Plateau State Government Friday commenced the sale of fertilizers for this year’s cropping season to farmers at the cost of N4,000 per bag.
The state Governor, Mr. Simon Lalong, who flagged off the sale of the fertilizer in Bassa Local Government Area, said the state government had procured 650 trucks of assorted fertilizers to be sold to farmers.
According to him, government is giving a subsidy of 36 per cent on the actual cost of fertilizers; thereby making each bag sold to farmers to be at cost N4,000 flat.
He also disclose that state Government has constituted Ward Fertilizer Distribution Committees and committees are expected to coordinate the purchase and distribution of two trucks of fertilizers (one of urea and one of NPK) allocated to their,’’ he stated.
Lalong said during his inauguration, he had pledged to pursue an aggressive agriculture and rural development programme to address the challenge of food security, poverty alleviation, job creation and rural-urban migration.
He said it was based on the pledge that he immediately commenced the process of procuring the fertilizers in spite of the precarious financial position of the state’s treasury, which his administration inherited.
The governor stressed that the state government was not oblivious of the plight of farmers concerning the availability and exorbitant prices of fertilizers in the market, pointing out that government recognises the importance of the input in increasing productivity.
“This is why we fashioned out this quick way of getting this all important input to all our farmers, fertilizers have been stocked in stores in all the three senatorial zones of the for our farmers,” he said.
Lalong explained that the method adopted for the sale of fertilizers procured by the state government was entirely different from that of the Growth Enhancement Support (GES) scheme which was operational since the past three years.
“Though this method (GES) of providing subsidized fertilizers to farmers appeared to be the most effective compared to other methods used before but not without challenges.
“Another major reason for this new arrangement of fertilizers distribution is that this government was inaugurated at the time the season had already gone far and yet the (GES) had not commenced sales of fertilizers.”
The governor warned that government will deal decisively with middlemen who buy at subsidised fertilizers at cheap rates only to take them to their store for re-sale to farmers at very high costs.
Others were the representatives of youths and women as well as representatives of All Farmers Association of Nigeria and a viable Development Association as secretary.
Earlier, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Dr. Sunday Akpa, commended Lalong for the gesture, which he said, would assist farmers in boosting food production.
Akpa said a nation that would not feed itself is an insecure nation and urged farmers to judiciously use the fertilizer to improve yield.
The state Governor, Mr. Simon Lalong, who flagged off the sale of the fertilizer in Bassa Local Government Area, said the state government had procured 650 trucks of assorted fertilizers to be sold to farmers.
According to him, government is giving a subsidy of 36 per cent on the actual cost of fertilizers; thereby making each bag sold to farmers to be at cost N4,000 flat.
He also disclose that state Government has constituted Ward Fertilizer Distribution Committees and committees are expected to coordinate the purchase and distribution of two trucks of fertilizers (one of urea and one of NPK) allocated to their,’’ he stated.
Lalong said during his inauguration, he had pledged to pursue an aggressive agriculture and rural development programme to address the challenge of food security, poverty alleviation, job creation and rural-urban migration.
He said it was based on the pledge that he immediately commenced the process of procuring the fertilizers in spite of the precarious financial position of the state’s treasury, which his administration inherited.
The governor stressed that the state government was not oblivious of the plight of farmers concerning the availability and exorbitant prices of fertilizers in the market, pointing out that government recognises the importance of the input in increasing productivity.
“This is why we fashioned out this quick way of getting this all important input to all our farmers, fertilizers have been stocked in stores in all the three senatorial zones of the for our farmers,” he said.
Lalong explained that the method adopted for the sale of fertilizers procured by the state government was entirely different from that of the Growth Enhancement Support (GES) scheme which was operational since the past three years.
“Though this method (GES) of providing subsidized fertilizers to farmers appeared to be the most effective compared to other methods used before but not without challenges.
“Another major reason for this new arrangement of fertilizers distribution is that this government was inaugurated at the time the season had already gone far and yet the (GES) had not commenced sales of fertilizers.”
The governor warned that government will deal decisively with middlemen who buy at subsidised fertilizers at cheap rates only to take them to their store for re-sale to farmers at very high costs.
Others were the representatives of youths and women as well as representatives of All Farmers Association of Nigeria and a viable Development Association as secretary.
Earlier, the Permanent Secretary, Ministry of Agriculture, Dr. Sunday Akpa, commended Lalong for the gesture, which he said, would assist farmers in boosting food production.
Akpa said a nation that would not feed itself is an insecure nation and urged farmers to judiciously use the fertilizer to improve yield.
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