Growers claim the sector has much more potential to be untapped by the government to support the farming of flowers, vegetables and fruits with incentives and special policy measures. They suggest that the Nigerian Government should make land available and accessible, should make sure that there is a good, reliable water supply and should open up loan facilities to horticultural farmers, especially the youth, say leading farmers in this sector.

“The government at this moment is not really interested in horticultural activities”, says Elizabeth Omoayena, a prominent horticultural farmer in Jos in Plateau State, who deals in flowers and fruit trees. “They are not interested, both at the federal and state levels. We don't have federal and state participation in our activities.”

The horticultural sector in Plateau State is thriving, says Omoayena, due to the determination of the farmers. “A lot of people are coming to get plants. People value flowers a lot. We buy the flower plants locally, but also buy them from countries like Holland.”

The Federal Government of Nigeria is at the moment building a cargo airport for fresh produce from the horticulture industry particularly vegetables and flowers. “It's a good start,” she says.

“We want more of government participation in our activities, since we employ a lot of people, especially youths. From what they get from us, they feed their families. So we are very important to the society. Government, at both federal and state levels, should come to our aid in terms of seeds and seedlings procurement from other countries. We want them at subsidise these inputs. We also want the state government to give us land. If it does that, it will become a tourist site because when people come to Jos, they will like to visit the place to see the beautiful flowers we have there.”

In the past importation of roses was banned in Nigeria, says the flower farmer. “That’s why as a result during Obasanjo's government people went into rose farming, buying rose seedlings from us to establish farms so that they could grow roses for the local and export market. But somehow, I don't know what happened, roses are now being imported into the country, and that has brought the market down. So something has to be done to reverse this trend.”

Source: hortibiz.com; Frans van den Houdt