Saturday, July 21 , 2012
Despitetheintrodudion of anew policy aimed at making fertilizer available at subsidizedrates, the commJdity is still scarce, even asits price is hitting the roofo
Weekly Trust
Fertilizer: Why FO G's e-voucher won't work, by farmers ~'
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I f \ Kuma kili!. Yoill~ Ibrahim, Maiduguri; Hamisu hbiru MItuu DamatIJru & Nuifi Dawud Khalid,
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ru
CENTLY,
Government
the
Federal
introduced
an e-wallci voucher system d!Slgned to enable fanners :ceive fert.lliscr allocation
notices througlt their mobile phones, which is meant to make the commodity
easU f i CC<!$libil' to them. Mo ntll5 in to the mny season. however,
fanners arc SIlU at the mercy of black marketen. who seU the products at a.orbitanl pnas to them. IVt't!kl-, 7r,u: investigations- across some stales in the'lt.rth revealed thal prices of tbe r roduru hllve contin ued 10 skyrocket, while mitidl.!m!!ll smile to the bank. In Bom o State, the d istribution of fertiliurs to lumers under the new policy of alloouion vIa the GSM kc hnology is ~t to commeuce even as farmers have mobilizal 10 t nc ir farms as the raining
season sw.biJiu... Some fanners LD many parts of Borno and Yobe Stales told WedU)' TrUSI thalther rdial on tht ()pm and competitivt market to gtt ftrtiliur il.l competitivt pr icts. The Homo Sta ~ governo r Kashim Ibrahim just launched h is statt's distribu tion oft~ product In Damboa local govnnmenl aru about eight days ago. A bag Is 1,930 nai ra fo r NPK and 2,000 naira for Urea. Ibe dislribution of fertilizer through GSM is a complttt misnomer ... il Is absalutdy oot Fossible here (Bomol,~ Abba She.ttima Ali. a farmer at Damn Baga told "ml:fy Trus, on phone. ·1 am the only one who has handset amongmy puts ... howon earth would you get result by at tempting to do something that is aU~ Tn the peoplt; Ali Il5ked Wutly Trw' rq>artlll thaI more than 80 per ant of fiannas in Borno are in the remote villagef of northt:rn and wuthern parts olille Slale whtn GSM suvices are either nonaistent or epilepUc. TIle stat ! Commissioner for Agricultu re, l.Jsman Zanna said the Federal Government has allocated 14,000 metric tons oH: rtiJizers to We !;!ale but the coruignment b ~l to arrive. Ac.coniing to him, 140,000 farmers had been rqpstem:l in the state under We policy, but halfuf the farmers especially those in rural areas do not own a telephone Une. tic attributed the delay In the oommencement of the federal government JIIOEnIme to $«Uriry issues, The m~ guvrmment decided to launch lis disbibution of fertiliz.e:rs to the fMruers without waiting for the Fedt~ Cio<remment b~ the ~iny season has 5l't In. tft! tho U! and metric tORI of fertilizers and another s.OOO metric tORI were distributed 10 farmen last week. 10 dose the gap. the 27 local government areas of the sll te got 6,000 Ings nch.~ tht commissioner said. The commisskJncr said the "telephone system has problem in thill state that ill ",'hy we ~ trying to we the: agriculturaJ cooperative $Odeties which will come up with their voUo.:hen, and scratch card will be given to th !Jn. Through thls method. ""e \VUUJd be able 10 distribute the federal Government fertilizers as soon as il arriv~
Each .n
In Yobe Slate, farmers said they bad applied, but yet to r«.eiVl! any fl!rtilizcr from the FedC'raI Government as at the timt of filing this report. Wetkly Trwt lnvesligation! revealed that many Cumers had fCSOrted to usc cow excreta as manure because of their inability to access fertilizer. Malam Baba Kalca, a farmer along Gujba road saJd he applied for the fertilizer but was yd to gel IL ~e RCU~ forms from the h-tlnistry of Agriculture, filled and returned them; M! were told that our allocation would come through lUt masAges. but none of us has received any,~ he lamented. Maman Aisha. a peasant farmer told Wedely Trust that she was not ewn aware of the fe.rtiliur di5tribuLion pellcy by the Fedenl GovernmtnL "'] don't know anything like that. [was oruy told that the state government has flagged off salt of fertiliur, but there is no fcniliur sold at government price in the markd; she nOIed. She said fanners now buy one bag of NPK feniliz.er It N6,SOO wbile that of urea costs N5.S00 per bag. Malam Sanl Muhammad. a fertilizer dealer in Guhua told Wukly 7htst that, ". small bag ofNPK fcrtiliur is being sold at N4.5OO; the- big bag at N6,500 wh ile Urea is NS,soo for the small bag and NS,700 for the big bag.The Yobe State government had last week bunched the sale oHertilizer for the 2012 SCUOR with a 60 percenl dUcount to farmen across the state. G~mor IbrahimGaidam who nagged off the sales in Damlturu, said urea will sell for N I, 900 whIle NPK will go for N2, 000. Like in Bomoand Yobe. months after the Introducllon of thl: Growth Enhancemmt Support Scheme or the E· Wallet Voucher System, most farmers in K1no say they are yft access Ihe scheme. Some Kano Canners told Wnkly Trust that government o ff1Ci.1.li had d istributed
the e· wallet voucher syslem fonns for them to fill weeks ago. but after filling the forms, Ront of them gOI any notification about fertilizer allocations through their mobile phones. The farmers said they were -.sited to provide their mobile- phone numbers, the number- of their fanm. the type of farm produCl! they cultivate, the number of O::l"en a farmeruseson II farm, among other things, in the c-vouche:r system forms. Urnaru Janguza, a peasant fanner in Tofa local goVftllDletlt area told Weekly that thousands of farmttS had obtained and filled the I:+wallet forms, but when they reccivai their first allC!QUons of about 600 bags from the state government, nOM of them received any message. "The government sent the fertilizer to our dislrict head and other politicians in the constituency for distribution. We purchased a bag of the government fertiliur at the rate ofNl ,900~ he said. Similarly, a seasoned farmer, Alhaji Hamisu Gabasawa who cultivates maize, beans. tomatoes and guinea com in Gabuawa local government area, confirmed that farmcrs in the area were given the e-waUa fonns to fill but their allocations are yet 10 reach them, thougb he daimed some: politicians have already recdved supplies of the commodity. -Yes ~ filled the fOnn! but it was not indicated to us whether it wu meant for any electronic allocations offertilizer. We the farmen in Gabasawa have not gouen our allocation! yet. but I can tell you that fertillur has been distributed to some politicians In govemmenL In the absenccof the government ferttliz.er which is cheaper, we have to purchase at the markd at the rate of N6,OOO ~ bag.~ he said. Alba;i Hussain Mcneman Namagi another large scale farmer in Dawanau area outside Kano dry b OM: of the fanners who daimed ignorance of the new fertilizer allocation syste.re -) have never seen any
nus,
form or heard about any benefiCiary of the ntW scheme. Most o f us buy fertilizer now from tbe market at NS,950 per bag from places like 'Yan Dusa in Abuja. Funtua in Katsilla and other places~ he said. A small scale farmer. Garha Sallau, in Gezawa local government area faulted the e· VQuchtr system, noting that the schcrnt would alienate many ruraJ fumers who don'l have access to mobile phones and those: whose communities bell telecommunication facilities. Sallau said evtn when the government provides adequ.ate and cheap fertilizer to farmers. a large number or thl:rn are so finandaUy hamstrung to make tht necessary payments for the commodity. But the Commissioner for Agriculture, llijiya Baraka Sani argued that the government has intensified efforts to provide re rtillzer to farmers. "In addition to the local production of fert1liur in Kano Slate:, wbich is currendy in progress by the Kano Agricultural Supply Company (KASCO), the government has also procu~ fertilizer to tm.ke it readily available to the farmers~ she said. Baraka said SO far, about 250 wards across the state bad gotten their fertiliz.e:r allocations and that more communiti.e'li wue receiving iL A source within the- Kana Slate Agricultural and Rural Devdopment Authority (KNARDA) told WetMr Trust that the compilation and validation of all registered farmtrs in the c-wallet VOU£:he:r scheme had bl:en conduded by hired consultants. -The farmers should just be a bit patient as their alerts will soon be sent to them; he said. When asUd un whether peUtid ans got fertilizer allocation! when many farmen are still waiting, tfoe soun:e confirmed that a trailer of fertilizer had bl:en distributed to each of the 44 local government areas in the state, but the fanners had Ilot paid ror the goods..