Worried over the loss of N12bn due to the fungal disease that affected ginger farmers, the Kaduna-South Senator, Barr. Sunday Marshall Katung expressed fears that Nigeria may lose its position in the global market as the second-largest producer of the commodity if farmers are not compensated.

recalls that the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security, Aliyu Abdullahi, had confirmed the outbreak of the ginger blight epidemic in Kaduna, Nasarawa, Plateau, and the Federal Capital Territory.

He disclosed that preliminary estimates show that farmers in southern Kaduna alone lost over N12bn.

The Senator who is representing the Southern Kaduna Senatorial Zone, disclosed at a one-day workshop, organised by the Senate Committee on Capital Market in collaboration with the Lagos Commodities and Future Exchange, in Abuja, lamented that ginger farmers may not return to farming as the rainy season approaches if they are not compensated for the loss they incurred during the outbreak of the deadly disease.

Katung who also expressed worry that if the ginger farmers were not encouraged to by way of compensation, Nigeria may lose her position on the global stage as the second largest producer of the commodity, stressed, “The losses the ginger farmers incurred as a result of the outbreak of the fungi pathogens during the last farming season were monumental.

“You have to compensate them as a way of encouraging them (farmers) to go back to farming. If that is not done, farmers would no longer be interested in farming, and we will lose our position in the world as a country,” Sen. Katung told the Minister of State for Agriculture and Food Security.