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Nigeria: FG Moves to Tackle Food Crisis
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This Day (Lagos)
13 May 2008
Posted to the web 13 May 2008
Lagos
Determined to avoid imminent food crisis and increase production, the Federal Government has fixed May 31, this year, as deadline for the supply of fertilizer to all states.
Minister of Agriculture and Water Resources, Dr Sayyadi Abba Ruma told the Senate Committee on Agriculture that only three contractors have been engaged this year, to supply 650,000 metric tons of fertilizer, to enable government monitor product quality and distribution logistics.
The minister said the ministry had ascertained that the three companies had more than 500,000 metric tons of fertilizer in stock, with the capacity to import the balance to meet the deadline. Ruma said unlike in the past, the contractors, Tak Continental, Golden Fertilizer and Federal Superphosphate Fertilizer Company, were given 60 days to supply, so that fertilizer can reach farmers nationwide at the beginning of the planting season. Besides subsidising the cost of fertilizer, Ruma said government also packaged some incentives for the subsistence farmers, while providing the enabling environment for large scale commercial agriculture. Meanwhile, 23 states and the FCT have received about 52,000 metric tons of various types of fertilizer supplied by Tak Continental and Golden Fertilizer Company from the Apapa Port.
Mr Valentine Nwandu, Chief Operating Officer, Tak Continental, said yesterday that his company has distributed 45,000 metric tons of fertilizer using 1,500 trucks.
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