By Amaechi Agbo

No fewer than five million farmers across the country have registered for the

Federal government’s fertiliser subsidy.

The minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Alhaji Muhammad Sabo Nanono who disclosed this on Monday in Abuja stated that fertiliser subsidy is part of several intervention programmes geared towards supporting the smallholder farmers most especially those affected by the Covid-19 Pandemic, Flood, EndSARS and the earlier cessation of rainfall in country.

Mr Nanono who stated this in his opening address at the at the one-day consultative meeting of relevant stakeholders on the restructuring of Presidential Fertiliser Initiative, PFI for sustainability held at the NAF Conference Centre, Kado, Abuja said the Federal Government is not relenting in its efforts to create reliable and sustainable channel of getting fertilizers to the teeming smallholders farmers of the country “who laboured and continued to labour tirelessly year in and year out to produce the needed foods to feed the entire nation’s population including the numerous agro industries that depend on farmers’ produce for their raw material needs”

The minister who added that “So far about 5 million farmers and their farms have been registered with biometrics including farm GIS coordinates” for the subsidy, said that the primary concern of the government is how to get majority of the smallholder farmers out of extreme poverty through targeted support in order to increase their level of productivity, household incomes and by extension guarantee food security for the nation

“We are all aware of the efforts Mr. President has made in promoting the local production of fertilizers in the country in order to ensure self-sufficiency and easy access to products by the farmers to assist them in their production.  This was made possible by the establishment of the President Fertilizer Initiative (PFI).  However, Mr. President has restructured the PFI with a view to repositioning it for long term sustainability and greater impact.

“To ensure that the fertilizers being produced, distributed in the country meet the required set standards in terms of quantity and quality, Mr. President signed into Law, the National Fertilizer Quality Control (NFQC) Act, 2019. 

“In order therefore to support the teeming smallholder farmers Mr. President approved that, an implementation template be developed through consultative engagement with the relevant stakeholders on the best way of administering fertilizer subsidy to the them nationwide on sustainable basis,” he said.

In her opening remark, the Honourable Minister of Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed said that the “The objective of the PFI was to stop the importation of specifically NPK fertilizers and pave the way for its local production, thereby reviving the Nigeria’s local fertilizer blending industry. While the initiative, a Public-Private Partnership that has the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) representing the public achieved great progress; it’s time to shift gears for market-oriented sustainability.”

Discussants during the meeting are of the view that time is ripe for Nigeria to commence mass production of fertiliser to aid food production and security.

They expressed worry, however that the increasing insecurity in the country, farmers-herdsmen clashes portend danger to food production and security in the coming years and called on the federal government and all security agencies to spare no efforts in providing security for the farmers across the country.