Corruption: Hunger looms, as fertilizer becomes scarce

·       About N300b siphoned

There are indications that food may become scarce as a major input in agriculture, fertilizer has become acutely scarce due to corruption, even with the existence of Presidential Fertilizer Initiative.

This was disclosed by Chairman, Kaduna state Commercial Agriculture Development Association ( CADA), and President, North West Agricultural Commodites Association (NOWACAs), Alhaji Hakimim Kidandan in a telephone interview he granted FoodFarmNews from his base in Zaria, recently.

Kidandan said even if you as a farmer, with your money, is ready to pay, you can’t even get the fertilizer to buy, and specifically cited NPK 20:20:10 as being scarce in the market saying that “to us that normally buy in bulk, if care is not taken, we may end up in the hands of dubious people because in a situation that somebody will promise he has 5-10 trailers of fertilizer to sell, but only for you to pay and he will now start dribbling you, come today, come tomorrow, without any positive result. Is that not dubious, and where are those people behind the presidential fertilizer”

He explained that a bag of maize was presently selling for 13,000 and 14,000 naira per bag and wondered what the situation would be in terms of price in the near future, adding that “ new maize will not come  until about 90 days, how much do you think the price of maize would be in the near future?”

He alleged that even with the identified lapses, there was no plan on ground to rescue the farmers and consumers “as those who are mandated to produce presidential fertilizer are nowhere to be found...We have a rainy season that started from May to October, so who will ask God to extend it to November? If by middle of June we have no input, to start planting, it means we have July, August and September. And mind you all our seedlings have a lifespan of 90 to 120 days. So when you calculate 130 days for the lifespan of our seedlings, coupled with the number of rainy days. Are we not in a state of death?”

In a related development, a group identified itself as Concerned Citizens of Nigeria has raised the alarm concerning what it described as the corruption going on in the fertilizer supply chain in the country thereby asking anti graft agencies to swing into action in order to rescue the situation.

In a release titled ‘’ The Presidential fertilizer initiative – The corruption within’’ circulated on an Agric platform on Whatsapp claimed that the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative, a programme put in place by President Muhammadu Buhari with the aim of providing quality fertilizers to farmers at low rate in order to ensure good harvest for food security was riddled with corruption.

The group explained that the presidential initiative plan was that fertilizers were to be blended locally at the rate of N5,000/bag and sold to the agro dealers to farmers at N5,500/bag. “Those who blend these fertilizers are given access to some funds from the Nigeria Sovereign Wealth Funds (NSWF) at no interest or collateral to bring the raw material from Morocco under agricultural insurance cover.

 Meanwhile, there was a claim of connival that has lead to N200-N300 billions being siphoned in this process by both the private and public organizations who are supposed to be in the custody of the programme in order to ensure that Mr. President‘s dream come to pass as regards making fertilizer available to farmers.

The release stated that these organizations will load materials of 27-28 tons instead of 30tons and divert the difference for their private uses, or even sell to other blending plants saying the devil’s act was being perfected because they are the insider.

Also, the quality of the fertilizers is alleged to have been low with high kaolin, sand and low nitrogen percentage that are packed together in 40-45kg as against the recommended 50kg, adding that some fertilizer plants belonging to one big company among them were where the diverted bags are taken to in trucks.

The group further raised the alert on corruption at the National Association of Cotton Association of Nigeria (NACOTAN) saying that those who benefitted from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) loan of N17billion of 2019 have not been able to produce any raw cotton to show for the loan taken, even as another N20 billions has been released for the year 2020.  

Again, it pointed an accusing finger towards Nigeria Incentive-based Risk Sharing System for Agricultural Lending (NIRSAL), under the leadership of Aliyu Abdulhameed, where it alleged “billions of naira have been stolen through input supply contracts over the years’’ adding that ‘’ The impact of NIRSAL to agriculture in Nigeria since his leadership began cannot be pointed at.”

They wanted investigation into the records of shipping from Morocco compared with what was given to the blending plants here in Nigeria; saying that many corrupt practices would be uncovered in the process.

Finally, it suggested that the insecurity growing every day in the North West and other part of the country are the spill over effects of these corrupt individuals who are robbing the farmers daily with substandard fertilizers and making farmers lose confidence in the government. These people proceeded to short-changing, robbing the Federal Government and rubbish the goodwill of Mr. President on the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative.