How LPG Scarcity and Price Hike Frustrate Rice Farmers in Jigawa

By Alhaji Musa Hadejia

HADEJIA: Rice farmers in Hadejia and its environs who switched from petrol to Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) to power their farming operations are now facing severe hardship due to scarcity and high cost of the product.

Hotpen reports that, the farmers had embraced LPG as a cheaper alternative to petrol in order to cut costs and ease their operations.

However, LPG, which currently sells for between N1,450 and N1,500 per kilogram at retail outlets in Hadejia town, is in short supply and unable to meet the demand of farmers.

Findings show that AA Rano and Three Brothers gas stations operating in Hadejia metropolitan area the major suppliers of LPG across the area.

Farmers now troop to the stations as early as 4:00 a.m., queuing till late at night to purchase the product.

On the black market, LPG sells for as high as N1,700 per kilogram, with complaints that the quantity dispensed falls short of what is obtainable at the filling stations.

A farmer in Tashena village, Malam Adamu Hussain, lamented that farmers sometimes remain on the queue from 4:00 p.m. till 9:00 p.m. without getting the product.

He alleged that as soon as the product is supplied, black marketers are the first to buy it in bulk for resale to farmers at exorbitant prices.

During a visit to a selling point along Kano Road around 3:00 to 4:00 a.m., farmers were seen lying on the floor, waiting for the manager to commence sales.

Farmers are therefore calling on the government and gas marketers’ association to urgently intervene to end the scarcity, which they say is worsening their plight.