Nigeria’s ginger export value fell about 74% in the first nine months of 2024, while a research agency chief said new planting stock could better withstand fungal attack.
A calculation using National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) trade tables puts ginger exports at about ₦23.76 billion in the first nine months of 2023, compared with ₦6.28 billion in the same period of 2024. The totals sum quarterly export values and show the scale of the decline in earnings.
At an Agricultural Society of Nigeria conference in Abuja on Oct. 20, National Biotechnology Research and Development Agency (NBRDA) Director-General Prof. Abdullahi Mustapha said the agency had produced ginger planting stock that he described as less vulnerable to fungal attack. He also said NBRDA was advancing a biological spray. BusinessDay and Trust Radio reported the remarks.
The resistance claim remains unverified: NBRDA has not published test results describing the stock’s performance. In June, the agency said its ginger-blight technologies were undergoing field trials and validation in local conditions. Its August update said a solution was still being tested, with work underway to multiply it for farmers. NBRDA has not announced when validation will finish or when the planting material could be distributed.
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Food Security estimated that ginger farmers lost ₦12 billion in 2023 and said farmers in Kaduna lost more than 90% of their harvest that season. The National Agricultural Development Fund (NADF) says its ₦1.6 billion Ginger Recovery, Advancement and Transformation for Economic Empowerment project provided agricultural inputs to 15,000 farmers affected by the outbreak.
NBRDA and the Bank of Agriculture agreed in June to form a joint technical committee to develop a collaboration framework and identify priority interventions. NBRDA has not announced dates for the trials to end or for distribution to begin.
Mustapha valued Nigeria’s ginger industry before the outbreak at $730 million, BusinessDay and Trust Radio reported. A separate September report by BusinessDay, citing the Food and Agriculture Organization, put the figure at $713 million without explaining the difference.
