Flooding: Yam scarcity looms in Lagos

THE Sarki of AlabaRago Market inLagos State, Alhaji Sokoto Umar, has said that the devastating flood in parts of the country has affected the supply of yam tubers to Lagos State.Umar told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday that the trailer loads of yam that usually come into the Mile 12 Market at Kosofe Local Government Area of the state had reduced in the last few weeks.``Before, we used to receive between 24 and 29 trailer loads of yam every week.``But now, we hardly get up to five trailer loads due to the flood disaster in the country.``Many farmers complained that their farmlands have been washed away,'' he said.The market leader also said that the reduction in supply had led to increase in price of yam in the market.``People are looking for yam to buy and the price is not encouraging,' he said.According to him, the tubers being supplied at the moment are coming from the South-West.He said that supplies from the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Benue and Kogi states had stopped due to flooding.The market leader advised farmers to take insurance policy against losses in the event that their farms are washed away by flood.He also advised the government to assist farmers with credit facilities and free yam seeds to boost food production.
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