Whistle-blowers To Monitor Fertiliser Supply To FarmersFG

The Presidential Committee on Fertiliser at the weekend said federal government has placed telephone numbers on each 20 million 50kg bags of fertiliser ready for supply to farmers in Nigeria before the end of June 2017.Chairman Presidential fertilizer Committe and Governor of Jigawa state, Alhaji Abubakar Badaru, said the whistle-blowers can call to raise the alarm if any agro dealer sells the product to farmers above N5,500.The Presidential Committee was led by its chairman and governor of Jigawa State, Alhaji Abubakar Badaru and Chief of Staff to President Muhammadu Buhari, Malam Abba Kyari.They were later joined by the minister of education, Malam Adamu Adamu and that of state for aviation, Sen. Hadi Sirika to inspect fertilizer blending plants in Kaduna.Speaking shortly after the tour of Fertiliser and Chemicals Company, Abakpa and Federal Superphosphate Fertiliser Company Ltd. Kakuri, the committee, warned that the era of diverting fertilisers was gone, as people who engaged in such act would be losers, adding that,eleven fertiliser blending companies were producing across the country at a rate that the market would be saturated with the products.Governor Badaru said, The project is working very well and the farmers are happy, they are getting fertilizers at a very good price and very available too. Nobody believed we will get to this stage when we started, but you have seen the development so far, how fertiliser has started becoming available everywhere. And we intend to continue because there is no subsidy element, because the business men, the private sector are involved in this, it is well sustainable and it will continueFrom the plant, the fertiliser is being sold to the agro dealers at the rate of N5,000 per bag, and after deducting transport, they shouldnt sell more than, N5,500. There are telephone numbers on each bag for whistle blowers to raise alarm if any agro dealer sells the product to them more than N5,500. Such dealer will be prosecuted. This project is going to distribute one million metric tons of fertilizers, which amount to 20 million bagsThis is a great improvement, because last year, all the fertilizers consumed in Nigeria was 300,000 metric tons. So, this year we are producing 700,000 tons over what was consumed last year.
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