By Amos Aar
BENUE State governor, Rev. Fr. Hyacinth Alia, on Friday flagged off the distribution of the customised produce sacks endorsed by the Benue State Government to be used in produce transactions at markets across the state, particularly grains, fruits and tubers.
The governor, who was represented by his Chief of Staff, Hon. Paul Biam, performed the ceremony at the International Market, Makurdi, gave until October 1, 2024 to sack sellers to do away with old sacks as full implementation of the use of the government-approved sacks.
Alia, who commended his Special Adviser on Local Government Area Market Coordination and Monitoring, Hon. Imoter Akaager, and his staff for setting up a monitoring team to ensure compliance, however, cautioned middlemen to desist from sharp practices that posed threat to the smooth running of the market, saying, the government would no longer tolerate acts inimical to the progress of agriculture.
Giving more insight about the customised sacks, the president, Benue Farmers and Traders Protection and Development Association, Mr Manasseh Torsue, explained that the sacks are meant to accommodate between 100 to 110kg against the old sacks that were accommodating up to 140, 160 and 170 depending on how well the shakers employed by the traders and middlemen are able to manipulate farmers.
Torsue said the sacks will help to curtail the excesses of middlemen in the market “and farmers may have excess of what usually had been like a short-change”.
He appealed to Governor Alia to intervene and save Benue farmers from the dubious activities of market directors appointed by local government chairmen, including middlemen and charter men who over the years have consistently destroyed the markets with outrageous revenue drives at the expense of farmers.
“A sustained practice where Market Directors and beranda (middlemen) collect money from traders in the morning and hold the markets and farmers to ransom until late hours before commencing paying for produce held from morning to 5pm should be immediately abolished and henceforth, promoters of such be punished.
“The implementation of these bags is going to expose the excesses of BIRS, for example, we are going to attach something to this bag, we are going to monitor commodity that leaves Benue State. A situation where 100 trucks leave a local government and then it is under declared to forty-something is an area we didn’t mention. But we are going to ensure that we are going to take account of every single commodity that leaves the state,” the president told National Record in an interview during the flag-off ceremony.
Asked how much is the cost of the government customised sacks, Torsue told our correspondent that the “signage is N250 but a bag in the market is sold at N600.”
Distributors had recently appealed to the state government to make the price of the customised government sacks affordable when the Commissioner of Industry, Trade and Investment, Mr Manasseh Alumo Orpin, promised to flag off the distribution and sale of government sacks within the next one week.
Earlier in his remarks, Mr Orpin had stated that the customised sacks’ initiative was more than the introduction of new products into the market, noting that “it represents the deliberate action of the state government to transform agriculture and commerce and enhance the purchasing power of our people.”
