The Sokoto State Commissioner for Agriculture, Arzika Tureta says the state government has earmarked over N2 billion to purchase adequate fertiliser for the rainy season farming in the state.
Mr Tureta, who made the disclosure in an interview with News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, in Sokoto on Monday said 500 trucks of fertiliser would be distributed among the small, medium and large scale farmers across the state.
“The fertiliser which sells at N7,000 per bag will be given at subsidised price of N 4,000 per bag to enable farmers get the commodity at ease.
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“The state government is highly committed to ensure increased food production and improve the standard of farming activities as such prioritized more on the sector.
“This is in order to support the living standard of the people to become more productive and engage citizens on farming activities to become self-relied,” he said.
According to the commissioner, the state government has procured adequate fertiliser for the farmers and the second phase of the distribution will commence soon.
“We have finished the first phase of the fertiliser distribution among the small and medium scale farmers in the state and for the large scale farmers, the distribution will commence soon.”
Mr Tureta said that the fertiliser distribution in the state was completely transparent and had the political will of Gov. Aminu Tambuwal.
“We will ensure no politics is involved in the distribution of the fertiliser by forming a committee which involves community leaders and security chiefs in each local government for proper exercise.
“We have since sanitised the distribution and block all leakages enabling a single person purchase large number of the commodity for personal gain,” he said.
Tureta however warned farmers not to misuse the opportunity of getting enough fertiliser and not to sabotage the system by selling the commodity after receiving it.
“The state government has done everything possible to ensure the beneficiaries are real farmers, in order to juxtapose the purpose of purchasing the commodity.’’
He called on farmers in the state to always contact experts in the ministry when applying any pesticides on their farms for proper directive to avoid lower production or even complete loss of products.
NAN
