Former President, Olusegun Obasanjo, has lamented on the high cost of diesel, feeds and exchange rate crisis as they affect his Agriculture business, fish production in Nigeria.
Speaking at the Southwest fish farmers’ congress held on Tuesday, 2nd August, 2022, at the Olusegun Obasanjo Presidential Library, OOPL, the Balogun Owu complained that the hike in the cost of diesel, as well as the constant increase in prices of fish feeds, would kick fish farmers out of business.
Facing the farmers, he asked; “How many of you are using diesel in your production? I use diesel and I’m already sweating. I’m already sweating”.
“The price of diesel has gone high because the management of this country is not what it should be. And it is as simple as that. Then, what will happen is that particularly those of us who have to use a bit of diesel in producing fish, we will completely go bankrupt, and when that happens, Nigerians will still have to eat fish.
“Fish production will be out of reach and then, people will be producing fish outside Nigeria and be dumping it here. And you will go jobless, poor and indigent. So, what do we have to do? To come together. We want to sustain fish production and we must be able to take care of those who are going to eat and those of us who are producing” he said.
Obasanjo also said that, the only way to avoid this, is for them to come together to agree on sustainable prices that could be adopted to keep them in business.
He maintained that with the current price of diesel at N800 per litre, the production of a kilogram of fish is N1,400; farmers cannot sell such fish for less than N1,500 as anything short of that amounts to “outright loss”, he added.
Story: Asma’u Sani