Kaduna govt. to procure 55,000 tones of fertilizer


Kaduna State Government plans to procure 55,000 metric tones of fertilizer for the 2017 farming season, a lawmaker said on Tuesday.

Alhaji Kasim Iliyasawa, Chairman, Kaduna State House of Assembly Committee on Agriculture, made the disclosure in an interview with newsmen in Kaduna.

Iliyasawa said that the figure was higher than the 35,000 metric tones procured in 2016.

He said that the goverment has targeted to support 1.5 million farmers and raise areas of production from 50,000 hectares to 100,000 hectares.

The lawmaker assured that the government had also taken measures to avoid the delay usually experienced in the supply of fertilizer to farmers.

“As am talking right now, fartilizer is on its way coming unlike the previous years; by next month, farmers will begin to have their farming inputs. This arrangement has been concluded since February.”

He noted that the administration had facilitated the engagement of farmers under the Anchor borrowers programme and other initiatives to boost access to credit and inputs to boost production.

Iliyasawa said that the new Kaduna Agriculture Development Agency (KADA) would support farmers in all areas of production including extension services to enrich their knowledge and investment in agriculture.

On loan recovery, the lawmaker disclosed that the government had set up a committee to recover loans granted farmers in 2016.

“This committee is to make sure that those up takers and input suppliers that participated in the just concluded anchor borrower programe get their inputs back from the farmers.”

He stressed that farmers who defulted in repaying their loans would be prosecuted by the mobile court set up goverment.


Iliyasawa, however, said more than seventy percent of the loan had been paid back by farmers.

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