By Mike Adeyemi
Some residents of Kwara State have expressed concern over the rising cost of yam occasioned by the high demand of the commodity, National Pilot gathered.
A check at Ganmo market, a sub-hub of Ilorin the state capital by our reporter, on Saturday, showed that prices had gone up by over 50 per cent in the past six weeks.
Reports has it that prices of the commodity indicated sprawling increase in spite of the fresh supplies from the farms.
A basket of yam of 100 tubers was sold between N120,000 and N150,000, while a tuber costs between N500 and N1,500, depending on its size.
A consumer, Mrs Monsurat Audu said that yam was the favorite food for her husband and the children, especially at breakfast. Audu said that the high cost of yam was causing heavy drain in her pockets.
Similarly, Bashir Olrewaju, a teacher, described yam as a good source of carbohydrate and preferred by many due to its palatable taste.
“Yam is beyond the reach of the common man, many households cannot afford the exorbitant prices at the market,” he said.
However, Mrs. Kuburat Yusuf, a yam seller, said that prices were moving up amid high patronage of the commodity in the market.
She said that yam prices had shot up by over 50 per cent in the past six weeks, adding that a big size tuber of yam now costs N1,500 as against its old prices of N1,000.
“In the last two months the price was a bit down,” she said, adding that prices would further go up in view of the growing demand of the produce in the market.
Ahmed Yaqub and Juliu Afolabi, who corroborated earlier opinion, said that yam was being supplied to kwara from rural areas in the state, adding that the supply had ceased from other yam producing town amid the perennial fuel scarcity.
