?
Fears are rife that if urgent steps are not taken, there may be food scarcity in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), as farmers in the territory are yet to get fertilizer for their crops few months to the end of the farming season.
A few Months ago, about 300 farmers from Dutse thronged the area council to register their names for the e-wallet process introduced by the government.
They were filled with anticipation and hope that finally the government had decided to act on the issue of agriculture and the much needed food security in the country.
They were told that the registration would help bring about easy and effective take-off of the agricultural transformation agenda and would empower farmers in the FCT for greater productivity, wealth and job creation.
The e-wallet farm input subsidy process was introduced by the Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Dr. Akinwumi Adesina. Under this process, government was to subsidise farm inputs, including fertilisers for registered farmers up to 50 per cent.
Registered farmers were to be linked directly with registered agro-dealers in their areas and each farmer under the scheme would get information about the availability of fertiliser through a text message to their mobile phones and would have to go to their designated agro-dealer to redeem the fertiliser after paying the balance.
The Chief of Hausa in Dutse, Bala Umar was among those who went for the registration.? According to him, the farmers had thought that they would be assisted with funds to boost their farms, with fertilisers and also with tractors that will help for easy cultivation.
“We did the registration before the rainy season. We were about 200 who went to the area council to register. When we went for the registration, we also thought that farmers who do not have money to carry out their work will be given money too. We also thought that they will assist us with tractors to make work easy for us. But we got what we didn’t bargain for. When we started the registration, we thought our problem will be solved. We thought we will have financial assistance but even fertiliser we didn’t get,’’ he said.
Umar stated that it was unfortunate that his friends and he were yet to see the fertiliser for their farm.
“Up until now, we have not received even half bag of fertiliser. I don’t think that anyone has received any in Dutse Alhaji. We have to go the market to buy and one bag is sold for N5,000. If your farm is big and you need like 10 bags of fertiliser, that means you have to pay N50,000 for the fertiliser. When you are selling the bag of rice or guinea corn, it is even close to the price of the fertiliser. We do not even have any gain.’’
When asked if the scarcity of the ‘precious product’ would affect the harvest of the year, Umar stated that the non-availability of fertiliser has always been a problem for farmers not only in the FCT but the entire country.
He however said farmers in his area ha devised a means to get bumper harvest even without the fertiliser.
“We have decided to find another way since there is no fertiliser; we have arranged and met Fulani cattle rearers and for a token, they allow us pack dung from their cattle sheds.
“It is as if we foresaw this problem. For long now getting fertiliser from government is always a problem so even before the rainy season, we go to refuse dumps and get the decomposed ones and spread on our farms. We are taking action because it is the farm and its produce that helps us to take care of our families and also pay the school fees of our children,” he added.
While Umar and his colleagues complain about the non-availability of fertilisers, others complained about the stress one needed to pass through before they could get it.?
Gundu Musa a farmer from Gwagwalada stated that he got a text asking him to come and collect his bags fertiliser but lamented that the stress he went through before he got it was something he wouldn’t want to pass through again.
“I finally got fertiliser bags for N6,000 instead of the N1,000 sold in the past year. So I don’t really understand what kind of subsidy the government is talking about. Something has to be done about this whole thing,’’ he said.
Other farmers in the FCT who spoke to LEADERSHIP stated that government failed to give considerations to the fact that most of the farmers who live in rural areas were illiterates who cannot operate mobile phones, suggesting that the Federal Ministry of Agriculture reverses to the old pattern of fertiliser distribution to farmers.
Speaking in an interview, the chairman of Gwagwalada Area Council, Zakari Angulu-Dobi also faulted the system stating that since the commencement of the scheme, there had been complaints about inadequate fertilisers by farmers and noted that even those who had acquired the fertilisers could not pay for them because they were expensive.
He added that the procedures were complicated to the illiterate small scale farmers in the villages whom the system was initiated for to improve their productivity.?
“From my investigation, I heard that you get a text message that you have some bags of fertiliser allocated to you.? Now a farmer whose business is to work in the farm 24 hours where farms are far away may not be able to get network so how will he get his alert? Again we have some illiterate farmers. The policy is not only a failed policy but is a policy that will never stand the test of time.”
He explained that the former procedure of getting fertiliser to the farmers was more successful adding that if the situation was not addressed; the harvest for the year would be poor.
“Usually, the normal policy was that we receive the allocation of fertiliser from the federal government which was already subsidised by the FCDA and the council will further subsidise it in a way that it will bring the cost down for farmers. At the end of the day, a farmer can pick one bag of fertiliser and fertiliser was everywhere. A council ward could get 200 to 150 bags of fertiliser then but today, no ward will get up to 20 bags. Even if they get, they can’t pay for it,” he lamented.
Another person who prefers the previous way of getting fertiliser across to the rural farmers is the chairman of Kwali Area Council, Joseph Shazin Kwali.
He stated that farmers in the council were bitter about the system since most people could not get the product adding that the people who got it complained about the cost.
“I prefer when they were coming from the area council. Then, we could subsidise the fertiliser for the farmers and they could get a bag at the cost of N1000. It is really not so now.’’
“Food is important and without food, no nation can survive. It is imperative that government finds solution to the problem of farmers especially as it pertains to the e-wallet system so that the farmers would have better story to tell next year.
As Ezekiel Ugwu, a farmer in Bwari puts it, “This year is late. I think government should start talking about next year. I think going through the area council will be better. We want assistance not only in Bwari or the? FCT but all over the country. We need modern ways of farming. We need fertilisers before the time the rainy season. We need chemicals and seeds. I remember about 20 years ago, government assisted farmers with seeds. They gave us bags of guinea corn, groundnut and other seeds. It was a good initiative then. Sometimes I wonder what the ministry of Agriculture is really there for.”
?