Reuben Buhari
1 July 2009
Kaduna — The fears of farmers that the adequacy of fertiliser will also be a problem this year has been dispelled by Governor Namadi Sambo of Kaduna, who declared in a state-wide broadcast that the state has already purchased 50,000 metric tonnes of assorted fertiliser, with a sum of N5.1 billion.
The governor added that the fertiliser has been subsidised to the tune of N2.5 billion, while N92 million was given to 230 farmers cooperative societies spread across the 23 Local Governments of the state at N400,000 each.
The quantity of fertiliser gotten includes 15 metric tonnes of Urea and 35,000 metric tonnes of NPK
In order to guard against any sharp practices while distributing the fertiliser product, the governor said a modality for sharing has been worked out, which will ensure that medium and large scale farmers easily get the product, with the small scale farmers not being denied.
"The allocation and distribution of the fertiliser will depend on the farm size and type of crop the farmer wishes to cultivate," he said, adding that a total of 1000 applications from groups and individual have been received.
In addition, the governor, who revealed this after his two months local government tour, said medium and large-scale farmers in the state were given about N200 million as soft loans to enable them partake fully in this year's farming season.
He stated, "We are confident we have not betrayed the mandate bestowed on us by the people of the State as we are on course to deliver to them the very best of democratic dividends".
He also denied insinuations that state projects have been concentrated in only one zone. According to him, all the three geo-political zones in the state received their fair share, in terms of real and concrete projects.
"For instance, the grain silos constructed in the state were sited in Lere local Government, which is in Zone I, Birnin Gwari Zone II, and Kafanchan in Zone III. Furthermore other projects included water related, agro-based, solar powered, power, health related and sundry matters, which are of significance to the development of the state," he said.
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