Production of 1m tons of fertilizer by FG will break cartels’ ranks—Gov Badaru


Gov. Muhammadu Badaru of Jigawa on Monday said that the one million metric tons of fertilizer to be produced by the Federal Government under a new arrangement would break the ranks of cartels in the business.
Badaru , the Chairman, Presidential Task Force on fertilizer, said this in Dutse, while reacting to a media report which alleged that he was involved in fertiliser’s scam.
He explained that when the production and distribution commenced, a bag of fertiliser would be sold for between N5,000 and N5,500 to farmers as against N8,000 to N10,000 being sold now.
He said that it was this development the cartels had perceived that prompted them to attempt to smear his name in the media that he was involved in fertiliser’s fraud.
The governor said that the cartel hatched the idea when he went to Morocco with President Muhammadu Buhari.
There, an agreement was reached with the Moroccan Government to subsidise the price of phosphate which was a major material for the production of fertilizer, he said.
According to him, the same arrangement was also made with Notore and Nderama Companies on the urea which they were producing locally as well as limestone to ensure adequate and affordable fertiliser’s supply to farmers.
Badaru said that the Federal Government did not inject any fund into it.

It was financed from the Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) before the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) took over its o financing, he said.
He disclosed that his committee had selected some competent blending plants to process the raw materials to be sold to off-takers like governors at N5,000 per bag for onward sales to their farmers at same price.
“If I off-take some metric tons of fertiliser to my state, for instance, I will only pay transport.

“You can see that the subsidy being paid by government has been saved and if a farmer has the capacity, he can buy the products directly from any of the designated plants.

“Transportation has been taken care; contracts for limestone have been awarded and everything done openly; which fraud they are talking about.
“If not this way, there is no other way we can deliver fertiliser at affordable prices to our farmers,’’ he said.
The governor said that the cartels and hoarders who went to the media to blackmail him were mischievous, adding that he would not be deterred in ensuring that Nigerian farmers get fertiliser at affordable prices.

Badaru said that the new system of production of fertiliser in the country would also generate 200,000 direct jobs.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Tomato disease outbreak: Institute appeals for research funding

The National Horticultural Research Institute, Ibadan, has appealed for funding to carry out research and create awareness on the tuta absoluta pest on tomatoes. The Institute’s Head of Vegetable Programme, Dr Olagorite Adetula, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Ibadan on Friday that there was an urgent need to tackle the problem to save the economy. Adetula said the institute needed money to do surveillance survey of the pest/damage, ascertain the impact of the damage and proffer solution for eradicating the pest. She appealed to the Federal Government to help the institute get pheromones to lure and trap the pests and distribute to farmers. ``Spraying insecticides is not the best, the pest has high production rate, some of them can escape while spraying it and they will be resistant to the insecticide thereby causing us more cost. ``The pheromones can be used for six to eight weeks before changing it, it is very effective, the pest has short life cycle, wit...
Read more

10,000 women farmers to be engaged in ECOWAS rice project – official

Image
 Mr Richard Olafare, the President, Seed Entrepreneurs Association of Nigeria (SEEDAN) says 10,000 women will be engaged in the recently inaugurated Rice Seed Up-Scaling Project. This is contained in a presentation on the project made available to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Friday. Olafare said 8,000 youths would also be engaged in the scaling project. According to him, the number of women and youths represented 50 per cent and 40 per cent respectively of the 20,000 farmers that will participate in the project. NAN reports that the project is an initiative of the West Africa Seed Programme (WASP) in support of the ECOWAS Rice Offensive Programme that was inaugurated in 2014. Among other objectives, it is targeting the production of 60,000 metric tonnes of paddy rice for Nigeria by December 2017, using 1,200 certified seeds. The project is being implemented by SEEDAN in collaboration with the West and Central Africa Council for Agricultura...
Read more

Monsanto Nigeria Launches 3 Conventional Maize Hybrids

Maize farmers across Nigeria now have 3 high yielding conventional maize hybrids to choose from the DEKALB ® brand as Monsanto Agriculture Nigeria Limited launches 3 conventional maize hybrids. The launch held in Abuja on Tuesday May 17 2016 had in attendance farmers, development partners, government regulatory bodies and other stakeholders from both the private and public sectors of the economy. The launch of these hybrid seeds follows their registration by the National Committee on Naming, Registration and Release of Crop Varieties, Livestock Breeds and Fisheries in February 2016. The white maize hybrid, DK234 alongside the 2 yellow maize hybrids, DK920 and DK818 obtained registration approval for use in Nigeria after testing across various agro ecological zones on multi-location farms. The white maize hybrid DK234 with yield potential of 13 tonnes per hectare is well adapted for the Southern and Northern Guinea Savanna ecologies and shows tolerance to Maize Streak Virus, ...
Read more