The Jakande Fruit Market Maize Sellers Associationin Ketu, Lagos, has made the disposal of maize husks and other vegetable wastes from the market easy with immediate evacuation.
The association’s Vice Chairman, Mr Lawal Nurudeen, made this assertion in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) on Monday, July 30, 2018 in Lagos.
According to Nurudeen, the collection and disposal of the maize husks from the market is now organised in a way that it is evacuated immediately the corn is sifted.
“The waste trucks that takes the maize husks and other perishable vegetable wastes are stationed daily nearby the market.
“The trucks are different from the ones arranged by the market association that collect mixed waste from the market.
“More than 20 wheelbarrow pushers who carry the vegetable waste, mainly maize husks from the market to offload them into the truck, are at hand,” he told NAN.
“The boys are paid by the maize sellers and they, in turn, have their own payment agreements with the truck drivers.
“The husks are taken to the factory which turns them into fertiliser that is sold back to farmers to use on their farms.’’
Nurudeen said that the trucks collecting the maize husks and other valuable vegetable wastes would not accept any other type of wastes.
He said that with this way, the sellers on their own started sorting out the waste to make it easy for the companies that needed them.
The vice-chairman said that some other groups in the market could also sort their waste for easy collection and disposal, if companies indicated interest in using them as raw materials.
He said that farmers sent the maize sold in the market straight from their farms with each bag of maize properly identified as belonging to a farmer.
Nurudeen said the maize were sold to customers by the sellers on behalf of the farmers.
He said that the association only collected ground rent from the sellers and the buyers, while the money from the sales were taken to the farmers.
Nurudeen added that the association also supervised the sale of the maize brought by farmers to ensure that their money is taken to them.
He said the market had been functioning like that and that there had never been problems or complaints by farmers.
By Chidinma Agu
