53 years old Arafat Omale, has a small stand where she sells vegetables and other food condiments at the Garki market. With the level of patronage she gets every day, Madam Omale continues to smile to the bank; ADEOLA TUKURU reports.
From just one basket of vegetable which she started with in 2014, Arafat Omale is now able to supply markets around her area vegetables.
Speaking to Business Starter, Omale explained that she started the business with the sum of N2,000, but now makes a daily sales of over N13,000 daily from selling to consumers and distributing to other traders.
Accounting to her, she is now able to properly fend for her family and train her children through school; all from the vegetable business.
Explaining to our correspondent in her not too fluent English, Omale said, “When I came to Abuja in 2012 , I looked around for security jobs but I didn’t get any good one. In fact, I worked in one private house as a cleaner for almost 2 years then I realized that my salary was not enough for me and my family.
“So, I gathered all I have in my savings which was just N2,000, I bought a basket of vegetables and displayed it in front my house.
“I realised that my wares get exhausted before evening that customers come back to ask for more. I realised I sold almost all my wares in a day and so I had to get a place in Garki market, where I can display more of my tomatoes.
“It was like a dream when I realised that I now buy more than 6 baskets in a day and sell to my customers. Some of them even place order for parties and I also distribute to other customers, ” she said.
Challenges of preservation
She decried the situation where a lot of vegetable is lost every season due to lack of storage facility.
According to her, for years, her vegetables started rotting just three or four days which was very frustrating.
“I lost almost half of my products. Worse still, I would sell at a low price in the market. So in 2015, I thought that maybe I should find a tomato conserving technique,” she said.
She further explained that she tried several techniques to tackle the challenge but all of them failed to yield the desired result. At a time she stored her vegetables underground and even in sand, but that still came to nothing.
Then one day, Madam Omale noticed that the vegetables she kept next to her banana tree were not rotten. She decided to keep it in the ash and found out that this technique was more effective than any of the other techniques she had previously tried.
Future of vegetables farming
With the need for fresh vegetables increasing, coupled with the federal government’s policy of encouraging farming so as to reduce money spent on food importation, it has become obvious that priority is been given to the industry.
Experts calls for more implementation
Experts in the agricultural sector have identified rising spate of insecurity, misdirection of government funds and poor implementation of interventions by the federal government as the leading causes of hike in the prices of food stuff.
Other causes include multiple level of taxation through inter-state food transportation from both the federal, state and local government authorities.
Also, some farmers who crave anonymity said, there are times they are forced to bribe bandits and herdsmen in their locality so as to enable them to access their farmlands unhindered.
One of the farmers said: “The hike in prices of food is not our making. At every level of production, we have to bribe the bandits so as to have a hitch-free farming and harvesting.”.
Proceeds from vegetables
You can start planting the vegetables and sell the proceeds to people that need it. You can decide to sell wholesale to retailers that will sell in small quantities. You can sell to factories that produce tomato paste and big restaurants that cook a large quantity of food.
You can buy vegetables and sell them too
If you cannot cope with the stress of farming, you can as well buy vegetables and resell to people that need them.
There are some that use vegetables in large quantity but do not have the time to visit the market to do their purchases. You can identify such individuals and supply them with the ones you buy.
You can venture into dried business
Vegetables have a season and when it is out of season, it becomes difficult to get and also costly. In such a period, you can venture into dried vegetables. You can get fresh vegetables when it is in abundant and dry them, then start selling them when it is scarce.
Rules for vegetables farming
Get a land
Before you go into farming, you would, first of all, get a land where you will plant your seed. Before you pick a land make sure it is a place that is fertile and will promote the growth of tomatoes. A place that is sunny and well-drained is the best for tomatoes. Even if it is your backyard make sure it is well-drained and sunny too.
Prepare the land
After getting the land, the next is to get it prepared. You do this by removing unwanted grasses (weeds) on the land after which you make soil beds.
