"What I experience in the market everyday is enough for a story, besides talking about the spiraling cost of goods and transportation."

Adenike says she spends more than a thousand naira to transport her farm crops to market, i.e. vegetables, pepper, tomatoes, and cassava flakes. She travels from her rural farm to Olorunda-Akobo market square, the closest market to her settlement. “To make the cost of transportation cheaper, we rural farmers move in numbers as we huddle ourselves on shared motorcycles to the urban markets with our farm produce. We journey on the half-completed road of Akobo-Ojurin-Olorunda, in Oyo state and after we have alighted from the motorcycle and settled in the market, either our tomatoes are bruised and rotten, having been squashed or the vegetables shrink due to loss of water.”

After getting off the shared motorcycle that takes my friend and I here, I take up residence at my farm stall. I have two baskets full of pepper, tomatoes, and vegetable sacks. I start by opening the plastic bag containing the tomatoes, and usually the unsalable ones are the ones at the bottom.

The only solution to the issue of rotten tomatoes is to sell off at a cheaper price to our customers while we rinse off our vegetables with water to sustain the freshness. But the problem becomes obvious to consumers after the water has dried.

I have been unable to pay my market rent fee since last year, which has had a financial impact on me due to this poorly managed farm produce. At first, all traders were allowed to use the market stall for free, provided that they were members of an association of traders. Staying with other traders who sell the same crops has become necessary as a result. 

I find that more than 13% of my monthly revenue is allocated to transportation.

Besides the challenges of transporting farm crops to the market, we also use masks to protect ourselves from dust and fumes as we journey on the half-completed road of Akobo, this project started last year and with the look of things, it becomes obvious that the government are not ready to speed up the road construction project, which means that the mask is here to stay”.

Adenike explains that once in a while, she restricts her children from following her to the market on the motorbikes due to the struggle of transporting vegetables and tomatoes on the half completed road.

“One big challenge I face is the aftermath effects of the dusty road; sneezing and coughing, I worry that it becomes contagious when you mix with other traders who have the same symptoms. There came a point when I decided that my children should stay at home as I wasn’t going to spend money on  transportation and treating illness and coughs at the same time, even though we sell faster when we sell together but considering the look of things, it was the best decision to make”.

The challenges of getting crops to the market goes beyond the physical cost of transportation but the hazards the women face on the road as they journey to the market.

“I wish we had other alternatives like the use of a helmet on the motorcycle or something more thick than the normal flexible nose mask that can protect us as we journey on the half completed road”. Adenike says.

It is admirable to see how the traders are agile and determined to sell their farm produce, despite the challenges they face.

Adenike says she still manages to sell her vegetables and even return home with good returns.

It’s a privilege to witness the hard work of our farmer’s in the farming and trading world and the lengths they go to, to provide food for us to eat.