned at farms due to the high cost of transportation.
Dadi said off-takers can no longer afford to pay them to off-take produce as the cost of transporting commodities to different parts of the country has doubled.
An onion farmer in Kano, Ahmed Idris, who called on the government to take urgent action to salvage the situation, said Nigerians may not be able to afford any product in the market in the coming days.
“The situation will be terrible if nothing is done because very few of us are farming now due to insecurity and banditry.
“If this unsavoury situation continues, I doubt if people will still be able to buy our products because the cost of transporting them from the farm has doubled compared to what we were complaining about previously.
A marketer of beans in Abuja, Ojo Ibidemi, expressed concern over the high cost of transportation of the commodity.
He said: “What we used to transport from here to Lagos for N100, 000 is now N200, 000. There is no way we can make a profit.
“I have decided to put a temporary end to every form of business, for now, to see how the coming weeks will be.
“If nothing is done about this, what we witnessed last year about the high cost of commodities will be a child’s play compared to this.
A transporter, Ifeanyi Obodo, who is also an off-taker and a marketer, said the increase in food prices is imminent as transporters are also not making profits transporting goods across the country.
He said: “Earlier today, I bought diesel for N780 per litre, which means, what we used to transport for N200, 000 will now be N500, 000.”