By Bashir Hassan Abubakar
Bauchi State Governor, Bala Mohammed has flag off the sale of fertilizer at a Government controlled price to enable farmer produce sufficient food this farming season.
Governor Bala stated this at the launching of the 2022 farming season held at the Bauchi State Agricultural Development Programme BSADP outstation in Nabordo, Toro Local Government Area on Saturday.
He said that, “The State Government decided to make fertilizer available and affordable to farmers by subsidizing the price of the commodity. Consequently, a 50Kg bag of NPK would be sold at N15,000 while a 50Kg bag of Urea would be sold at N20,000.
He also expressed his displeasure at the activities of some selfish and unpatriotic citizens who engage in adulterating all kinds of agricultural inputs and selling such to innocent farmers who are desperately in need of the commodities.
The Governor said that “I consider this as an act of sabotage and the perpetrators would be traced, apprehended and sanctioned appropriately.”
Governor Bala, directed the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development and that of Local Government and Chieftaincy Affairs to immediately constitute a task force committee comprising security agencies and all other stakeholders to arrest and deal with all culprits accordingly.
The governor said that, the war between Russia and Ukraine has resulted in the shortage of ammonia which is the major raw material for the production of fertilizer. This has in turn led to the astronomical rise in the cost of fertilizer. This State of affairs would naturally have a negative impact on crop production.
He said that the annual launching of the farming season and flag off of the sale of fertilizer is a deliberate effort by the Government to motivate farmers to come out en masse for the production of sufficient food crops to cater for the increasing population and also to embrace agriculture as an economic mainstay.
He however lamented that the paucity of funds has been a constraint to the Government towards meeting its various obligations saying, “In spite of this constraint, however, the agricultural sector has been accorded the priority it deserves.
He pointed out, “This priority can be attested to by the settlement of the Nigerian Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) inherited debt which enabled the State Government to produce fertilizer last year.”
The Governor said that “It may interest the general public to know that Ukraine is the world’s largest producer of ammonia which is the major ingredient for the production of fertilizer. The current war between Russia and Ukraine has made the production of the raw material by Ukraine impossible which lowers its supply with the attendant hike in the price of fertilizer worldwide.