The federal government has promised fertilizer subsidy for five million small holder farmers. The Minister of Agriculture and Rural Development, Sabo Nanono revealed this recently, at the ‘Consultative meeting with relevant stakeholders on the development of template for the administration of subsidy to the smallholder farmers for sustainability’, in Abuja.
He said that the subsidy meant for easy distribution of fertilizer to increase food production across the country, would be executed the farmers’ registration programme under the Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI), adding “ the Ministry has developed and registered the database of smallholder farmers for easy targeting with the fertilizer subsidy support.”
.He explained:“So far about five million farmers and their farms have been registered with biometrics including farm Geographic Information System (GIS) coordinates. This meeting is therefore organized to critically examine the proposed option and come up with the best way or strategy to reach the smallholder farmers with the subsidy support in sustainable manner.”
He said the primary concern of Government was how to get majority of the smallholder farmers out of extreme poverty through targeted support in order to increase their level of productivity, household incomes and by extension guarantee food security for the nation.
He added that President Buhari had approved that an implementation template be developed through consultative engagement with the relevant stakeholders, on the best way of administering fertilizer subsidy to the farmers nationwide on sustainable basis.
The Minister for Finance, Budget and National Planning, Zainab Ahmed said the meeting was convened at the instance of President Buhari to discuss how to effectively implement a restructured Presidential Fertilizer Initiative (PFI) for its sustainability.
The Minister who was represented by the Permanent Secretary of the Ministry, Mallam Aliyu Ahmed said the PFI was to stop the importation of specifically NPK fertilizers and pave the way for its local production, thereby reviving the Nigeria’s local fertilizer blending industry.
“While the initiative, a Public-Private Partnership that has the Nigeria Sovereign Investment Authority (NSIA) representing the public, achieved great progress; it’s time to shift gears for market-oriented sustainability”, she said.
The Minister, however, said the engagement would be guided by four fundamental changes upon which sustainability would be built, which includes “(i)the role of Nigeria Agricultural Insurance Corporation (NAIC); (ii)NPK be restricted to the importation of the raw materials; (iii) monitoring activities;(iv) and provision of cost basis for FGN to effectively calculate and pay subsidies to vulnerable smallholder farmers.
He continued: “All fertilizer blending plants participating in the PFI now have to provide bank guarantees to cover requisite raw materials appropriate to their demand-driven production in order to substantially reduce risk to NSIA.
All blending plants are to handle their transportation logistics, recover their production cost and profits through the sale of their products in the market.
The Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMARD) and Federal Ministry of Finance, Budget and National Planning (FMFBNP) through engagement with State Governments and relevant stakeholders to develop a template for administering fertilizer subsidy management framework to the smallholder farmers.”.
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