The Federal Government's new fertiliser distribution system is failing as the commodity is not available at the approved prices but sells at exorbitant black market rates, farmers across the states told Daily Trust.Government introduced an e-wallet voucher system designed to enable farmers receive fertiliser allocation notices through their mobile phones, which is meant to make the commodity easily accessible and to cut off middle men.But most farmers spoken to in major cities with large farming populations say they are yet to see benefits of the scheme as the rainy season heads to a climax.Farmers in Kano said government officials distributed the e-wallet voucher forms for them to fill weeks ago, but after filling the forms, none of them got any notification about fertiliser allocations through their mobile phones.The farmers said questions contained in the forms include number of farms, categories of agricultural produce, number of cattle among other things.'We filled the forms' but fertiliser has been distributed to some politicians in government. In the absence of the government fertiliser which is cheaper, we have to purchase at the market at the rate of N6,000 per bag,' farmer Hamisu Gabasawa said.Umaru Janguza, a peasant farmer in Tofa, said thousands of farmers had filled the e-wallet forms but none of them received any cell phone message up to the time the government supplied about 600 bags through traditional rulers and politicians.'The government just sent the trailer of fertiliser our district head and other politicians for onward distribution to us. The fertiliser was sold to us at the rate of N1,900 per bag,' he said.Other farmers told our reporter that they never heard about the e-wallet voucher system and had not filled any forms. These farmers say that they procure fertiliser at not less than N6,000 per bag in most local markets because the government has not begun distributing its own.Hussain Meneman Namagi, another large scale farmer in Dawanau area outside Kano city, said he knew nothing about the e-wallet system and bought fertiliser at N5,950 per bag from different markets.When contacted, a spokesman for the Kano State Agricultural and Rural Development Authority (KNARDA) declined to comment.But a source at the agency told our reporter that the compilation and validation of registered farmers in the e-wallet voucher scheme had been concluded by the consultants that were hired to do the job. 'The farmers should just be a bit patient as their alerts will soon be sent to them,' he said.The story of the Kano farmers is similar across the states, accroding to a survey by Daily Trust.In Yola, our reporter quotes farmers as saying there is scarcity of fertilisers even after Governor Murtala Nyako announced to them that the commodity would be available at government-approved rates.Farmers registered by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture for the distribution of seedlings and fertiliser said they are yet to receive vouchers allocating the commodities to them through their mobile phones.Alhaji Bello Kawu, a maize farmer, said the distribution of fertilisers through GSM phone would not be in the interest of small-time farmers in rural communities because most peasant farmers have no cell phones.In Bauchi, large-scale farmers said they are yet to get the commodity while some of the small-scale farmers said they collected two bags each at the cost of N2,750 per bag through the e-wallet sysytem.But a large-scale farmer Attayyib Mahmood said, 'I have a large farms in Bauchi, I have 314 hectares of lands for maize, I have 160 hectares in Katagum for millet, guinea corn, beans etc and I have 120 hectares for rice in Zubo. But up till now we don't get a single bag of fertiliser from government. They said we should approach them through cooperatives societies, we have fulfilled all their requirements they did not say anything to us up till now.'In his reaction, information officer of the state Ministry of Agriculture, Alhaji Abdu Sale, urged large-scale farmers to exercise patience as government was making effort to distribute the commodities to them through their cooperative societies.Daily Trust tried over the past week to get specific details from the Federal Ministry of Agriculture on the level of implementation of the fertiliser scheme.When contacted, Mr. Olukayode Oyeleye, a spokesman for Agriculture Minister Akinwunmi Adesina, directed our reporter to the Director of Fertilizer, Mr. Bolawa Osho, who said government has made significant progress in sharing fertilisers and seeds under the programme but could not confirm the number of states covered.
Click here to read full news..
