Kaduna — The Kaduna North Local Government yesterday flagged off fertilizer distribution for the year 2012 farming season. The interim chairman of the council, Usman Ibrahim, speaking at the flag-off said the local government has collected about 14 trucks of fertilizers and was still awaiting the remaining balance of nine.

The fertilizer, he said, would be sold at subsidized rate. "In the market, NPK is over N6,000 but the governor has directed us to sell it at N3,000; the urea at N2,900 while the lime at N2,375, which are all subsidized prices."

He said there is a lot farmers can do if they are adequately equipped with the necessary farm inputs, especially fertilizers. "Before now, it was businessmen who enjoyed the subsidy on fertilizers but this present government has been able to reform the sector to ensure that it is the farmers who enjoy the subsidy on fertilizers instead of businessmen and middlemen," he said.

He urged those charged with the responsibility of distributing the fertilizers to the farmers to discharge their duty with justice and fairness while also imploring them to ensure that every farmer in the council gets the input.

As part of strategy to ensure that the fertilizers are used for the purpose intended, Usman stated that the commodity will be marked so that whoever is seen selling them in the market can be easily identified and arrested.

Responding on behalf of the farmers, the head of farmers in Kabala Costain, a suburb of Kaduna State, Ibrahim Abdullahi, thanked government of Kaduna State for the kind gesture and called for transparency in the distribution.