Farmers in Nigeria have bemoaned the high cost of fertiliser and expressed concern that the situation is threatening food security in the country.
The farmers who expressed their worries in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in the South-South, said government withdrawal of subsidy had aggravated the situation.
They called on government to intervene adopt measures that would ensure that the product got to genuine farmers to gurantee increase in food production and food security.
The Chairman, Rice Farmers Association of Nigeria (RIFAN) in Delta, Chief Sylvanus Ejezie, said fertiliser and agrochemicals which aided farmers to achieve good produce had become too exorbitant.
He said in Asaba that the push and efforts by government to address food insecurity would not be realised in the near future unless urgent steps were taken to address the rising cost of the product.
He said that government subsidy on fertiliser had been hijacked by “political farmers” who presented themselves as middlemen between fertiliser companies and the farmers.
“We source our fertilisers from Onitsha market because there is fertiliser plant in Delta State.
“The prices of fertiliser and agrochemicals have risen so high that we cannot afford the quantity that we require to cultivate many hectares this year.
“Fifty kilogram of NPK fertiliser currently is going for N17,000; urea is N25,000 while a liter of organic fertiliser is sold for N6,000.
“This year, I cultivated 40 hectares of rice in Owens River Basin at Ngegu, Illah, and Oko Omuluigboma. I also cultivated 35 hectares for the wet season,” he said.
He said farmers in Delta had started harvesting but were not expecting bumper harvest because they were not able to apply all the needed inputs because of their high cost.
“The implication is clear. At present a bag of local 50kg rice is sold for between N23,000 and N25,000 but after we factor in the cost of production, the price will increase.
“So, as you can see, the food security plan of government is threatened because we can not produce much rice; other crops are affected due to the rising cost of production in the country,” he said.
Ejezie appealed to government to deal directly with real farmers through their various associations in fertilisers and agrochemical supply and distribution to achieve planed objectives.
In Calabar, Bassey Etim, Programme Manager, Cross River Agricultural Development Programme (ADP), painted a gloomy picture of rice harvest in the state this year due to high cost of fertiliser.
Etim said that the product was now out of reach of most farmers in the state as the cost of urea fertiliser that was sold for between N16,000 to N18,000 per 50kg bag was now sold for N26,000.
PROTRACTED VARSITY STRIKE: FG may proscribe ASUU
“With the high cost, poor farmers in the rural areas won’t be able to boost their yield,” he lamented.
The ADP programme manager said that Cross River has no fertiliser plant and that they get stock from River state.
On his part, Iwara Iwara, Director, Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD), Cross River, said the unavailability and high cost of fertiliser were scuttling Nigeria’s agricultural goal of food sufficiency.
Iwara said it would be very difficult to guarantee bumper harvest which would in turn ensure food security in the nearest future if farmers could not get the product.
He said that the product was sold from N18,000 upwards per medium bag, depending on the type.NAN)
