IN a swift reaction to a statement recently made by the Central Bank Governor, Mallam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, that most bags of fertilizers getting to the farmers are 'half sand, half fertilizer,' a senior officer in the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development has faulted the statement.The officer, who craved anonymity, described as a 'general statement,' the attribution made to the CBN Governor, even though there might be pockets of such act in few places.'I cannot rule out the fact that there is fertiliser adulteration, because there are some bad eggs among the contractors that produce adulterated fertilizer to maximise profit, but it was presented as if all the fertilizer in this country are like that; and this is not true.'The official, who blamed adulteration on lack of a full-fledged body to regulate fertilizer procurement and distribution, disclosed that a bill on the need for a regulatory agency that will regulate the activities of the companies have been drafted and sent to the National Assembly.He mentioned that the Ministry of Agriculture employ the services of National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) and the Standard Organization of Nigeria (SON), to regulate the activities of fertilizer companies, adding that the ministry is also working with the Federal Ministry of Justice to put in place laws that will prohibit fertilizer adulteration.Describing government's handing over of fertilizer procurement and distribution to the private sector as the best, he noted that companies involved in fertilizer distribution will have to develop their market channel that will get down to the farmers.He said, 'just like we have Coca Cola, flour and cement everywhere, fertilizer should be everywhere, so that farmers can get the product within few metres, which will be the best for this country and give room for competition among the companies.'On why only 11 per cent of Nigerian farmers get access to fertilizer, he blamed the state governments, which, he maintained, are yet to come up with regulations guiding direct distribution of fertilizers to the farmers.It would be recalled that, sometime in May, there were reported cases of fertilizer adulteration, the products of which were sold to farmers in the Kwali area of the FCT at subsidised rates.One Yohana Gabriel Bako had allegedly purchased 24 bags of adulterated fertilizer from the Council and wept profusely on discovering that the fertilizers were to cause damage to his crops during the farming season. He immediately reported the case to the councilor in the area.Another farmer, Baba Audu, said three, out of nine, bags he purchased from the Agric department of the council were filled with sand, saying he returned the remaining bags and lodged a complaint.Meanwhile, the Catalytic Intervention Manager PrOpCom, Dr. Victor Oboh, while speaking with The Guardian, said fertilizer adulteration is the fault of both the government and the contractors,He commended the effort of the Federal Fertilizer department, a parastatal of the Ministry of Agriculture, for drafting a bill for an agency to regulate fertilizer production, procurement, distribution, marketing and use in Nigeria.Oboh maintained that, in the new dispensation of government withdrawal from fertilizer distribution and procurement, it is expected that they return to their statutory role of ensuring that right quantity and quality of fertilizers is distributed to the farmers.'In the first quarter of 2011, we were informed about cases of adulteration, somewhere in the FCT and Zamfara State. What happened was that the adulterated fertilizer was supplied by the government, which awarded the contracts.Public Relation Officer of ASSAPIN, Mr. Christopher Akaito, told The Guardian that no farmer under the aegis of ASSAPIN has been able to access the government-subsidized fertilizer.He said that, oftentimes, government-subsidized fertilizers are hijacked by politicians, who distribute it to their loyalists at the expense of the real farmers.Faulting government module of distribution channels of the product, he urged them to make use of farmer groups so as to ensure that the farmers benefit from the intervention.
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